<p>I asked this question a few months back, and almost everyone overwhelmingly told me to stick with dorms. My dilemma basically is that my parents have an apartment that is literally 5 minutes away from UCLA which my dad's company pays for (its a luxury apartment at $3,000 a month). There I basically get my own large, and I mean LARGE room, and off course the comfort of living at home.</p>
<p>Is it truly worth the $10,000+ for a dorm and the annoyance of living with 2 other people in a 10 x 10 prison-sized room and the discomfort for me to get the "College Experience". I've already paid the deposit for the housing, but I'd rather lose that than the $10,000 I'll paying for the dorm if I change my mind.</p>
<p>I still want to have the college experience, but the comfort and the fact that this apartment is Free and only a few minutes away from campus is making me have second thoughts. Any last thoughts?</p>
<p>I think that part of the college experience is the adversity in living with strangers in very close proximity and having to take care of your living needs on your own. If mom wakes you up with breakfast on the table, and your folks take care of your laundry and any other needs, then you are able to devote more time to studies or extracurricular activities.</p>
<p>One other thing if you go with the dorm: it sounds like it will be too easy to stay at your apartment whenever you feel like it.</p>
<p>I got our son an apartment as there was no dorm space. It's a two-bedroom unit and completely new. He considers it perfect for studying.</p>
<p>Do whatever you want to do, it seems to me that you want someone to tell you you're not going to be missing out by living at the apartment, but hon, you will be... so.</p>
<p>Take the apartment for sure. I personally didn't care for dorms at all and don't think they can be compared to an apartment. especially if it's nice with privacy and space. Just because something might be "part of the experience" doesn't mean it will necessarily be positive or beneficial. The part about taking care of your living needs on your own is important, but you could learn that anywhere. Also, once you enter a situation on your own, you will be able to handle it alone like anyone else, even if it's a few years later.</p>
<p>while i'm glad to be living in an apartment this year(soph), i wouldn't trade the experience of living in a dorm my freshman year. having a ton of your frineds living with-in a few minutes of you gives stories i don't think you could get outside of a dorm.</p>
<p>If it were your own apartment, it would be one thing. But as you describe it, it sounds like you'd be living with your parents. That is certainly not something you want to have to experience at this stage in life, unless truely required by financial or health constraints. </p>
<p>The truth is, dorm living is okay, but nothing all that noteworthy. It likely won't teach you any life lessons, and is not socially critical. Personally, while I was friendly with many of those in my dorm, all of my real friends were people I met outside of the dorm, and I found myself spending fairly little time in my room accordingly. I'm likely going to wind up in an appartment next year, which frankly I'm looking forward to. Not having to share a bathroom with a floor full of other people is nice. How nice it is compared to living at home though I couldn't say.</p>
<p>When I first read that, I thought it meant that you'd be living at a luxury apartment ALONE. That would be awesome because you could have some friends move in and have awesome parties. Then I read it again and realized that you would be living with your parents. That's not awesome.</p>
<p>If your dad's company is paying for that apartment, then your family should be able to spend that rent money that they would be paying on a dorm for you. It is expensive, but do you really think that you would do all the normal college stuff if you were living at home with your parents?</p>
<p>I've been to UCLA and first off, the "living on-campus" experience is overrated. It's exciting at first, as in the first couple of weeks, but afterwards it gets boring. And depending if you have roommates or not, that can be a pain in the ass. You may think you know them but there may be some things that just..hmm...get on your nerves such as turning down the AC to 55 degrees in the summer? If it's suit-style or traditional, thats also a pain because you have to share a bathroom with xxx amount of people. They may or not clean up after themselves and it'd be nice to sit on a clean toilet for once. Not only that, but you see the same people from school doing the same things all over campus and off. So you go out and meet people right? Parties, games, social events...etc...all the good stuff. Guess what? You can do that while living at home....and you wont owe Mr. Sallie Mae $10K in loans. If you dislike living at home your first year, then get a dorm/apt and see what it's really like.</p>
<p>You're missing out on a lot by not living on campus in a dorm. Easy, prepackaged group of friends to hang out with and a great source of contacts to make even more friends and get involved. </p>
<p>That said, +1 to Avian Maid...if you're a social butterfly and are going to be able to make friends in class, etc., having a ballerific apartment off campus
would be too cool to pass up.</p>
<p>The apartment sounds attractive, but I still think you'll be missing out if you skip on the dorm. Are there negative aspects to dorm life? Yes. If I could re-do it all over again would I choose to skip out on the dorm in my first year? No way.</p>
<p>dormdormdormdormdorm...no seriously, it's the best way to meet new people. My friends at other schools who lived off-campus freshman year had a really tough time making friends first semester...it's totally possible, but dorms make it SO much more natural. You can live off-campus the next 3 years :-)</p>