My Daughter will be attending UF in the fall. She would prefer to live off campus in an apartment - she can get a large shared apartment with her own room and bathroom for less than the cost of a shared dorm room. The complex has buses that would take her to classes. I have mixed feeling about her living on/off campus - It seems that most freshman choose to live on campus and I don’t want her to feel like she is missing out by not being on campus but the dorms look really old and small so it’s a hard sell. What are your thoughts ? on or off campus?
I had both of mine live on campus their first year. After which they couldn’t wait to move off campus and get their own rooms and bathrooms.
I wanted both kids to live on campus, but the main goal was to get them both to engage with campus life. My daughter check out several clubs, and then ended up rushing an engineering sorority. My son is currently working (most evenings) with the Gators Motorsport design team, who’s lab is right next door to East Hall.
Considering how much of a pain commuting to campus can be (lack of parking), it was/is much easier doing these things while living on campus.
Will you daughter know her roommates? Living on campus that first year goes a long ways to building up your circle of friends and pool of potential roommates.
If she does end up living off campus that first year, get her to commit to engaging with the campus! Ask her what her plan would be and help her build it. Then be flexible, as she explores different options.
The only option that’s not acceptable, is setting in her private bedroom, watching Netflix every day after class. She needs to find ways to get engaged! If not, she will be bored and unhappy.
Good Luck! :-bd
She has a friend that is hoping to room with her. She is planning on playing club lacrosse and will most likely get involved in other clubs (she did a lot of that in HS) If you live on campus do you have to have a meal plan?
I’m a huge fan of living on campus. Get her to look past the actual dorm room. It’s not about that. It’s about bonding with many other freshmen, meeting new people, learning to deal with other people in your personal space (very important for overall growth). I would also suggest not rooming with a friend. Rarely does that work out well. College is about expanding ones’s horizons, not going to 13th grade. I know way too many kids that room with their HS friends. They either don’t meet / bond with nearly as many people as the random roommate group, OR their friendship gets strained.
Although he attends a different school, S is living in a freshmen dorm. Literally didn’t know anyone (private OOS) . Most are in the same boat. It forces them to meet and bond. He has a posse of about 16(guys and girls) from his hall that do so many things together. They break off to do their separate activities / clubs but they reconnect for meals, hang out every night. go to parties together. Like a pack of wolves. He always has someone to hang with because he knows and is friends with so many in his dorm.
I just think it makes a huge difference. Uncomfortable for a bit, but the RAs do a great job of getting everyone together early on, almost like a camp.
First year on campus is the best way to meet more people. I’d encourage dorm & meal plan for 1 year. Then let her decide after that.
I’m a proponent of living on campus for freshman year, too. The rooms may be small but part of it, as has been pointed out, is that you shouldn’t be spending a ton of time alone in your room anyway. I remember meeting a wide variety of kids, some older, some out of state, some who were completely insane! All good things in my book. As to sharing a bathroom, I remember not liking the idea of that but I honestly have no recollection of ever having an issue with dorm bathrooms. During my freshman year, I don’t think I ever had to wait for a shower, for example. I later lived in a fraternity house and shared smaller facilities with less privacy with more guys. Again, not a single negative memory.
And just to give one more bit of info, the universities have studied retention rates and kids who live on campus during freshman year typically have a better retention rate. In some instances, being involved on campus – using the rec center regularly, for example – is an even better indicator of retention. Dorm life is a bit like medicine…
I remember those insane ones too. That was half the fun. Never a dull moment.
No, you do not. My daughter didn’t her first year. Plan on purchases a small fridge for the room.
Sidenote, during Hurricane Irma the dorms never lost power! We were down a few blocks away for at least a couple days.
I think living in the dorm is really important. I went to school in my hometown, and even though lots of kids from my high school went to the same school, I never saw them. I made two new friends in my dorm, the first week we were on campus. I ended up rooming with one of them the next three years. In my case, I lived in the dorm all four years because I loved it so much!
@SouthFloridaMom9 When Irma hit Gainesville, I was far more worried about my daughter in her first floor apartment, than my son who lived on campus in that 60’s style bomb shelter UF calls a dorm. UF even has it’s own source of electricity (it’s power plant is ran by Duke Energy) and it doesn’t use city (GRU) power for the main campus.
I don’t see any problem with living off campus during her freshman year at UF.
There are a lot of dorms that are literally across the street from campus, so I don’t see her missing out on much. In fact, I’m trying to get D more interested in UF and when we toured the school we also toured a couple off-campus apartments to show her what she could afford if she stays in-state. She doesn’t like Gainesville at all, which is the only thing keeping her from enrolling.
I am in a similar situation. My daughter was open to living on campus but really didn’t like the dorms once she saw them. She applied for Summer B and was accepted. As somewhat of a compromise, if allowed, she will stay on campus for the Summer B session and stay in off campus housing starting in the fall semester. The housing option we looked at try their best for roommate match/preferences and we asked that she be placed in a rental with Freshman that don’t know each other. She will be in a 4 bedroom/4 bath unit. We are hopeful but know it isn’t a given.