<p>A couple of friends and I decided that we wanted to get a apartment instead of a dorm for our first year in college. It would be the four of us, and two of us have cars, so we wouldn't have to worry about transportation to and from campus, or if we needed groceries. The apartment I found has free parking (no parking pass!), free amenities like internet, and individual leases. Everyone would also be able to get their own room.</p>
<p>My question is, is the dorm experience a little overrrated? Is it something I can live without? We did't want to live in dorms because our uni doesn't have the best selection of dorms and we don't like the idea of communal bathrooms or the small cramped room(s). Plus, our university has a rep of being a party school, so we were worried that would affect our studies.
I also hear about how people keep saying don't room with your best friend from high school, but to be honest, I don't consider the friends I was planning to room with my BEST friends. I know some of their habits matched mine, and thought it would be okay, but if I room with them will it still go downhill from there or will it ultimately depend on how well we can respect and tolerate each other? My parents wanted me to room with someone I knew at all costs, so I kinda have to room with them I guess. </p>
<p>Another reason is costs. Getting an apartment would actually be cheaper for us than living in the dorms by about $600. We also have to get a meal plan (cheapest one is $3500), and that's pretty expensive. </p>
<p>I would like to save money for grad school or for other luxuries, but I'm not sure if the experience will be worth it or not. </p>
<p>Any suggestions? Should I go with an apartment if its cheaper or get a dorm at least for my first year? All my teachers have told me I should try to live in the dorms at least my first year, but I would like to save money for grad school.</p>
<p>Its completely overrated, especially for a frst year. The meal plan and the cost of the dorm is ridiculous. I can’t speak for everyone, but me and about 30 of my friends don’t spend as much on food as we had to pay for our meal plans. If you have a car, you should go with the apartment, especially if you KNOW that its cheaper and you need to stay out of debt as long as possible because of grad school. At the worst you can live in a dorm later if you want to. That way you won’t have to get the meal plan.</p>
<p>Living in a dorm might help you make more friends at your school, so that’s definitely something to think about. It also sucks to have to drive to school when everybody else can just wake up, walk out the door and into class.<br>
It seems that for you, however, the apartment is probably the best option, especially if it’s cheaper.</p>
<p>Would go dorms for the first year or semester simply due to the fact that all of my friends that I moved with later came from the dorms. It’s more of a social/interacting than anything else because you are in such close proximity to other people your age with very few barriers. It can be pricey, but so can an apartment with the extra costs so I would say for at least the first year go dorms. Lifelong friends and connections are made in the dorms.</p>
<p>Live in the dorms freshman year for the social aspect. The overwhelming majority of people will tell you that their best college friends were their floormates/buildingmates in the dorms</p>
<p>It depends. I’ve found that most of the people who live in my dorm are immature compared to the ones who live in apartments. I think dorms are great if you’ve never lived on your own before, but otherwise, pay that extra for the privacy.</p>
<p>Unless you honestly cannot afford to live in the dorms, DEFINITELY go for the dorms. I lived in the dorms my freshman year, and was fortunate enough to get an apartment by sophomore year (not common where I attend), so I’m familiar with both. </p>
<p>Communal bathrooms are not remotely as bad as anyone thinks they are. (I’m assuming housekeeping staff cleans them there as opposed to you guys.) Having to share a bathroom in which only the people living there are in charge of cleaning is awful, especially if one person has very different standards of cleanliness from the other person/people. I’d love to still have someone else in charge of supplying toilet paper and keeping the common areas clean.</p>
<p>I think that’s one big issue with apartments: There’s a lot more responsibility. Assuming you live off campus (I live in an on-campus apartment), you have to take care of everything. That sounds obvious, but it didn’t really hit me until I was here. While I have school maintenance if something breaks down, off-campus apartments are much less reliable and you have to learn how to fix a lot of things on your own. Everything has to be cleaned on your own, or it just doesn’t get done. Someone has to keep track of all of the bills. You have to pay for a lot of things you don’t immediately expect. Furniture, food (more than I expected), maintenance supplies (largely cleaning for me), heating/cooling/cable (our dorms have free cable, our apartments do not). Biggest one if you’re living very far from campus at all is gas, which is only getting more expensive. That may take up any savings you may make from opting out of the dorms. None of these sound like they’re a big deal…and they’re not the worst thing ever, but they are more pains you have to think about on top of school when you don’t live in a dorm. Also, only two of you have cars? So the other two will be burdens that have be planned around? I’m seconding the comment on distance…it’s pretty awesome when you’re only a couple of minutes away from class walking as opposed to a long drive there. There are less factors that can stop you from getting there.</p>
<p>All that said, I hated my dorm room and I love having an apartment now. But I met a good bulk of my friends in the dorms, and it became so much harder to meet people once I got an apartment. Living in an apartment can be very isolating, especially since it will be with people you already know…your comfort zone. It’d be way too easy for you to stick with them and not branch out.</p>
<p>The privacy of having your own room is amazing, but I don’t think I could have appreciated it without having lived without privacy, and without having had to negotiate a very tiny amount of space with another human being. I think it’s worth it to live in a dorm, if only for the perspective and opportunities it gives you.</p>
<p>I would live in the dorms. One of the worst things you can do, unless you’re already certain you’re going to be friends with these people for life, is limit your abilities to make new friends that aren’t from your high school. College is about meeting new people and being around a variety of different people. While overrated, that’s what makes the dorm experience important. 'Cause at some point you might realize your old friends are different from you or are changing (or the same could happen to you) and you don’t want to be living with them if/when y’all stop thinking each other are all so great.</p>
<p>Live in the apartments. Living in the dorms is not a good way to make friends. I made no friends within my dorms at all. Plus the annoyances in the dorms, such as shared bathrooms with some unpleasent people who leave their waste, Late night drunks who scream in the hallways at 4 am, a potential weirdo roommate, and other many many unpleasent aspects of dorm life exist. Most of my friends came from smaller sized classes, such as language classes or upper division/honors classes, and labs. </p>
<p>I actually go to UCSB and I have grown up in SB, but I decided to live in the dorms despite costing alot more than just living at home. I regret that decision and plan to promptly return to my house starting next year to save alot of money (12k tuition vs 24k) and live in comfort.</p>
<p>^^
All of my best friends at college live on my freshman floor. Thus living in the dorms is a great way to make friends. Please don’t post anecdotal evidence as fact. </p>
<p>It really depends on a lot of factors, mostly outside of your control. Again, I would personally say go for it, because it is almost certain that it will improve you as a person. One of the best things for me was meeting people from all over the country and seeing how much different lifestyles and mentalities can be, even from within the same country. It certainly has been a life-changing experience, on top of being an enjoyable one.</p>