Housing options

<p>I've already decided on which college to go to but I was wondering, where should I live if on campus. They offer quite a few options like honors dorms, freshman dorms, major-specific dorms, single-sex dorms, greek life houses, etc. Which one worked for you the best?</p>

<p>anyone????</p>

<p>i dont really reccomend dingle sex dorms.</p>

<p>depending on your study habits greek life houses might work or might not work for you. </p>

<p>a lot of it depends on your personality. so you're gonna have to give us an idea of who you are.</p>

<p>some of it also depends on where you're going. what college are you attending if you dont mind me asking</p>

<p>I'm planning on going to University of Rhode Island. </p>

<p>I'm not all that outgoing and I don't really see myself joining a sorority (it might be fun for the first week or so, and then I'd get tired of it). Personality-wise... well, I'm a little shy, I guess. I mean, I don't go out of my way to meet people but I can hold a (somewhat) decent conversation with people. Haha, I don't really know how to describe myself without sounding weird.</p>

<p>The two housing options I'm seriously considering are the Honors housing, or the Freshman housing. I figure I'd be able to interact more with older students who know more about the classes, professors, majors, etc. if I went to the honors housing but I don't know how hard it would be to fit in since many of them won't be in the same boat as I am (new to the school and all). </p>

<p>The freshman housing would be great because we'd all be freshmen and (I hope) would be easier to interact with. I don't really know.</p>

<p>I live in a mostly-freshman all-girls dorm, and I really enjoy it. We have floor parties, and all-dorm parties, and it's much more relaxing than worrying about guys being around 24/7. There's no guys allowed after midnight on weekdays and 2am on Fri-Sat. I recommend it.</p>

<p>ugh, no, single-sex is awful. I lived in one last year and it sucked. I NEVER saw boys around. I love living in my co-ed dorm this year, I actually get to see boys outside of class now! All-girl dorms have too much estrogen around, we need some of that testosterone, every now and then...</p>

<p>hmm yeah i wouldn't recommend single-sex...i live in a co-ed dorm and it's amazing =) our floor is the only one that's co-ed...so we all dressed up in prom clothes and went to the caf that way =D</p>

<p>I have lived in both single sex and honors dorms. They were both really excellent. I really recommend the single sex dorm, especially if there is an adjoining male dorm. That way you get the interaction with the other sex. I also really enjoyed my honors dorm, that's where I made the most friends!</p>

<p>I will be living in an apartment-style dorm next year. It's quad-occupancy with two double rooms, a living room, kitchen, dining room, and of course, private bathroom. I'm excited :) Too bad one of my good friends (a girl) can't join us, because the school doesn't have co-ed rooms (we were hoping for a Will & Grace arrangement).</p>

<p>Freshman housing: a year of so-so living conditions is definitely worth lifetime friemds.</p>

<p>Correction to my previous post:</p>

<p>because the school *doesn't allow co-ed living arrangements</p>

<p>this whole talk on housing is unecessary. this is my way of solving the supposed problem: i just pitch a tent in some grass area near the school. if a police comes by, i just challenge them to a duel in yu-gi-oh or magic. when they lose, i stand on thei big fat belly full of donuts and laugh loudly HA HA HA and start doing my togo dance with some masks on around the fallen body. i invite some friends, mostly stray dogs and cats and we feast by rubbing gravel over our heads and i fall asleep drunk from drinking dog urine. next day i go to school with a hangover. incredible college life, heine? cost: 0 dollars.</p>

<p>honors dorms: do you WANT to be surrounded by geeky guys and girls?</p>

<p>freshman dorms: your best option; you meet a variety of people who are still social (upperclassmen tend to focus more on studies)</p>

<p>major-specific dorms: see honors dorms</p>

<p>single-sex dorms: stay away...the people who choose to live there are just plain weird </p>

<p>greek life houses: never heard of greeks renting out spots to freshmen, but I'd recommend against it. if a freshman lived in our house he'd probably call the cops on us a few times a week.</p>

<p>What about living at home and commuting? Have you considered that?</p>

<p>Why would somebody want to live at home and commute if they didn't have to? It's horrible. I understand doing it if you can't afford anything else, but if you have the money (from financial aid or out-of-pocket) you should NOT live at home. Everyone needs to branch out from their parents eventually. I HATED living at home last summer and commuting to the local community college (only did it cause it's cheaper than summer classes at my university).</p>

<p>
[quote]
Why would somebody want to live at home and commute if they didn't have to?

[/quote]
</p>

<p>-Being able to continue to have a healthy relationship with my family
-More freedom (I can eat on my schedule, not the college's)
-Not having to deal with idiot kids in dorms all over my stuff
-Money saved and not spent
-Bathrooms, nuff said</p>

<p>And some more reasons from the "satisfied commuters" thread we had going a while back. Not everyone dislikes their home/family/whatever like you do, but most people (myself included) didn't consider it an option when we were first thinking about these things because of the "you have to live on dorms or else you'll be miserable, lonely, sad, etc. for 4 years" attitude that gets pushed around all the time.</p>

<p>Commuting is an option, one that should at least be considered.</p>

<p>I don't dislike my home or my family. I just felt it was time to "leave the nest" (and you better believe my mom fought me over it too). I don't like the town I live in (which is 30 minutes away from my school) but I felt like I'd probably be using almost as much money in gas commuting as I would in living expenses here instead of at home. I use a 1/4 of a tank everytime I drive it (and I have decent mileage on my car too, about 23 mpg). That's more than a whole tank of gas a week. Here, I go on one tank for almost a month (unless I go home for something). </p>

<p>"Not having to deal with idiot kids in dorms all over my stuff" -- jeez, somebody never learned how to share in elementary school. At most, you'd be sharing a room with two people. Usually, it's only one. If you can't share with one other person, then that's just sad. (and seriously, there's unspoken rules about things you can and can't use of your roommates. and if there's not, all you have to do is say, "Dude, I'd rather you not use Insert Items Here of mine, thanks." Most normal people would respect that.)</p>

<p>"More freedom"-- I would have so much LESS freedom if I lived at home. Trust me, I did the commuter thing last summer. My mom is one of those moms that always wants to know where you're going, with whom, what time you'll be back, and "call me when you get there, call me when you leave to come home, no matter what time it is", and she'll call if you forget to. I love my mom to death, but she's a helicopter parent and it's annoying after a while. As an adult I feel I should be able to come and go as I please, but she doesn't think so when I'm there.</p>

<p>Plus, I feel like I wouldn't have met any of my friends if I lived at home. I met most of them from swing dancing which lessons meet on friday nights, and if I lived at home, I wouldn't have gone to.</p>

<p>Oh, and commuting isn't even an option for alot of people who go to school far away from their homes. If you're more than an hour away you should not ever consider commuting.</p>

<p>It has nothing to do with "learning how to share in elementary school", but with my privacy and how not to have to deal with stupid roomates from time to time. Look up any of the threads on here about awful roomate stories or the like, I'm pretty sure that all of these issues these people are having with their roomates aren't issues of 'sharing'. </p>

<p>And if you have to realize that all mothers aren't like yours. Maybe its a trust issue or something, I don't know, not my mother... </p>

<p>In any event, I've met plenty of people while commuting, you don't have to take extra time out of your day to attend social events just to meet people. What ever happened to meeting people in your major or classes?</p>

<p>
[quote]
If you're more than an hour away you should not ever consider commuting.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>No argument here, at that distance, its just not worth it to commute. But still, the fact remains, if you live close to the school (like people I know who live under 20 min. away), you definitely should consider commuting, and not be so easily swayed by all the anti-commuting hype about how your life will be so miserable and what not.</p>

<p>My mom is a lot like AUlostchick's mom. I was only home for one summer since I went to college, and she drove me nuts, and now it looks like I'm going to be stuck living there after graduation until I find a job, after years of living by myself. Oh, goody. My parents are about an hour, hour and 15 minutes away and I could have theoretically commuted if I really wanted to, but I'd have nowhere to park when I got here and I would probably have ended up sitting in rush hour traffic for 2 hours at least 2-3 times a week...between parking and gas it wouldn't have saved any money. </p>

<p>I really like living in an apartment by myself but I get the impression that most people wouldn't. I only lived in the dorms freshman year. Hung out with people from my major, not the dorm, so it wouldn't really have mattered whether it was single sex or coed (it was actually coed by wing). I would think it would probably be easier to make friends if you were in a freshman dorm than an honors dorm, because it seems like once you get past freshman year everyone has their set group of friends already and they aren't looking for any new additions.</p>

<p>I can see where you're coming from, but my mom wanted me to commute from 35-40 minutes away. If you're <15 minutes away, you could theoretically still hang out with people outside of class, participate in ECs, etc. and still be home in time for the helicopter mom not to freak out. Alot of people's parents, when they first go to college, hover and try to hold on to some semblence of the kid still being their "baby". It's fantastic for you if your mom/family didn't do that.</p>

<p>I just think living in the dorm is a good experience in learning how to deal with people who are different from you. That's definitely one of the things I learned from it anyway. I know alot of people from my high school who go to my university and commute from our hometown, and all I see in pictures of them on facebook are all the old ******* friends they had in HS. College is a time to branch out, meet new people, break out of the high school mold.... not stay stuck in the high school world forever. (not saying you do that, just saying that's what I noticed around here).</p>