While many praise off-campus living, there are still several challenges that come along with it -- especially when it comes to subletting.
According to College junior Kate Zimmerly, finding subletters for the summer months is no easy task.
"I've found that semester subletters are a bit easier to find, and tend to be friends of friends," she wrote in an e-mail interview. "Summer subletting is a great deal more difficult to find."
According to Wharton sophomore Lauren Ankeles, this is because there are more students who want to sublet their apartments than ones who want to live in them during the summer.
However, Wharton sophomore Paul Bonanno, who placed an ad in The Daily Pennsylvanian's summer subletting guide, said he found subletters easily.
Bonanno added that he "got a lot of inquiries" after placing the ad, but said, "I know some friends who didn't get their acts together, and they weren't able to sublet their place that summer."
Although Bonanno did not have trouble finding subletters last summer, he did have difficulty setting the price of their rent.
"We heard people saying people would sublet for maybe one-half or two-thirds or three-fourths of the original rent. We were wondering for a long time what to ask" for, he said, adding that he and his roommate eventually settled on a little over half of the original rent.
Because of this shortage of subletters, most students must pay up to half of the rent out of their own pockets.
"I don't know people over the summer that actually pay full price," Ankeles said. "There's so much housing that nobody is going to pay that much money when they could live someplace else for significantly less."
Because of this challenge, Ankeles added that most lease-holders only hope to get some amount of money back for the summer -- no matter how small it may be.
Another financial setback stems from a clause in the terms of some leases.
Though leases do not specifically forbid subletting, some charge tenants a fee for doing it.
Bonanno's lease agreement requires him to pay a fee of $300 to his landlord if he sublets his apartment.
In addition to cost, timing can also be an issue for those looking to sublet their apartments.
"Most of the leases run from June 1 to June 1, and, that being the case, the first summer session starts at the end of May, so you're trying to sublet something when ... it's not convenient for people," Ankeles said.
Even though his lease began in May -- making it easier for summer students -- Bonanno still encountered other problems.
"Before we even lived in our house, we had to furnish it," he said, adding that "people don't want to sublet a place if there isn't anything in it."
According to Zimmerly, one option that has proven successful is to sublet to people from out of town.
"I have a couple of friends that did that and managed to get full rent for their Hamilton Court apartment through the whole summer," she wrote.
