Students Embrace Remote Living Options Amid COVID-19
It was already late July when Johnny Antos, University of California Berkeley Haas business school class of 2022, decided not to sign a lease in Berkeley for the fall semester. Having found out classes would go remote, Antos figured “there wasn’t really any value” in living in the city. So he found an Airbnb in Lake Tahoe, California, with his partner and her younger sister, a college undergraduate. Their plan is to stay until at least November.
Why Tahoe? “I have never been,” says Antos, who’d been living in New York before starting business school. “Everyone from the West Coast seems to love it, so it seemed like a good idea.” He ruled out more exotic locales in Hawaii to remain in the same time zone as his classes. Tahoe further appealed because of its infrastructure. A popular tourist destination, the surrounding area offers gas stations and coffee shops, along with solid internet access and hiking trails.
Alternatives to On-Campus Living
With many colleges and universities going either fully or partially remote because of COVID-19, students have been finding alternatives to on-campus living. While some fear inhabiting potential coronavirus hot spots or aim to save on housing by staying with family, others use their remote coursework to enjoy living in more desirable locations than their college campuses or parents’ houses.
Not all students shared Antos’s time zone considerations when selecting semester locations. As the New York Times reported in August, groups of East Coast students from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Harvard booked rentals in Hawaii and Montana, respectively. For many students, the primary concern is maintaining a fulfilling social experience without in-person classes.
Professor Kerry Bowman, who studies medicine and bioethics at the University of Toronto, where students can choose between physical and virtual lessons, sees value in these group living situations.
“University is when people meet the largest amount of people and socialize for the first time on a truly adult level,” he remarks. “At least if you’re sharing a place… you have some of that.”
Still, Bowman expected more of his students to take advantage of the university’s online option. Instead, most craved a “normal, full university experience, and that involves actually interacting with people,” he observes. Interviews with several freshmen reveal that many opted to remain in their college dorms, despite classes being online, for similar social connections.
School Guidelines and House Rules
Meanwhile, some colleges have loosened their guidelines on off-campus living, propelling more undergrads to rent houses with friends near school. For instance, Meredith College in Raleigh, North Carolina, stopped requiring freshmen and sophomores to reside on campus this fall, resulting in younger students scrambling to find housing. At Connecticut College, about 173 students live off campus, a figure typically close to zero.
For students not straying far from school, the quality of more affordable rentals tends to improve further from affluent college towns. Charlotte Harris, a first-year student at Berkeley Haas, notes that housing options in Berkeley are pricey and cramped compared to where she and two classmates moved in North Oakland — a change she might not have made if commuting between campus and home more frequently.
Living with peers during the pandemic necessitates stricter rules than those typically expected of housemates. After all, minimizing the spread of COVID-19 is a far more pressing concern than simply eating someone’s unlabeled yogurt. Detailed “COVID safety plans” are common in communal houses, along with mandated quarantines. “We’re all dating,” explains Harris, “but none of us can date or exchange germs with more than one person at a time.”
Finding Roommates and a Destination
Antos initially sought to motivate others from his class to consider living remotely together, but he received “tepid” responses. Eventually, one interested peer also sought to regularly host visitors at the Airbnb, which proved incompatible with Antos’s vision. “We were hoping this would be a sort of corona bubble,” he shares.
The price of Airbnbs in Tahoe decreased over the summer, enabling Antos to afford a four-bedroom house close to the lake with just his partner and her sister (his partner works remotely) for around $4,200 a month.
Locations like Tahoe also attract students seeking wide-open spaces, which are both more enjoyable and safer during a pandemic easily spread in indoor environments. According to the Times, Utah has emerged as a favored destination for college students engaging in virtual learning, thanks to its proximity to outdoor activities. Others opted for urban living due to the unusual offering of their suburban colleges. Some traveled even farther afield.
Matthew Pyskir, a junior at University of Kansas, made a last-minute decision to travel to Lviv, Ukraine, effectively un-enrolling from Kansas for the semester. He’s now studying at the Ukrainian Catholic University this fall.
“I don’t want to spend so much money on Kansas when it’s all going to be online,” he explains.
In Ukraine, where there are around 2,400 new daily coronavirus cases compared to 35,000 in the US, Pyskir can enjoy a more liberated student experience. He’s living alone in an apartment that costs $400 a month, significantly less than his previous year’s expenses near campus.
Pyskir studies Slavic languages and had always wished to spend a semester abroad. The pandemic paved the way for this opportunity. Back at the University of Kansas, Pyskir’s friends have already dealt with COVID-19 infections.
Pyskir’s parents express worries. “They’re scared of me getting sick in Eastern Europe because the hospitals aren’t necessarily up to Western standards,” he acknowledges. However, after accompanying him to Lviv, Pyskir’s father observed the locals’ cautious and organized behavior, which eased his concerns about his son’s choices.
COVID-19 has introduced students to unprecedented uncertainty. Their housing decisions underline this — they are typically short-term, highlighting the need for flexibility. For example, Antos is unsure of when or if his school will return to in-person classes. If he and his partner remain “untethered” after their Airbnb rental concludes in November, they’re contemplating other locations to explore next. “We could do Napa,” he muses, “or discover some captivating new destination we haven’t visited before.”
