<p>Orientation is coming up in a week and with it the start of my time at my first university. I'm having some doubts about the dorms. In fact, I'm scared. I've never been away from home before and I guess you could say my life has been sheltered. </p>
<p>My worst fears are my roommate. I know it's going to be a female of course, but I've had nothing but bad experiences living with strangers. I'm scared she'll tell all her friends what goes on in our room and they'll talk about me like a dog and make fun of me. Even if she is a good roommate, what if she brings her boyfriend to visit and he does stuff to me and his homies do stuff to me?</p>
<p>I do know this is a gamble, but if I win this gamble, I'll win a lot. The pros of me living in the dorms are:</p>
<p>Safety
Friends
Independence
Campus Life
Less financial pressure</p>
<p>The cons would be:
Bad roommate
Bad roommate visitors
Bad roommate + bad visitors = rumors spread around campus</p>
<p>I come from a pretty bad community college, so maybe things will be different. I certainly hope things will be different and better.</p>
<p>Any input is welcome. Thank you.</p>
<p>On the first day, you should have a discussion with your roommate. Discuss cleaning, visitors, etc. If you talk to them before school starts, you’ll end up avoiding a lot of unpleasantness later on.</p>
<p>I would definitely recommend living in the dorms as a freshmen. It really is a great experience, and you automatically get to be around people all the time. I found that floors are quite friendly and inviting. For me, the dorming experience made college feel a lot more comfortable and fun, and helped get rid of homesickness. It’s also likely that you’ll meet people in the dorms that you’ll end up finding an apartment with next year if you decide to do that. </p>
<p>As for roommates, it seems like they’re generally respectful and honestly, wouldn’t really care about what goes on in the room unless something really out of the ordinary happened. Who knows, you might end up becoming very close friends with your roommate. For me, that didn’t happen but it was a nice experience living with my roommates. I recommend making a roommate agreement with your roommate(s), if the dorms don’t provide you one already. That way, you can prevent undesirable situations beforehand and avoid arguments about visitors, living habits, sharing space, etc. Both of my roommates brought their boyfriends to our room from time to time, but were pretty nice/respectful and mainly just spent time with their girlfriends. In general it seems like a situation like the one you described is rare. Also, unless your university is very small, rumors shouldn’t spread too easily.</p>
<p>Best of luck!</p>
<p>I’m not a freshman, so living in the dorms isn’t mandatory for me.</p>
<p>From my experience, the likelihood that your roommate is going to be as bad as you fear is a lot smaller than you think. But like other people have said, please talk with your roommate and set out an agreement for the time that you two live together.</p>
<p>Okay, I’ll do that then. I have not gotten my dorm assignment yet but I’ll contact my roommate ASAP when I can.</p>
<p>You’ll be fine. It’s possible to have a great roommate, and a terrible one. Like others are saying, make sure to communicate with your roommate throughout the year. If she does something you’re not okay with, let her know.</p>
<p>If things don’t work out, you can always switch.</p>