Category Archives: JumpOffCampus

JumpOffCampus

We’ve got a new look and some new features!

Our development team has been working tirelessly to make our website into a one-stop-shop for off-campus housing and keeping it looking good too!

Not only do we have a new look, but we’ve also got a ton of new stuff!  We’ve recently added a new roommate finder, where you can match yourself with other students.  All you have to do is take our roommate-matching survey.  This survey is based on research that we’ve conducted in relation to what students look for in a roommate and what universities tend to include in their roommate-matching surveys.

Once you’ve answered the questions and created a roommate profile for yourself, you can search through other students’ profiles who also attend your school.  We’ll even give you a compatibility score for each of the profiles you view so you know how compatible you and that person would be as roommates!

Last, but not least, we’ve added a ton of new stuff to our resources page.  You can view our blog entries and articles we’ve written that directly pertain to college students.  These resources will help to inform you about some of the most important things to consider when it comes to off-campus living.

This isn’t the end of it either!  We’ve got a lot of great stuff planned, so be sure to keep checking our website at www.jumpoffcampus.com!

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JumpOffCampus

We need your help!

We’re still looking for participants for our survey in relation to on- and off-campus housing!  Just click on the link below to take the survey https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?pli=1&formkey=dGJqMjBHZjIyRGluNDlkbllsUFVQRlE6MQ#gid=0

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Apartment Hunting, JumpOffCampus

Apartment Hunting Checklist

Whether it is your first time renting or not, it can be difficult to determine what you should be looking for when it comes to your apartment search.  There are a lot of factors to consider, and this is why we’ve put together a checklist for you to bring with you when you start your search.

The checklist we’ve designed helps you to keep track of what the apartment includes, and provides you with a way to compare different properties all at once.    We have also included insider tips on the obvious and the not-so obvious things you should be looking for when you visit a property.

A checklist like this is a useful tool when you start your apartment search.  You should never rent an apartment based on appearance only, and you should never rent an apartment just based on photographs.  We always suggest that you actually visit the listing before you sign on the dotted line.  It is important that you make sure that the property is exactly as it was listed and that it fits your needs.

To download a copy of our checklist and to view other tips on apartment hunting, go to http://jumpoffcampus.com/resources/checklist.

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JumpOffCampus

We need your help!

We’re currently working on some research in relation to on- and off-campus housing and we need your help!  We’re looking for either current students or those who have recently graduated (either in 2011 or even more recent).  If you fit this description, click on this link to take the survey https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?pli=1&formkey=dGJqMjBHZjIyRGluNDlkbllsUFVQRlE6MQ#gid=0 It should only take about 10-15 minutes to complete, and it’s really simple, we promise.

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JumpOffCampus

MEET A MEMBER OF OUR TEAM: Steve Brown

Title: Director of University Outreach

Job responsibilities: Building relationships with institutions across the country. Helping to build the JumOffCampus brand!

Favorite part of the job: Hearing the words from a school “we would like to partner with JumpOffCampus”

College and major:  The University of Miami, Business

Favorite type of music:  Rock, Alternative. The Clash, the Stone Roses, Oasis, the Verve, Kasabian just to name a few.

Favorite TV shows: Arrested Development reruns, Workaholics, Tosh.0, the Ricky Gervais show and anything on the IFC, History or the Discovery Channel.

Favorite movies: The Royal Tenenbaums, Bottle Rocket and any Wes Anderson film. The Natural, Do the Right Thing, Thunderball, The Game, The Big Lebowski, Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels

Hobbies: TRX classes, running, screenplay writinWhat is your favorite saying? Treat others with respect and kindness and hopefully you will receive the same in return.

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JumpOffCampus

MEET A MEMBER OF OUR TEAM: Kyle Nichols-Schmolze

Title:  CTO & Co-Founder.

Job Responsibilities:  I’m the only full-time coder on the team, so I build and manage the product. On a good week, I get to spend 80% of my time coding, which I love. But as a small team, there’s always lots of other stuff to do, like helping out users and answering support questions.

Favorite part of the job:  New features! It’s always a blast to start from scratch on a new aspect of the site. We recently released our roommate finder (which is awesome), and I had a great time designing and building it with our new intern, Cenzo.

College and Major:  Tufts University for Computer Science Engineering

Favorite type of music:  Classical for sure. As a high schooler I always listened to a lot of Beatles and other 60s rock, but once college started I started getting into some much older stuff. Now I listen to a lot of Beethoven, Mozart, Mendelsohn, Tchaikovsky, and all the other big guys.

Favorite TV shows:  My favorite show is still probably the Simpsons. But after that it’s Twin Peaks, Mr. Show, and anything with David Cross.

Favorite movies:  I am a huge fan of movies by David Lynch, Akira Kurosawa, Hayao Miyazaki, and Charlie Kaufman. Highlights include Rashomon, Blue Velvet, and My Neighbor Totoro.

Hobbies:  I played ultimate frisbee all through college, and now I play in two different leagues: the new semi-pro AUDL and the summer Rhode Island based RIPUL. Between JumpOffCampus and ultimate, there’s not much room for anything else in my life.

Favorite saying:  Sometimes you get the elevator, sometimes you get the shaft.

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JumpOffCampus

We’re looking for participants!

Currently, we’re working on some research related to the perceptions of on- vs. off-campus housing, and we need participants!  We’re looking for people who are currently in school, who have recently graduated, or even those 2011 graduates who have lived in either university housing, off-campus (without a parent or guardian), or both!  If you fit that description, click on this link to take the survey!

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JumpOffCampus

MEET A MEMBER OF OUR TEAM: Mark Abramowicz

Title:    Co-Founder & CEO.

Job responsibilities:  What doesn’t it entail? Being an early-stage company, my responsibilities have changed, depending on what’s needed at the time. Currently, my role is more operational (management and fundraising-driven) in nature but I still have a hand in our university outreach, marketing, and product development efforts.

Favorite part of the job:  I love the team environment and the tremendous energy people bring – it’s an awesome motivator! Being involved in many different aspects of the business, I would have to say that my favorite part of the day-to-day is interacting with everyone, irrespective of what I’m doing.

I also like that no two days are exactly alike and that I learn something new everyday. It’s really rewarding to be challenged on a consistent basis to be better!

College and Major:     Tufts University, Class of 2010 BS, Quantitative Economics  Minor: Entrepreneurial Leadership

Favorite type of music:  I don’t have a favorite actually; it all depends on my mood or the situation I’m in and can be anything from classical to electronic or rap. Guess what I’m listening to right now!

Favorite TV show:  I don’t really have a favorite show, but I am a really big sports fan. Any chance I get to watch a game is awesome, but if the Knicks or Barcelona are playing, it’s a special treat!

Favorite movie(s):  The Shawshank Redemption, without a doubt. I love the story, the characters, the acting, the writing, etc.

Hobbies:  I really enjoy playing soccer, in whatever capacity. I was the type of kid who always had a soccer ball with me while growing up.

I don’t know if you would consider food a hobby, but I love it, too (sometimes to a fault)!

Favorite saying:  This is a tough question. I don’t think I have one in particular, but here are a couple that I enjoy.

On why I left the corporate world… “The trouble with the rat race is that even if you win, you’re still a rat.”

Something I carried over from soccer to entrepreneuship… “You miss 100 percent of the shots you never take.”

And last, but not least, a great quote from Shawshank… Red: [narrating] Andy Dufresne – who crawled through a river of shit and came out clean on the other side. J

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JumpOffCampus

We’re Looking for Participants!

We’ve got a few research projects up our sleeve, and we need people to participate in our surveys.  If you’re an undergraduate student who has lived in university housing and in off-campus housing, and you’re interested in participating in our study, let us know!  Shoot us an email at founders@jumpoffcampus.com if you’d be interested!

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JumpOffCampus, Student Life

Stop the Spam!!! You heard us.

As with other established apartment listing sites & services, we’ve finally graduated to a new level of popularity… as a target for scammers. Sometimes it’s a realtor misrepresenting themselves or one of their properties. Other times, it’s someone posing as a student asking about the apartment, or even less legit, about you.

Yes, it’s unfortunate, but we’ve taken several measures to educate our users and also implemented functionality to more quickly identify potential spammers and block them from causing any more havoc.

SO…. how do we do it? We created functionality where messages received on the site can be marked as spam.  Once a message is marked as spam, it is put into a queue where we look at the messages and block users, if necessary. Often times, blocking is unnecessary as the message is actually from a student and an overzealous, click-happy landlord decided to lay down the law, but better to be safe then sorry!!!

Here are a couple more “pro” tips on how to avoid scams, and also what to do if you do encounter one:

  1. Make sure any messages you reply to are legitimate.  Use common sense. Detailed descriptions of who they are often help but could be signals that they’re hiding something. If they look like they are covering up something, then they most likely are.
  2. If a listing looks too good to be true, then it probably is.  If there is a brand new super nice apartment in an awesome area for significantly less rent then usual in the area, it could be someone trying to grab your attention with a fake apartment listing so that they have your contact information for other listings. We call this a “bait and switch.”
  3. Don’t EVER send anyone money without proper due diligence.  If someone says they have a money order and want you to cash it and send a portion of the money back, it’s NOT legit. Scammers often send fake money orders, have you cash them and send them a portion of the money back before you realize you never actually got any money in the first place because the money order was fake.
  4. Do not give out any information.  There is no reason any landlords or sub-lessors should be asking for identifying information such as a social security number or bank account information. If you are being asked for this information, it is likely not legit.
  5. Mark any suspicious activity as spam using our new feature.  You can even do this directly from the email alerts you are sent.
  6. Contact us if you feel there is something we should know about. We welcome your feedback and want to make the site the best resource for students out there.  The only way we know how to make improvements is from feedback from our users.  We’re always looking for ways to make improvements so send us any questions, feedback or concerns to help@jumpoffcampus.com. We’re looking forward to them!

Alas! The goal of this post isn’t to scare you, rather we want to educate our users on the issue and how to best handle the situation. Believe us, there are PLENTY of awesome apartments and really good deals on our site, but it’s good practice to be careful!

Check out a previous blog entry of ours for more spam info & stories.

As always, let us know if you have any feedback. And to all that have graduated this past week or so, best of luck to all of you! (P.S. don’t forget to like our Facebook page, and also check out our contest ending at the end of May!  You don’t want to miss out on chances at free TVs for next semester’s apartment)!

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