According to Assistant Dean of Students and Director of Residential Education, Housing Services and Student Conduct Isaiah Thomas, junior and senior students have the opportunity to live off campus at Occidental, with rising juniors having to apply for approval to live off campus and rising seniors having to apply to live on campus.
“Our process has always been that rising seniors need to complete our ‘Rising Senior Room Draw Request Form’ by our deadline to express interest in living on campus,” Thomas said via email. “REHS also has a process for rising juniors to request to live off campus; they need to complete the ‘Third-Year Live Off Form’ by the deadline to make this request.”
Thomas said the number of juniors permitted to live off campus varies based on a multitude of factors.
“The number of juniors REHS permits to live off campus depends on a number of factors such as the total number of seniors requesting on-campus housing, the number of students studying abroad in the Fall semester and the college’s total enrollment,” Thomas said via email.
Thomas also said the number of approvals for this academic year was lower than average and that before last year, they approved an average of 50 to 60 juniors for off-campus living.
“For the 2024-2025 academic year, due to a very high volume of students studying abroad for Fall 2024, we had to reduce the number of juniors that could live off-campus to approximately 30,” Thomas said via email.
Lily Pesikoff (junior) said she is planning to live off campus next year because she wants a greater sense of independence and the opportunity to live in a home with her friends.
“I’m just really excited to walk into the house in the afternoon and see some of my friends,” Pesikoff said. “Someone may be cooking, someone may be doing their homework. It just feels so cozy.”
Pesikoff said it might be difficult to find a way to make it to campus on time for her early classes without waking up earlier than she would like, and that she will miss the sense of community on campus.
“The thing I’m most concerned about is if I get into all the classes I want, I’m going to have an 8:30 a.m. class in Booth, and that is far away,” Pesikoff said. “I also just love like the community of living on campus like when I lived in Newcomb, I loved seeing people come in and out of the dorm and walking back running into people.”
Peyton O’Hara (junior), who currently lives off campus this semester and plans to continue next year, said there are challenges to off-campus living. O’Hara said she felt isolated when she transitioned from on-campus to off-campus housing.
“I was like ‘Whoa.’ I wanted the space, but I didn’t realize it was going to isolate me a little bit,” O’Hara said.
O’Hara said the application process can be stressful, as students only have around a week to decide and they would lose their spot on campus if they change their minds. According to O’Hara, the deadline added stress because she had not yet found housing off campus, which can often be very difficult.
“It was kind of stressful to be like, oh I don’t have a place yet, but I have to decide whether or not I want one,” O’Hara said.
Despite these challenges, many students still want to live off campus in their junior year. Thomas said REHS hosts a living off-campus website with resources that students can use to find housing.
“From my experience, the majority of Oxy students who live off campus live in houses or apartments that have been occupied by Oxy students for many years,” Thomas said via email. “This can be very challenging because the housing rates for Eagle Rock and neighboring Highland Park are very high and can be prohibitive for students.”
Contact Noah Emmitt at emmitt@oxy.edu
