Many community colleges in the United States don't have dormitories, so international students have to find accommodation off campus as soon as they enter school. However, the school has relevant institutions and staff responsible for helping international students deal with related matters.
Many schools will ensure that first-year foreign students can apply for dormitories on campus. International students and parents should pay attention to the fact that they need to apply in advance to live in the dormitory on campus. Don't think that they will automatically get allocated dormitories like domestic universities. Some international students may want to rent a house off campus, but many schools have clear requirements that freshmen must live on campus.
International students can apply to the accommodation management institution of the school according to their own preferences and needs. Accommodation areas are distributed in different areas of the school, and some accommodation areas are only provided for students of the same sex. There are also some boys and girls living in * * *, but not on the same floor. The common dormitory on campus is that two students share a dormitory, and several such dormitories form a community with public toilets and toilets. Some schools provide kitchens for such communities, and some schools provide kitchens for large areas composed of several communities. There are some simple equipment in the kitchen, such as microwave oven, stove and oven. But many schools forbid students to cook in the dormitory, so there is no kitchen.
There are different room types in school dormitories, including single bedrooms with separate bathrooms and dormitories shared by many people, and the expenses are correspondingly different. There are usually three basic pieces of furniture in a student's bedroom-bed, desk and wardrobe. Students should check with the school whether sheets and blankets are provided. Others, such as bedding, are generally brought by international students.
In some schools' individual accommodation areas, the accommodation fee includes meals, which must be paid. In addition, the dormitory accommodation fee of the school generally includes water, electricity and internet access, and students do not need to pay extra.
Quite a few American university dorms allow students to stay for less than a whole year. During the winter and summer vacations, students are either concentrated in another dormitory area or asked to check out and arrange their own accommodation. This is mainly because many local students have to go home or go out during the holidays, and the school should concentrate on managing the remaining housing. During this period, some schools have vacated student accommodation areas for conference reception. International students and parents should also note that there will be no special accommodation area for international students, and the school will uniformly allocate accommodation according to the information provided by all students in the accommodation application form. Students who often share a dormitory are not from the same country or region, nor are they from the same major or even the same grade.
Regarding the accommodation fee, the general school will give a rough figure when issuing the I-20 form, which is often higher than the actual cost. (Dr. Lorraine, Director of American Education Association (China))