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The Rez Thread
I was looking over the ShoutBox last night and I found that LazyGuy requested a thread on living in SFU Residence. Since I have lived on Rez for three years and most likely will be back for a fourth year, I think I have enough experience to answer some Rez related questions.
Post any questions you have regarding SFU Residence.
There are some common questions I encounter...
Prospective Rezzie
Q: Is living in Rez worth it?
A: Depends. If you live in place like Tsawwassen or Langley and you don't drive to school, you should really consider living in Rez.
Q: Is Rez expensive?
A: Compare to living on you own off-campus, Rez is relatively affordable. Of course, you ARE living in Rez...
http://students.sfu.ca/residences/pdf/Rates/2009_2010%20Rent%20Rates.pdf
Q: I heard that living in Rez give you an edge academically, is it true?
A: According to SFU's Institutional Research and Planning, Rez and non-Rez students have similiar GPA and retention rate. So no, there is no academic edge of living in Rez. However, living in Rez does have an edge such as you can now take that "GPA Booster" that you always wanted to take but it was an evening course, you can now visit that early morning office hour of your professor, and you can finally lend out over 20 books from the library and not having to worry about carrying it back to home in White Rock.
Eating in Rez
Q: I heard that food up in SFU sucks, is it true?
A: Depends on where you eat. I personally found the food from Residence Dining Hall to be ok. Besides, they actually make an effort to make interesting food.
The Buildings in Rez
Q: Shell vs McCow. Which is better?
A: Shell House is definitely better because it is a lot more well maintained.
Q: Can second year and up students live in Towers?
A: Yes. Seriously though, why?
Residence Community
Q: How can you stand living up here?
A: It is not that bad. The RHA actually make quite an effort to create fun and exciting events for us Rez people. They maybe repetitive in the sense that they are held every year, but at least they are interesting.
Similiar to the Doing Your Tax: Q&A thread, any resolved questions will be added to the this post.
Post any questions you have regarding SFU Residence.
There are some common questions I encounter...
Prospective Rezzie
Q: Is living in Rez worth it?
A: Depends. If you live in place like Tsawwassen or Langley and you don't drive to school, you should really consider living in Rez.
Q: Is Rez expensive?
A: Compare to living on you own off-campus, Rez is relatively affordable. Of course, you ARE living in Rez...
http://students.sfu.ca/residences/pdf/Rates/2009_2010%20Rent%20Rates.pdf
Q: I heard that living in Rez give you an edge academically, is it true?
A: According to SFU's Institutional Research and Planning, Rez and non-Rez students have similiar GPA and retention rate. So no, there is no academic edge of living in Rez. However, living in Rez does have an edge such as you can now take that "GPA Booster" that you always wanted to take but it was an evening course, you can now visit that early morning office hour of your professor, and you can finally lend out over 20 books from the library and not having to worry about carrying it back to home in White Rock.
Eating in Rez
Q: I heard that food up in SFU sucks, is it true?
A: Depends on where you eat. I personally found the food from Residence Dining Hall to be ok. Besides, they actually make an effort to make interesting food.
The Buildings in Rez
Q: Shell vs McCow. Which is better?
A: Shell House is definitely better because it is a lot more well maintained.
Q: Can second year and up students live in Towers?
A: Yes. Seriously though, why?
Residence Community
Q: How can you stand living up here?
A: It is not that bad. The RHA actually make quite an effort to create fun and exciting events for us Rez people. They maybe repetitive in the sense that they are held every year, but at least they are interesting.
Similiar to the Doing Your Tax: Q&A thread, any resolved questions will be added to the this post.
Comments
and thanks lol
As for pics, here's some from the Residence website.
http://students.sfu.ca/residences/singlestudent/theresidences/townhouses.html
I guess the coolest thing about Townhouse are that, if you can form a group of 4 friends (who you don't mind living with) to live in one Townhouse, it is quite awesome. For example, four of my ex-floormates all moved to a townhouse in Summer 08 and they are having a wonderful time.
However, if you apply to Townhouse on your own, SFU Residence will group you with other lone wolves into one Townhouse. For example, back in Fall 07, JayDub was stuck with a messy, disgusting, obnoxious Scottish Exchange Student and was forced to clean up his mess after he returned to Scotland.
Not to mention the accommodations are much bigger.
With that said, let's look at the Shell House and McCow House. For Shell, it is $556 a month whereas for McCow, it is $544 a month.
Most suites at Lougheed, other than this one, run at about over $700 a month...
http://vancouver.en.craigslist.ca/search/apa?query=lougheed&minAsk=min&maxAsk=max&bedrooms= Other than Shadow Wednesday and Pub Night Thursday, most weekdays are pretty quite. You may get one or two parties in the weekend, but that's pretty rare. Due to safety concern, SFU Rez is rather strict about partying. Thankfully, I found that SFU Students are not too into partying anyway. Also, drinking, as well as playing sports in the hallways, are not allowed.
I loved rez in first year in the towers, I loved it in 2nd year in shell, I liked it alright in mccow over a summer. Now I think I've had as much rez as I can handle.
And in first year I partied almost every weekend, lol. I'm pretty sure they've become more strict than when I was in first year though.
im not to sure anymore, hopefully i dont get shit roommates in the townhouses than
i mean common nothing beat some good ol drunk hall soccer!
Do you know anybody already in Rez who are interested in townhouses. Maybe you can ask Rez to assign you and your friends to one townhouses. Most often, they will agree because that would make their work a lot easier. And I thought hall soccer was already bad enough. At least none of my ex-floormates were drunk when they brought airguns up to Rez...
honestly their way too strict i mean its one thing to be safe and another to kill 1/2 the experience
I’m headed to SFU in September and wanted to know whether renting an apartment (roommate) would be better and more economical than living in residence. What do you think is a better choice and why? What do you think are the Pros and Cons of both. If I do decide to get an apartment it will be with in 10 mins or less of school. Most that I’ve seen in SFU’s off campus housing and craigslist are pretty affordable. Res for me(International Student) is about 7000 with meal plan. I heard the food is not so good.(If so, is the food at nearby grocery stores affordable?) Hope to get a lot a feedback from you guys. So let me know your thoughts. Tell me about your experiences in res and renting.
"To Rez or not to Rez? That is the question."
It's 2 bedrooms, so you could always get a roomie if you want to split the cost. I have never been on Rez, but I have heard nothing but bad things about it, unless you want a townhouse.
Just kidding, welcome again!
Better? I wouldn't go that far.
In terms of partying... ask Jaydub.