<p>Hey, y'all
I hope you guys are getting acceptance letter from UCs or any other institution you have applied to. Personally, I got into UCI, UCSD, UCSB, UCSC, UCD , some out-states, one foreign school and waiting for UCLA and Berkeley.
As I am excited about next year, I still can't decide which is better; dorm life or off-campus life?</p>
<p>Can you tell me pros and cons? and your recommendation.
Thanks. Hope this will help others as well</p>
<p>I’d love to hear these responses as well!</p>
<p>I’ll probably be living in the dorm because I want the “college experience”.</p>
<p>Pros of dorm
college experience
easy to meet people
on campus
Some have a lot of amenities like gyms, basketball courts, pools, etc
you dont have to make your own food (this could be a con as well)</p>
<p>Pro of Off campus
not having 2394398472 neighbors (exaggeration but you get the point)
thicker walls
more space</p>
<p>how about the cost difference?
Is there huge difference?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>This is almost completely false: the people you will be living with in the transfer dorms are different. They’re actually completely isolated (for SD, at least. not sure about the others). The “college experience” won’t be much different than living off campus</p>
<p>For the most part, the apartments that are rented out to people near the universities are students themselves so… it’s easy to meet people as well; the neighbor thing is stupid because it’s the same as if you were living in a dorm.</p>
<p>you’ll be so close to the school and on campus most of the time that the amenities won’t really matter…</p>
<p>as for food, you don’t ever need to make your own food. there will be restaurants, and that can arguable be cheaper than dining hall food.</p>
<p>there are thicker walls and (possibly) more space</p>
<p>at berkeley most people move out of the dorms after the first year since the rent is low, i don’t know about the others… i know SD, i’d rather live off campus if you have people to live with. it’s cheaper</p>
<p>[list=Pros of dorms]</p>
<p>[li]Pro’s of Dorms</p>[/li]
<p>[<em>]College experience(especially since your living with other transfer easier to relate)
[</em>]Easy to meet people(However if you look on freshmen forums i would say 60% of them groan about their roommates and their sex/sleeping/cleaning/smell/invasion of space issues)
[<em>]On campus(So no need for a car if you don’t have one)
[</em>]The UCI transfer dorms are actually very nice and have a spa among other things,gym etc so the amenities are top knotch .
[/list]</p>
<p>[list=Cons of Dorms]
[<em>]Pro’s of off-campus
[</em>]Cheaper much cheaper than living on on campus
[<em>]If you have a bunch of friends you want to live with you will either build on your friendship or get sick of them (Plus or minus)
[</em>]Having a car, able to cook/shop for yourself aka eating much more healthy(Eating Pizza/burgers/fastfood/takeout 4 times a week isn’t healthy at all. Nothing beats a good plate of stir fry noodles
[li]More rooms and privacy and if you have a gf it’s 1/2 the cost if you want to live with her[/li][/list]</p>
<p>Living with a gf in college sounds like borderline academic suicide</p>
<p>^I concur, thats why sometimes long distance relationships are good, no distractions!</p>
<p>im gonna live on campus, i want to meet people and feel like a “normal” college student.
we have other times in our life to live on our own or in an apartment, but we only have this one time to live as a traditional college student.</p>
<p>I’ll be in the dorms at UCLA, Berkeley, or Santa Barbara. Living off campus at UCSD.</p>
<p>Why are you living on-campus at the other schools but not at UCSD?</p>
<p>speaking of dorming on campus, does ucla and ucb have any transfer clubs or something?</p>
<p>why would living with a gf be consider academic suicide? </p>
<p>It all depends on the girl if they study alot. Have your work ethic can’t it also motivate you to work harder?</p>
<p>I’d say a new relationship filled with many sleep overs would be a lot worse for your academic career.</p>
<p>@ fenris
Yeah the UCSD transfer dorms are just like apartments except crappier. However for ucla, you can dorm in any of the oncampus housing buildings. Its a great environment and you’ll easily meet a ton of people.</p>
<p>That is actually not almost all completely incorrect. You can CHOOSE to live in the transfer dorms, and everything else I said was true. I never said it wasnt easy to meet people off campus, I just said it was easy to meet people in the dorm, which is very true. Peter86 said almost the same things as me too which means multiple people are thinking the same thing.</p>
<p>According to replies, it seems like living in dorm @ UCSD isn’t recommended.</p>
<p>eh… its all about money for me, cus i have none. But my parents do, so I don’t get much financial aid. But they spend there money poorly so, they don’t want to help me with school much…</p>
<p>Off campus it is.</p>
<p>For UCSD, off-campus cost seems higher than other campus.</p>
<p>@ absurdmike: Have you thought of working part-time? I think I am going to do that.</p>
<p>I’m going for the dorms at UCSB because I have spent time with my friends when they were freshmen and they all had a blast, met lots of people, and had connections for parties when others moved out to Isla Vista. I live out in Isla Vista right now, and I’m going to SBCC, and personally, it just isn’t the same, meeting people is relatively harder than if you were dorming, and I consider myself to be somewhat outgoing and friendly.</p>