Living Situation

Hey everyone. I am a sophmore right now at bowling green state university. I am planning on coming to butler next fall. However, I heard that you have to live on campus untill you are a senior!!!! That is rediculous!!!! I have alrady been living in my own place for two years and there is just no chance I will want to live with strangers on campus, its just not my cup of tea. Anyway, I was wondering if there were any loop holes for this crap. Is it possible to have your own place and just tell the university that you are commuting?? that is what i did at bowling green and it worked out great. Pretty much this whole living on campus thing has made my desicion all scewed. If I cant live on my own next year I will probably just not end up going to butler, that is how important this is to me. I loved butler when i visited, but i am not about to live with a bunch of strangers. Thanks, tell me if you know what i should do.

Honestly there are not too many loopholes in the system. However, if you have any direct family that live in the Indy area you can apply for commuter status and claim you are living with your family. I have seen this be successful for students, but I have also seen many students' applications denied. It really is hit or miss and depends on how convincing you can be. -Jake

Hey,Well, Butler requires you to live on campus through your Junior year. It's a new policy that came into effect after the Apartment Village was built a couple of years ago to make sure that those apartments were filled. I'll be honest, even Butler students were outraged when the policy was first announced. I can tell that you're pretty set on not wanting to live on campus, but let me give you this food for thought: getting involved as a transfer is more difficult than it is as a freshman, and living on campus could be a great way to make the adjustment a bit easier. But, if you're still set on living off campus, here are the "loopholes" that I know of:

- If you are over the age of 21 at the start of the school year, the university cannot make you live on campus.

- If your immediately family (parents or siblings over the age of 21) have a residence somewhere in or near Indianapolis, you can use that as your official residence, even if you're planning on living elsewhere in the city. I've heard of people saying that they're "commuting" from as far away as Lafayette. This might still work if your parents own the place where you plan on living, even if it's not their primary residence. - Check your credit hours. There are plenty of people at Butler that are considered a year ahead of what they really are (based on their incoming year) due to the number of credit hours they've taken. If you can transfer in enough credit hours to be considered a senior, it can be your ticket off campus.- Are you in a Greek fraternity? If you are, and we have a chapter at Butler, look into living in the house. Greek housing is still considered on-campus living. Granted, you'll still be living with "strangers" but you might have the option of a single room. Plus, I'm sure all of the fraternities on campus would be great at helping out a brother adjust to life at Butler.  If these options don't work for you, but you still want to come to Butler, maybe look into living in ResCo. ResCo (Residential College) is generally filled with sophomores, but is open to all upperclassmen. I know there are quite a few single rooms available in ResCo, and you would only have to share your bathroom with one other person. Also, all the rooms in the Apartment Village (which you would be eligible to live in as a junior) are singles, but you would share a bathroom with one other person and your living area / kitchen with three other people. Granted, it's still living with strangers, but at least you have the privacy of your own room. One last option would be UT (University Terrace). I'm not 100% sure, but I believe that there are single apartments available (bedroom, kitchen, bathroom, all to yourself). If we can help you out with anything else, let us know.

Ashlen