On-campus living can be a struggle, especially on the campus of FAMU.
FAMU's on-campus housing has very few nice options. If you are not a student staying in The Village, other housing option is merely adequate and decent — at best.
FAMU's string of inhabitable housing options doesn't help the school’s image, either. Consider the dilapidated and condemned dorms of Diamond/McGuinn and Cropper/Wheatley to the more recent mold and growth issues experienced in the dorms of Palmetto North.
The latter caused incoming students to be housed in hotels during the first few weeks of the Fall semester in 2017. Former resident assistant for Palmetto North, Deveni Gibson, said, “A lot of students and parents were upset, no one wants to have to spend their first few days worrying about where they are going to live while in school.”
The dorms were eventually made ready for the students to move into. However, the conditions are still reported as“poor.”
It can be quite costly to live on campus. For example, it costs $3,740 per semester to reside at The Village. That’s $7,480/year. That does not even include the mandatory meal plan you are required to get when you reside on campus, which is an added cost of up to $2,813 a semester.
To stay at an off-campus housing community with better amenities, more space, and more adult-like freedom, the cost is lower. At a local off-campus community like University Village, the cost for a year contract in a 3 bedroom, 2 bath apartment is $6,588. The cost of living at College Club Townhomes is $4,668 a year, and to reside at another more popular complex in Tallahassee, Seminole Grand, a 3 bedroom, 3 bathroom apartment costs $5,688 a year.
Staying off-campus is a money saver, but staying on-campus is more convenient for those without car. And or those students who already have a hard time getting up for class, you’re already halfway to your class by staying on campus. It is just unfortunate that FAMU’s good housing choices are slim. If you’re not an early applicant you may get stuck with your last choice or nothing at all if they run out of room. Unless you stay at The Village, Sampson, or even Young, you’re stuck in a less than decent, rundown dormitory like Paddyfoote, Palmetto North/South, and the Phases.