For a freshman, the on-campus dorms are a natural habitat. The close-knit living spaces, the forced doubles and triples and the fact that hundreds of students are able to socialize under one roof create the ideal atmosphere for any new student.
These young adults are finally “on their own” and forced to take on the responsibilities such as containing themselves when they see a member of the opposite sex only donning a towel at the other end of the hallway.
Students will meet some friends who will last a lifetime during that first crucial year, and, more often than not, these students will find these friends within that one dorm building. However, what happens when a social life no longer triumphs over school work, a job or an internship?
One night, sometime later in your college career, you will be lying in bed around 2 a.m. struggling to catch a wink of sleep.
Not only does your roommate have all of the lights on because she “needs to study,” but she is also defeating the purpose of headphones by strumming and humming along with every song on her playlist. Even worse, you have been trying to block out the obviously sexual noises coming from your neighbor through the sound transparent cinderblock wall for the past three hours.
You want, no, you need to get out of that dorm and into something more suitable, such as an apartment.
Jared Goldberg, a sophomore history and criminology double major who currently lives in a dorm on south campus, agrees that the benefits of an apartment definitely outweigh that of the dorm life.
“The small rooms, lack of air conditioning and inability to make a home-cooked meal are the most irritating aspects of living here,” Goldberg explained.
However, he did argue that “when you live in the dorm, you have that opportunity to constantly meet new people, and feel a real college experience.”
If you are one of those students who love the constant close company of roommates and neighbors in the dormitories, then by all means, live it up! The dorms do hold more pros than one may believe.
Once you move into an apartment with your own room, bathroom and kitchen, you are going to have to deal with a few more responsibilities. Along with an increased feeling of independence, moving into an apartment also comes with an addition of chores such as cleaning your bathroom, taking out the trash, doing your own grocery shopping and cooking your own meals.
Also, as senior business major Elise Mendelsohn explained, “The distance from campus can get annoying, especially if you’re living in Leonardtown. Plus, if you don’t move in with friends, living in an apartment can make you feel isolated since people aren’t as close and friendly as they are in dorms.”
Even so, adapting to an apartment lifestyle is not a difficult task. Aside from the negatives, Mendelsohn, who went from a dorm to Leonardtown and then to the South Campus Commons, needed to live in a place that had access to a kitchen because of medical diet restrictions.
Having your own room, kitchen and bathroom can not only improve your health because there are generally less germs around you than in a dorm, but you also have the chance to learn to cook and make simple, healthy foods.
For those who prefer to live off of frozen dinners and fast food, learning to cook, clean and maintain a space larger than a closet-sized dorm room are a few great life lessons that can only help in the future. You never know, you may end up finding a hidden talent leading you to become the next Martha Stewart!
Ok, so that is a little farfetched, but you get the picture.