If not on campus, then where?

Here’s some food for thought:

Just because you are going to college/university doesn’t mean that you can’t start getting ahead in the world financially. I see that prospective students are sent lots of information about Taylor Place (I am, too!); this isn’t different from when I entered ASU in Fall 2006 and I received information on living at ASU Tempe on a weekly basis. So when people say that living on campus is awesome and that we really would like to you, you don’t have to do that.

I live in a condominium north of ASU’s Downtown Phoenix campus along the light rail line. Come the spring semester of 2009, getting to ASU Downtown Phoenix Campus will be incredibly easy: this is because of the light rail. I board a train outside of where I live, and in 10 minutes or so, I’m at ASU. If I need to get to Tempe, add on 23 minutes. All this is regardless of traffic, because light rail is not affected by traffic since it is its own right-of-way!

Anyway, maybe now is the time for you to buy a place to live and start building a portfolio. Plus, this assuages a key requirement for the Fall 2008 semester: College of Public Programs students who choose to live on campus must live in downtown Phoenix. Well, you’re not living on campus but instead you can live on the light rail line, which extends from west Mesa to Christown/Spectrum Mall in north-central Phoenix. Getting from both termini of the light rail to downtown Phoenix is no more than 30 minutes, so it is as if you are living on campus.

Of course, you shouldn’t take financial advice from me. Talk to your financial planner and REALTOR and get information from them. It is, as I have said, food for thought.

-Edward Jensen