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Dear Gina,
Right now I’m living in a dorm on campus and I don’t really mind it. But some of my friends are all about getting an apartment off campus for next year and want me to live with them. I’m not sure if I should or not. I mean, I’m worried that all my friends are going to move out and I’m going to be stuck all alone with a bunch of freshman.
From Dorm or Apartment?
Dear Dorm or Apartment?
Deciding between the dorms on campus and an off-campus apartment is a hard choice. I struggled with it myself only last year. Basically you have to weigh out the pros and cons about both before making such a big decision.
From what you wrote in your letter it sounds like the dorms don’t bother you, but you are worried that all your friends are going to get an apartment and you’ll be left solo. You have to think about what is going to be best for you overall and not just socially. Of course it’s awesome to have your friends around you, but are they going to be more of a distraction than a plus? I hate to sound like a parent or anything, but you do pay to go to college and you don’t pay for friends.
The dorms are a package deal: room and food. You don’t have to worry about making your own meals, paying the rent at the first of the month or cleaning the bathroom. No matter if you live in Gannett or York, you are still in semi-decent walking range to all your classes with no car required. In your room you have free cable and not to mention a free movie channel and Internet.
However, the room and food can usually be compared to a low security prison, where you reside in a 10 by 10 room with a cot and a closet. The food in the commons is only safe on Saturday and Sunday when brunch can hold you over for the entire day. Any other time you have to choose between the meat of the week and oily veggies. Your basic diet depends on the cereal dispensers, salad bar and sandwich line. Sure you don’t have to clean any bathrooms, but who wants to even use a bathroom on the weekend, let alone on a Sunday night after a full-blown party weekend. You don’t even want to think about what happened in the showers, and the stalls you have to choose from are either urine or vomit sprayed, and normally there is no toilet paper to be found anyway. All year around you can look forward to fun filled fire alarms at 2 a.m., hearing your next door neighbor either blasting their stereo, fighting with their girl or boy friend, and then hearing them makeup. The dorm is not really what one would consider a personal space. The lives of everyone around you invade you from all sides.
An apartment can be a luxury. It has a much larger space with more rooms to glide through and don’t forget your very own kitchen and bathroom. You don’t have to worry about what the mystery meat is, or controlling your hunger to fit into the university’s meal times. When you step into the shower you don’t have to wonder who or what went on in there before you got in, and if the toilet is dirty, you should know who did it. Your neighbors are more than a plywood space away, which definitely buffers outside noise and allows you to make as much noise as you want. An apartment allows you to throw a big party without worrying about an RA knocking on your door every ten minutes. You can just chill and relax without any distractions.
Or can you? Now you have to deal with AT&T and Verizon calling you up harassing you about changing your long distance plan and leaving silent messages on your answering machine. Sure you get to choose what you want to eat, but you also have to get your butt to Shop `N Save or the IGA, buy it and then cook it. Then you have to clean the dishes you just used and put them away for your next gourmet experience. Most apartments do not come furnished, so you best be hitting some garage sales this summer or hit up your family, or you will be spending some huge dough at the mall. Now, granted you know who’ll be using your bathroom, but you will still have to clean it once in a while. Some places include cable and electricity, but some don’t. In that case you need to budget in order to have enough money to pay rent at the first of every month, buy groceries, pay the cable, electric and if you want Internet access, don’t forget to write out a check to AOL. And not to mention put gas in your car in order to make it to classes everyday, that is when you can fight the urge not to skip as you lie in your warm bed thinking about getting into your freezing cold car and driving to the university.
Most importantly you have to consider actually living with your friends. Sure you love them, but can you survive with them? Are they going to eat all your food, dirty all the dishes, run up the phone bill, dirty the bathroom, and then blow it all off or blame it on someone else? From what I’ve seen most people can live in an apartment with 1 or 2 people, but more than that and trouble forms. People start talking behind each other’s backs and pretty soon no one is talking at all.
So, that pretty much covers all sides except one: living by yourself.
That is what I ultimately chose and I love it! I don’t have to worry about anyone except myself, and when I get bored, I just go and visit all my girlfriends that live together (five of them, and none of them are living together next year) and hang out for awhile. Then I get to go home to my apartment and snuggle into the comfort of my own place. I was so glad to get out of the dorms, but I loved it for the first two years of my university experience. Fire alarms in the middle of the night just gets old after awhile.
Good Luck!
Gina
Bangor Daily News