[caption id="attachment_15801" align="aligncenter" width="589"]
Screen grab via www.dormhunt.com[/caption]
DormHunt.com, a website dedicated to make moving off-campus easier for students, has been created by sophomore political science majors Adrian Orozco and Nicholas Batlle.
Orozco said he came up with the idea for DormHunt after realizing that many students struggled with finding off campus housing.
He drew inspiration from other schools with similar websites.
“I saw that some other campuses had similar websites such as Rutgers-Newark,” Orozco said. “Right by the lockers in Duffy there’s a bulletin board dedicated to rentals off campus and that’s pretty much all we had on this campus before DormHunt.”
Seton Hall is home to eight residence halls, six of which are on campus.
Tara Hart, director of the Department of Housing and Residence Life, said the college is unable to guarantee campus housing for students all four years due to capacity issues.
However, HRL does assist students in finding off-campus housing.
“When a student inquires about off campus, non-university owned housing, we direct them to a listing resource located outside of our office in Duffy Hall,” Hart said. “Those who wish to find a renter (or apartment roommate) should contact our office,
provide us with a listing and we post it to that board as a service.”
In addition to the website, Orozco and Batlle also created a mobile app to supplement the site. Orozco said the app, once released, will include features such as finding and communicating with possible roommates.
In terms of business goals, Batlle said, he hopes to release the app soon, in a month or two, and eventually expand DormHunt to more colleges, both in and outside of New Jersey.
“I hope that DormHunt becomes a regular place where students go to find off campus housing because we know how much of a pain that can be,” Batlle said.
Some students have already been taking advantage of the website despite it just being launched in September 2016.
Amber Puig, a sophomore broadcasting and visual media major, used the website and said she finds it helpful.
“The website works fantastically, I’ve actually had no problems using it. It is a well-planned out site that is extremely user friendly,” Puig said, “I like that it is specific to Seton Hall’s campus, meaning that it shows housing around our specific campus.”
Katherine Segovia can be reached at katherine.segovia@student.shu.edu
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