Michigan State University has a two year requirement for students to live on campus. Now that I am a junior, I am living off-campus in a townhouse and college life is completely different. Dorm life was full of ups and downs and took a lot of getting used to. I cherish every memory I made during my time in Holden Hall, but I will never turn back to dorm life since I have experienced off-campus life. Here are some of the major changes I’ve learned to help me navigate living off-campus.
Shared Space
After living in the dorms for two years and sharing a room with another person, going back to having my own space while going to school has been a big change. It is so much better and less anxiety-inducing because there is less clutter, more space, and I can separate where I do my homework and where I relax. Since my roommates and I live in a townhouse, all of our bedrooms are upstairs, while our living and dining rooms are downstairs for us to spend time together, have guests, and still have our own space to retreat to. It is also a lot easier for us to have our significant others visit because we have separate spaces outside of our shared space.Â
Meals and Grocery Shopping
As someone with a dairy allergy, food in the dorms was an absolute nightmare. I could barely eat what Sparty’s had to offer. I had to scope out dining halls for safe foods and ended up eating the same few meals for weeks at a time. I have never been more excited about having my own kitchen again as I am now. I get to prepare breakfast sandwiches, eat cereal whenever I want with almond milk on hand in a full sized fridge, and I get to do something I love more than anything: cook! I have the room to store ingredients for a rainy day, I don’t have to drag my own dishes back and forth from my room to a community kitchen like in the dorm, and I get to enjoy as many new recipes as I like. I have the ability to store leftovers, and make anything I can think of dairy free.Â
The one downfall is that I have to grocery shop and that can get expensive. Thankfully, I love Aldi and know how to find a good deal. My roommates and I split what we can and we buy meat in bulk to separate and put in our deep freezer. I have had to curb my snacking because I no longer have my free combos and fancy drinks, but the pros outweigh the cons in this situation every time.
Laundry
Our townhouse has an in-unit washer and dryer, which is an absolute lifesaver. It is so much easier to pick up my basket and go downstairs than it was to drag it through the dorm halls and to the basement. It also is a lot easier sharing a washer and dryer between three people instead of a full hall of students. The only downside is now I pay water and electricity bills, so I try to knock out all of my laundry in one go.
Campus Travel
I live roughly 10 minutes away from campus. That should have been my first lesson to not take an 8:30 a.m. class three times a week, but you live and learn the hard way. I have a parking pass for the commuter lot and I park there every day to take the bus to class. Normally, it is an easy and seamless trip, but sometimes the campus traffic and those stubbornly long trains can make me late. Because of this, I typically leave my house 45 minutes to an hour before my class is supposed to start so that I have extra time built into my schedule for any setbacks. Having my car parked right outside of our house instead of a mile away is also a huge help with travel time. I don’t mind driving to class every day because I start my morning off by listening to a good album or an episode of a podcast.Â
Budgeting
Last, but certainly not least, every college student’s worst nightmare: learning how to budget. Living off-campus dropped my tuition a significant amount, and technically I am paying less in rent than what it cost me to live in the dorm. That money plays out differently when it is out of pocket versus being taken care of in a loan that I didn’t think twice about. This has taught me the importance of budgeting. Bills always come first. I pay my rent, utilities, credit card, and my car insurance over the first two weeks of the month. Then I have to make sure that I have gas in my car and money for a biweekly grocery trip just in case. This means no more eating out, online shopping, or anything else that is a fun way to spend money until I have ensured that all necessities that month have been taken care of.Â
At the end of the day, there is a lot more to worry about when you are living off-campus, but it comes with a new sense of freedom and control. Having my own space and the ability to meet my personal needs whenever I need to without restrictions makes life much more comfortable. It gives me a taste of the real world and helps me prepare for what life will be like when I am out of college. Overall, I will always choose to live off-campus over living in a dorm because it has taught me much more about myself and being on my own.