Student Housing at BYU

Regardless of what you pay or where you live, students at Brigham Young University never seem to be satisfied with their housing.

“Every time I have to go home I inwardly tremble,” said Mark Hammer, a sophomore majoring in communications from Redmond, WA. “It doesn’t even feel like home – it feels more like a prison.”

Hammer, who has lived two years on campus, said that the housing regulations are too strict and create a housing monopoly – leading to poor management and facilities.

Student housing is a problem for most BYU students, many complaining about unnecessarily high prices for the conditions they live in.

“They charge us $60 for internet per month, and most of the time it doesn’t even work,” said Alex Beazer, a sophomore majoring in biology from Kirkland, WA.

Aside from Internet, Beazer said that the hot water rarely works and that he has found ants in his kitchen.

“It’s like I’m living in a third-world country,” Beazer said.

His roommates reported their apartment flooding last month as well. The toilet of the apartment above them overflowed for two hours before management responded, leaving Beazer’s apartment with two inches of water.

“We called them [the management] after we noticed it, but because we didn’t have access to the room above us, it just kept flooding,” Hammer said.

According to Michael Murdoch, a sophomore majoring in finance from Grace, Idaho, the first thing he looks for in an apartment is the condition of the furnishings, such as the couches and refrigerator.

“If I find a good couch I know it’s a good apartment, because that means that the previous owners took good care of it,” Murdoch said. He acknowledges that it is rare for college apartments outside of Provo to provide a furnished apartment.

“Even though we all complain about our apartments, the fact is that we will never be satisfied,” Murdoch said. “I could be living in an apartment for free and would probably still complain about the parking.”