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College Marketplace is the student-only buy and sell app for Monmouth University in West Long Branch, New Jersey. Every account is verified with a @monmouth.edu email address, so you're only ever trading with other Hawks — not strangers from Facebook Marketplace or Craigslist.

Monmouth requires every first- and second-year undergraduate who isn't living with a parent or guardian to live on campus and carry a meal plan, which keeps two full classes inside the same short walk of each other. Newer students land in the traditional corridor halls — Mullaney Hall, Hesse Hall, Elmwood Hall and Pinewood Hall — or in the suite buildings, where four or six bedrooms share a living room and bath: Beechwood Hall, Cedar Hall, Laurel Hall, Spruce Hall and Willow Hall. Oakwood Hall and Redwood Hall sit in between, with rooms off a central hallway and a shared bathroom. Juniors and seniors move into apartment living — the Garden Apartments, the Great Lawn Apartments, Maplewood Apartments, and University Bluffs, the University-owned complex near the Long Branch boardwalk. With that much of the student body housed within a few blocks, everything you need is already on campus. Monmouth students post mini fridges, storage bins, desk lamps, monitors, bikes, and gently used textbooks every semester — usually for a fraction of retail.

Check the housing rules before you spend real money. Every bed on campus is twin extra-long, so only 80-inch sheets fit, and beds in the traditional halls adjust from 12 to 30 inches off the ground. Residential Life rents lofts if you want your desk and dresser underneath; personal lofts, platforms and waterbeds are out, though bed risers are fine. All of the buildings are air conditioned. Refrigerators cap at 3.2 cubic feet, one per resident, and stand-alone microwaves are banned — you rent a MicroFridge or use the microwave in your building's lobby. Extension cords are prohibited too, so buy a surge protector instead. Personal furniture, couches and futons included, is not permitted anywhere in the halls or apartments, so shop for the small stuff.

When you've settled on a price, meet somewhere public and busy. The Rebecca Stafford Student Center, the Guggenheim Memorial Library, Magill Commons, the OceanFirst Bank Center, the Great Hall at Shadow Lawn and the Resident Quad between Willow and Spruce are all easy to describe to someone you haven't met. Hand it off between classes: no shipping labels, no delivery fees, no meeting someone off campus.

Popular categories at Monmouth: textbooks and course materials · mini fridges and MicroFridges · desk lamps and room décor · bikes and scooters · Monmouth apparel and game day gear · electronics and monitors · event tickets · bed risers and storage bins · surge protectors and study supplies