Students step out of Orange Bubble, into off-campus housing

Many students at the University casually remark about how enmeshed they are in the Orange Bubble, perhaps best described as a metaphor for the preeminent role the University campus plays in their lives. Unlike many other universities, the University is residential in the most all-encompassing sense of the term.

However, for various reasons, ranging from cost and family ties to resisting the conventional limits imposed by campus life, some undergraduates have dared to reject the Orange Bubble’s embrace and have instead ventured to put one foot into the “real world” — or at least to rent housing around the area or live at home instead of living on-campus.

Sarah Qari ’16 said she lives with her family 20 minutes away from campus both to save money and to be closer to her family.

Qari, who lived on-campus the previous two years, said she at first thought the experience would be strange given how many students live on-campus, but finds it to be enjoyable and noted she only usually leaves campus at the end of the day after participating in extracurriculars and eating at her co-op.

“It’s been really good for me, in the sense that I have a better sense of fluidity between the different spheres of my life,” she explained. “I’m not compartmentalizing as much between my life at Princeton and my life at home. And I kind of struggled for the last two years trying to reconcile the two, because it’s so easy to get sucked into the Princeton bubble.”

For Ben Hummel ’16, however, living in an apartment at Nassau Street with three friends is less about integrating the spheres of his life as it is stepping into a new one, while still maintaining his life on-campus as a goalkeeper for the men’s soccer team, a member of Ivy Club and a student in the history department. He said he wanted the independence of having to take care of himself.

“I felt that Princeton, while great, is a little claustrophobic at times, because it’s like if you punch a hole in the wall, it’s magically going to be fixed,” he said. “Most other schools, it seems like you live on-campus for the first two years, then you sort of prep yourself for real life a little bit.”

Hummel added that, while he looked into living in Spelman Halls, it didn’t feel independent enough.

The group came up with its own system for dividing the responsibility of maintaining the two-floor apartment, Hummel said.

“This is our chore list,” he explained, gesturing to a large board hung on the kitchen wall. “Some elementary school was throwing it out, and it’s a corkboard we painted with blackboard paint. It turned out pretty well.”

While living off-campus is slightly more expensive than living on-campus for the group, Hummel said the change had unexpected benefits; living above Massimo’s is not unlike having a pizza shop in your basement, he explained.

“Less than or equal to two percent” is the accepted figure for the proportion of undergraduate students who live off-campus, Sarah Major, manager for housing services in Housing and Real Estate Services, said. Among other responsibilities, Major assists the members of the University community in procuring off-campus housing. She noted that she actually works least with undergraduates, and when she does work with undergraduates she usually works with them in the capacity of helping them find summer housing.

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Nonetheless, undergraduates seeking off-campus living arrangements can seek assistance from a variety of University sources. Major explained that there is an off-campus housing website available to University students; a roommate profile is also available on the site so students can try to find people with whom to share housing. She added that she is also available both on the phone and through email, as well as by appointment.

The TigerTrade website also usually fills up with furnished rooms or sublets available for the summer toward the end of the academic year, she noted.

Nick Martin ’15, president of Ivy Club, said living off-campus was part of the territory of being an eating club officer but that it has been a positive experience so far for him. Martin lives in Ivy.

“We do a lot of work around the club, so cleaning up after a tap night, it’s a lot easier to go upstairs than to walk all the way back [to campus],” Martin explained, adding that the location is also convenient for his rugby practices. “And a lot of my classes are around here, so it’s probably closer to a lot of my main activities… It’s quicker to get a meal when you’re living where you’re eating.”

While a lot of his friends consequently live fairly far away, many linger around the club after dinner, he said. Moreover, he added, while he initially found the size and myriad features of the building — including a kitchen, Kegerator and large rooms for storage — both novel and overwhelming, he appreciates one prominent feature of living in an eating club.

“It’s way easier to get breakfast now. I don’t have to get up as early,” Martin explained.

Ultimately, the difference between those who live on-campus and off might not be as drastic as it seems to the observer looking through orange-tinted lenses. Qari, however, did have one observation.

“Parking is very restricted,” Qari said. “I don’t know how much of a precedent there is [for undergraduates commuting], and on top of that, it’s very heavily regulated [for everyone].”