While prospective study-abroad students might have their minds drifting off to other parts of the world, they must still consider what housing options are available to them upon returning to Penn. These options vary by semester, location and roommates. Overall, Penn’s Residential and Off-Campus services both suggest planning well in advance of your trip to avoid extra fees and frustration.
Fall Semester Abroad
Students who plan to live on campus for the spring semester can sign up for a full year of housing during the usual housing selection period. As soon as they are aware of their acceptance into an abroad program for the fall, they can contact the housing office to cancel their housing for the first semester only.
No cancellation fee is applied if the office is notified prior to the last day of classes. After this date, students must pay fees starting at $250 and going up to $1,200 by the end of the summer for cancellations. These numbers are expected to change next year. Students who are accepted into abroad programs last minute can have the fee waived provided they notify the housing office within a couple weeks of acceptance, Lenny Zeiger , associate director for housing assignments at Residential Services, said.
Residents can opt for an exchange student to take their place until their return to the on-campus unit. However, these assignments are not guaranteed, and an exchange student who chooses to extend his or her time at Penn has the right to remain in the unit. Still, Zeiger emphasized, this is rare and has not occurred within his three years with Residential Services.
Zeiger said that housing both on and off campus is slightly easier to come by in the spring semester because some students graduate at the end of the fall semester and then leave campus. For those looking to live off campus in the spring, being at Penn isn’t necessary to coordinate housing plans.
College senior Nadia Laher , for example, used social media to find a place to stay on campus for the spring semester after studying in Istanbul last fall. She sublet a room on the 4000 block of Spruce Street for $425 after only viewing photos of the room from Turkey.
“Part of me was worried maybe it wasn’t going to work out, but it was so cheap,” Laher said. Although she had not known any of the girls she lived with that semester before moving in, she felt her abroad experience allowed her to step out of her comfort zone.
“You have to be flexible,” she added.
Spring Semester Abroad
Students studying abroad in the spring — during the housing selection period — can sign up for next years’ housing just like any other student through the housing website’s online application. Like students studying abroad in the fall, spring study abroad students should notify Residential Services about canceling their housing for the spring semester as soon as they are aware of their acceptance into a program.
Subletting a room off campus is also an option to consider for students staying a single semester at Penn. Peter Gemmellaro, the manager of Off-Campus and Customer Services , said that although his office does not receive much feedback about subletting during the academic year, he has yet to hear negative experiences with subletting for the fall or spring semesters.
Summer Semester Abroad
Students studying abroad for the summer — or even just living at home — might want to plan even further in advance to coordinate a subletter for their off-campus apartments.
“It’s a little bit of a crapshoot,” Gemmellaro said of finding a subletter for the summer. This is due to the high number of students renting rooms during this period. By March, he said, students should be in full force searching for a subletter either through social media or Penn’s online database, which is open only to the Penn community for a $5 annual posting subscription. Word of mouth can be the most valuable tool in the search for a subletter, Gemmellaro said.
He warned that students should be aware of their landlord’s subletting policies before signing their 12-month lease. Students should notify their landlord prior to renting out their rooms, ask for an interview and personal references from potential subletters and draw up a subletter contract following the samples on Off-Campus Service’s website, Gemmellaro added.
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