Photo by Cynthia del Río on Unsplash
After being hit by the shocking realization that my first year of college will be coming to an end quicker than I can imagine, I began to reflect on many different aspects of my college life. While there have been many experiences that I enjoyed, as expected, everything isn’t sunshine and rainbows. One thing that I thought about is my experience living in a dorm. As an only child, I had no previous experience living with anyone but my parents, which made living in a dorm a huge change in my life. I was so scared that it was going to have a difficult time adjusting; I had no idea what to expect! Now that I have insight, I want to share my experiences in the dorms by listing my top three advantages and disadvantages of dorm life.
Photo by Obed Hernández on Unsplash
Pros
The first advantage of living on campus as opposed to commuting is that it is much easier to make new friends and feel more connected to campus. Since you are not only going to be in class with your peers but also living around them, you are much more likely to make tighter connections with people and make more personal relationships with one another. I definitely feel that my friendships in college are much closer and personal than my friendships in high school, which were mostly situational. Also, it is easier to be more aware of the events that are taking place on campus since the friends you make on campus are likely to bring them to your attention.
To add on, it is also easier to meet with groups to discuss collaborative assignments. If all the members of the group are living on campus, the only real difficulty is finding a time that works for everyone. Transportation is not an issue, since you are all within walking distance of one another. There are many places on campus to meet with one another and since everyone is on campus anyways, it doesn’t really matter where you meet. Also, if you run across any difficulties, you are able to all visit a tutor as a group and get help.
Personally, the greatest perk of living on campus is that there are so many different study places that are easy to get to. One thing I struggled with in highschool was finding a comfortable and quiet study space to finish my homework. Since I was not able to get very far on my own, my options were limited to different areas in my home; however now that I live on campus at Agnes Scott, I have access to McCain Library, Alston Student Center, and many other areas that help me stay comfortable and focus on my work.
Cons
On the other hand, one obvious con of living on campus is that I tend to miss living at home and being around my family. While this can usually be cured by being around good, fun friends and phone calls, this was a difficulty that I faced when transitioning from home life to college life.
Another thing that can be a problem when living in a dorm is finding time by yourself. As an only child, I am used to spending a lot of time on my own. However, now that I am in college, I do not get nearly as much alone time as I was used to. When I first got here, I was overwhelmed with all the new people I was meeting and the different campus events, feeling like I should be doing everything in order to get the full college experience. While this was difficult to adjust to at first, now I have found ways to balance my social life and getting healthy amounts of alone. I now realize that I do not have to be engaged in everything all the time.
The most difficult part of living in a dorm is that there are people who are not as respectful as others would like them to be. While usually people are courteous, there tends to be an a lot of issues within the dorms. Just to give a few examples, there are some people who do not follow quiet hours. This can be solved by notifying an RA. There are also people who put food in the drain, clogging it. Finally, it is important to be cautious of where you leave things in common areas, being that people may assume that they are community property.
All in all, I believe that the advantages definitely outweigh the disadvantages. Living on campus makes me feel much more connected to the school and allows me to make friends easily since we see each other so often. Although the cons can be extremely frustrating to deal with at times, I feel like I’m getting the “college experience” that I dreamed about when I was applying to school. Although it’s not perfect like the movies, everyone else is basically going through the same thing, which brings you all closer to one another!