Over the course of your college years, you’ll be faced with some of the toughest decisions of your life. Choosing whether you’re going to shack up in the dorms on campus or take on the real world in your own place will immensely change your college experience. Most freshmen opt for a dorm during their first year on campus, but what about the next three (or maybe 4) years?

If you’ve ever lived in a dorm, you know the horrors that come along with it. If you haven’t, you’ll soon find out. Sure, staying on campus has its advantages—like not having to clean up your own bathroom after a night out and one too many cherry bombs—but a place off-campus comes with some unbeatable perks. So say goodbye to the annoyances and hello to your new found freedom! You know it’s time to graduate from the dorms when you’ve experienced these fifteen things.

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#13 on our list.

You finished taking those grueling ACT and SAT’s and have been filling out college applications like it’s your job. The time to choose which college you’ll be attending is fast approaching, and it’s no small matter; you want to make the best choice. Among the lengthy list of things to consider, one thing that should not be taken lightly is campus safety. We all know you want to get out of mom and dad’s house, but knowing you’re going somewhere safe will put you all at ease.

To help narrow down your choice, we took a look at the stats and compiled a list of the 25 safest schools across the United States, based on the least amount of crime per capita. According to the data, you can rest easy while attending these 25 campuses.

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It’s that time of year again. Thousands of students will line the lengths of bleachers across America—donning drapey gowns and a full head of hat hair—and wait patiently to commence the next phase of their young-adult lives. But before that, they’ll bear witness to some of the most notable academic, political and pop-culture figures of the Twenty-First Century speak on adulting, some of which will give some pretty darn good advice.

If you’re graduating this year, or if you’re just wondering what you’re doing here and could use a good pep talk, be sure to check out some of our favorite advice straight from the mouths of this year’s best commencement speakers.

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Why do some landlords prelease? To ward off the possibility of vacancies, of course. There’s nothing worse for a landlord than a unit sitting vacant—each month that goes by is a month’s worth of rent metaphorically thrown in the trash. It’s for this reason that preleasing can act as an insurance policy for landlords; one that ensures you won’t be missing out on any potential revenue. But are there other advantages?

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Colleges around the nation are home to some of the most loved characters who help lead their team to victory! Mascots are a symbol of school spirit to help rev up the crowd, inspire fans, and intimidate the opposing team. However, some mascots just don’t quite live up to those expectations. We understand that with so many different teams and colleges that coming up with a unique mascot name cannot be the easiest task. After taking a deeper look into what mascots exist, we’re shaking our heads at these characters. In no particular order, here’s our list for some of the most outrageous college mascots.

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You Tweet at your favorite celebrities. You “like” your favorite artists and restaurants and you “like” that your friend posted a brand new selfie on Facebook. You’re constantly Snapchatting throughout the day making sure you look oh so adorable in the infamous puppy filter. Ever consider taking your social media obsession and turning it into your dream job?

On average, as reported by CNN, Americans spends over ten hours a day looking at a screen, consuming media. That time is divided between cellphone use, computers, video games, and TV. Of that time, it is projected that the average person between the ages of 18-64 spends 3.5 hours a day on social media, where as teens nowadays spend up to nine hours a day on their favored social media platforms, according to Social Media Today.

Taking data from LinkedIn, Rent College Pads put together a list of universities you should attend if you want to land a job in the social media world. Listed below are the number of employees that work for Facebook, Snapchat, and Twitter that graduated from that particular university, as well as, what that university is most known for!

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The University of Illinois, where trees and parking are plentiful and housing is not. (Flickr)

There will always be construction; it’s one of those things in life that’s inevitable. Maybe the road you most frequently travel on to get to class has been torn up for the past year and is just about to finish, and you’re getting hopeful that finally—FINALLY—your commute will be a little less painstaking. We hate to break it to you, but the week that project finishes, another one is going to crop up on this same route. That’s the nature of public works—some things are always happening.

Rent is the same way; it’s always going to go up. Inflation—that thing your grandparents can never fully understand—is an unrelenting force that seems to push rental rates up across the country, basically every year.

We analyzed data pulled from the U.S. American Community Survey, done by the Census Bureau, and zeroed in on 200 cities that are home to universities across the country. We found that the cost of rent increased from 2010 to 2015 at all but eight of them. Oof.

Why do rents go up? You can blame the law of supply and demand for that. A lack of rental housing (low vacancy rates), an increase in enrollment, a shortage of dorm rooms and inadequate new off-campus housing development means more students searching and not enough places to go around. This results in a market whose scale is heavily weighted in favor of landlords looking to collect rent.

At some campuses, there are enough luxury apartments to house virtually every student who’s looking to live off-campus. At others? The situation is much bleaker. From the survey data, we looked at the 20 campuses that have seen the biggest increases in rent over the past five years and assessed whether or not there’s a reason for students to be hopeful that rents would be dropping anytime soon.

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The Sigma Nu Fraternity house at Ole Miss. (Flickr)

We’ve all seen movies like Neighbors or iconic Animal House that instantly have us thinking that the only things sororities and fraternities do are throw wild house parties for hundreds of students to attend. Visions of drunk college kids chugging beers and kids swimming in pools while the DJ spins music loud enough for neighbors down the block to hear dance in our heads, however, these movies aren’t entirely factual. Duh. There are several misconceptions of what Greek Life is all about.

The Greek community is way more than what movies have us picturing in our heads. To some universities, maybe, Greek Life isn’t much at all, while on other campuses Greek Life plays an integral role in not just a student’s college years but for their entire life. Going Greek is a part of being something bigger than yourself. Your college years build memories that last a lifetime. Belonging in the Greek community gives undergraduates an unforgettable experience where students can work with their brothers and sisters to form lasting impressions on one another and the community. Not for just now, but for the future.

Here at Rent College Pads, we decided to create a list of our top 20 picks for Best Greek Life On Campus. How’d we do it? We took the top Greek lists from Niche, The Princeton Review, University Primetime, and Best College Reviews and compiled a list of all of the universities mentioned in those articles. From that list, we only used schools that had over 10,000 students where at least 15% of the student body were Greek members; then we averaged those out to create our points system. Continue reading →

Google’s headquarters in Mountain View. (Flickr)

How does free food, arcade games, a bowling alley, a laundry and fitness facility, and free massages at work sound? Let’s not forget to mention Wi-Fi-enabled shuttle transportation to and from work, onsite doctors, 18 weeks paid maternity leave and education reimbursement.

These are just a few great perks Google offers their employees! This is definitely not your typical nine to five office job. Arguably the best place to work in the world, Google employees over 57,000 “Googlers” in more than 70 offices throughout 40 different countries. Google’s tech headquarters, Googleplex, is located in Mountain View, California. Business Insider ranked Google as the number two in their Best Companies To Work For In America article and Universum put Google in the number one spot for the World’s Most Attractive Employer.

So how does one land a job at Google? Using data from LinkedIn we’ve compiled a list of top schools whose graduates have moved on from college and into a career with Google. Continue reading →