Dorm vs. Apartment: Which is best for you?
As the new school year begins, whether you’re a brand-new freshman or a WSU veteran going into their senior year, it’s important to put a lot of thought into your living situation. There are many factors that can help you decide right off the bat when considering a residence hall or apartment. At Wazzu, all freshmen under the age of 20 are mandated to stay in the dorms their first year attending the university. There are exceptions to living on campus if you have a spouse, children, or family to live with that are within a 40-mile radius of the school. You could even be in my case where dorms are no longer provided at certain WSU campuses, so you absolutely have to get an apartment. If you have a family or dependents, then it’s a given that residence halls are not exactly the best fit for you but let’s take a look from the perspective of fellow sophomores like me!
After living in a dorm for a year, you may be fully content with living in residence halls and that’s a sentiment I share personally. Alternatively, you may be absolutely sick of shared bathrooms, overzealous RA’s, shared laundry room horror stories, and having 168 square feet be the extent of your living space. It just depends on the pros and cons about what is important to you. For instance, living off campus includes paying rent monthly, endless apartment hunting, almost non-existent outside support, and now having to maintain a work, school, and life balance. Deciding to leave the proverbial nest and support of campus housing is a big step and transition in adulthood that deserves truly dissecting.
Now let’s say you want to live in an apartment, and you are ready to embark on your own. As someone who has lived in a dorm and is currently getting an apartment, I can vouch for the long process of deciding that occurs. Apartments provide the upfront benefits of more privacy, personal space, and a large step into being independent. When getting an apartment, you will have a commute to school now, so a car or in-depth understanding of public transit is a must. You will need a job and income, when budgeting it’s a good rule that rent shouldn’t be more than 30% or 1/3 of your income. Also, just to move-in, there will be a slew of fees that will amount to almost $3,000 to start. After getting the place, you will need to buy your own food, furnish the apartment, ensure all leasing paperwork is up to par, and more. An apartment is considerably more work but in return, you could have a kitchen, bathroom, laundry room, and workspace that isn’t two feet from your bed. In addition, within reason, you decide what happens within the four walls, who can be there, and no well-meaning RA’s will appear.
After laying out the long process of an apartment, is a dorm any easier? In the simplest overview, that answer would be yes but that in itself is a whole pro for dorms. You apply, get into, and sign a housing contract but the school takes it from there. They decide what residence hall you’re assigned to, with your preferences in mind, which does take away your ability to have a final say about your location. Yes, there are ways of changing but that’s an extra hassle that you have to take into account. With that being said, you are given a day, and you move in to live with a random person if you’re not so lucky to have a friend you get matched with. One of the hardest parts of dorms are the nightmare roommates you may cross paths with, which can be avoided in an apartment but also still could occur in the exact same way off campus. When paying for a dorm, it’s in your tuition which FAFSA or scholarships may cover completely, if you have access to such resources. If you work while in college and in dorms, you can save up easier as you have meal plans and tuition payment plans. All that in mind, you have the guidance of your fellow students in your building, an RA who you can rely on, and even your dorm will most likely be within a 10-minute walk to your classes.
After dissecting each option, you may know exactly what you want or be infinitely more confused. To truly know what you want or where to live, you must decide what is most important to you. As well as what’s important, what are you willing to sacrifice in either housing option. Is having more privacy and the final say about matters in your living space more important than the support and possible relationships of fellow students and the ease of living in a dorm? Many people will spend all of their college years in the dorms while some spend only the obligatory amount of time. You just have to keep in mind what will work best for your lifestyle and what would make you happiest at the end of the day. An important notion I live by is even if there’s an option that makes more sense or is the most logical, it will always be worth less than the option that will make you the most happy.