I somehow managed to fall across the listing for the Office of Presidential Correspondence’s Associate Program, which I thought would be a great experience for me. I worked for the Obama campaign last summer as an incoming first-year, and thought that experience that I gained as a summer fellow, along with my interest in public service, would make me the best candidate for this position–and I was! Around March or April, after an email with my resume and cover letter attached and a phone interviewed, I was notified that I had been accepted into the program, which only accepted 40 people total for the summer. I felt extremely proud as someone that was still a first-year to have been offered this amazing opportunity, especially since I thought I’d be working at the actual White House. Living that fancy life for the summer was something that I did not mind at all. I went around bragging humbly to my friends about how I managed to secure a summer internship early on while everyone else was still stressing over finding one. I considered myself lucky.
After I received news of being accepted into the OPC’s Associate Program, the question of affordability came into play. Saying rent in Washington DC is expensive is an understatement. As someone that is on financial aid at Pomona, the last thing I could do was afford paying $1,000+ rent every month–and that’s on the lower sider of the scale for DC. I asked around at the college to see if anyone else was staying in DC for the summer, and granted, there were a lot. However, they were all planning on staying at dorms at George Washington University. Rent for a quad is $210 a week or $2,100 for the 10 weeks I’d be staying in the city, and that was the cheapest option. Because I didn’t have $2,000+ on me to casually spend on housing without even taking food or transportation into consideration, I thought I would apply for summer internship funding from Pomona’s Career Development Office. With a $4,000 limit, I requested the full amount since that would barely cover my overall expenses. Again, I was pleased to learn that I was granted the full amount I requested after a competitive process. It was then that I realized how truly lucky I was to be at a small college like Pomona.
Internship: check!
Funding: check!
Housing: …
I still had a problem with housing by the time May came around. Right after I was granted my funding, I went online to reserve a quad at GW since I heard they sold out quickly but didn’t make much of that. To my surprise, they really were sold out with only more expensive options left available. My other option at GW would’ve been a double for $245 a week. That $35 a week definitely make a big difference in the long run, so I was completely against that idea, thinking I could definitely find a much cheaper option at other places. I was wrong, as American University was more expensive and Georgetown’s dates didn’t work out with mine. So now what do I do?
With every day that passed, I was becoming increasingly nervous about not finding an affordable place in DC, while my friends often made jokes about me being homeless for the summer. I was actively searching almost every day, mainly on Craigslist, as shady as that might be since I was pretty desperate, as well as Roomster. I even asked my friends to see if they knew anyone who needed a roommate for the summer. I figured Craigslist was my only hope. After frantically searching the site for places in my ideal location, and most importantly, price range, I sent out about five emails every day to landlords and subletters. I emailed a total of around 50 people during my entire search and got less than 10 responses, which was not only pretty embarrassing but left me with limited options. After countless emails, many phone calls, and three references, I finally agreed on a place in Tenleytown, near American University, which was only a block away from the metro and buses. At $1,100 every month, it was settled. Although that was not my ideal price, I just wanted to stop worrying about finding a place in time before my internship started.
