Although a bit too early to think about it, is it better to have an apartment( i.e rent a room with people) or have a dorm room your first year of college?

Dorm. It’s easier to manage if you’ve never lived on your own, and you’ll meet more people being on campus all the time. My daughter’s school requires all freshman to live on campus. Apparently it increases the odds of graduating in 4 years if you do.

Definitely do the dorm thing for at least the first year. My first year, I absolutely hated my roommate, but I learned a lot about having to deal with people I really don’t like. My second year I lived in a dorm again, and my roomie, whom I’d never known before that year, became my best friend, and we still see each other almost every day. Whatever your experience is with roommates or floormates, it’s a good experience to have. And AlfredaPrufrock is right, you meet a lot more people living on campus, and it’s so much easier not having to deal with landlords, leases, rent, and utilities while trying to get used to college classes and such a new environment. Also, it’s likely that your dorm would organize floor outings or dorm activities where you can meet people and have fun and go to different places on campus or in the town your college is in to get you more connected with the place where you’re going to be living for several years. It’s a really invaluable experience, I really don’t think you’ll regret it.

In my opinion the dorm. You meet more people easier. And there is enough shit to worry about with out dealing with the whole apartment stuff to.

Dorm. Mine was a one-stop arrangement.

Food, new people, clubs, library and study help was all in one place. If I hadn’t met a guy I wanted to live with at the end of my sophomore year, I would’ve probably stayed all four years (er, five, that’s right) in the dorms. Many of ours were old and beautiful and were at the shores of a lake. Now, learning to live with people who weren’t like those I grew up with? A challenge, but one that was good for me. I learned how to speak up for myself a bit and how to negotiate things with my roommate, who is not a friend today, but I survived. My second year, I got a single and that was fun too!

Another vote for dorms. You’ll have apartments and houses for the rest of your life, but you’ll never have another chance at that dorm experience. Mmm, thin walls, nighttime fire drills, mattresses that smell like sweatsocks, hijinks, other people’s hair in the sinks, boys from the other dorm yelling for your dorm’s women to show their breasts in the windows, nosy RAs, hidden microwaves, school regulations, sneaking in after midnight, living with a stranger, and walking in on a stranger having sex. Nothing like dorms!

@laureth Wow, your dorm was strict! Did you go to a private/religious university? We have fridges and microwaves provided for us, our RAs leave us alone unless we come to them with a problem, and we definitely don’t have to sneak in if it’s after midnight…there’s no curfew or anything, we can come and go as we please. I’ve never even been to any of the “mandatory” floor meetings, no one cares, lol.

But yeah, the thin walls, 1 a.m. fire drills, and hair in the sinks/showers do suck. And I did walk in on my freshman-year roommate having sex once. That was definitely an interesting year.

@Ashpea9288 and
@laureth
wow laureth’s dorm sounds strict. Our doors into the building were locked at 10 but that was it. our walls were thick brick. I lived in the old lakeshore dorms on UW Madison campus. As far as the sex, that happen to me once. It only happened once because I stood with the door open and, over their objections, said ” woudln’t it have been easier for you to let me know ahead of time?” and refused to close the door until they agreed. Problem solved.

Nope. I lived in an all-female dorm at Eastern Michigan University.

I suppose they got a little antsy with the appliances that could make things hot because of the potential to burn down the joint. A few years before I got there, some genius girl decided to have a campfire. On the floor. They were tile, not carpet, but you can imagine that it caused some damage anyway. After that, residents weren’t allowed to have so much as a hot-pot to warm water for tea.

I think dorm is good. I lived by myself and felt REALLY lonely. Dorm is sort of half-way independent, a transition phase.

@ everyone
i guess ur rite. hmpth. my writing is quite awkward. well the dorm life sounds quite interesting in itself and i must agree, soloing with an aprtment and worrying about rent and school and a job would be troublesome

we were not allowed a hot plate but we could have a hot pot. This was before you could get a microwave for $20 bucks.

Dorm. I had an assigned roommate I didn’t much care for, but being on campus all the time was good. I moved into a shared house my sophomore year.

@invic, where are you going to school in the fall? Do you know yet?

ima a jr still but im aimin at stanford
i have alrite grades and im in ib. just havent done any volunteering. i got to start

That’s good. You need to get on it. Pick something you believe in and do it over a sustained period. Northwestern in Chicago takes a lot of IB students, with decent scholarship packages.

Although late to the party, I also agree dorm, at least for the first year. In addition to the dorm experience (all of the above plus the Rolling Stones blasting Every Single Night until 3 am), it also means you don’t absolutely, positively have to have a car, but if you do have a car odds are there will be parking associated with the dorm.

Besides, where else can you get the experience of sharing a room with 1) a Playboy Bunny, 2) the runner up to Miss New Hampshire, 3) a newly converted and proseletyzing Lutheran, 4) a Jewish girl from South America, 5) someone who can play the electric saz, or 6) a future Rhodes Scholar (all real room mates of mine)?

@Darwin
well im a boy so i guess i wont be that lucky. so sad. damn a playboy bunny roomate! lucky.

Yet again, voting for dorms. Not a lot has been said about the importance of the instant support system that the dorm provides. When I need somebody to talk to, my best friend at school is two floors away, instead of a twenty minute subway ride. I have an RA I can go to anytime, I have security guards watching out for me, I have three roommates whose help I can get anytime, and, above all, I don’t have to worry about a utilities bill or a cable bill or any of that. The dorm gives you the opportunity to meet your classmates and form bonds outside of the participants in your classes, and then has the added benefit of having those people you met accessible! It’s part of the experience, and it alleviates a lot of stress and worry, especially your freshman year.

Another thing: you said you’re interested in going to Stanford… My brother is a Stanford alum who lived on campus his whole time there. He didn’t like his assigned dorm his freshman year very much, but he got a great house (a themed house style building with dorm rooms) with all of his friends for the rest of his three years, and they had a chef for the house. Stanford’s housing is pretty snazzy; if you end up there, I would definitely take advantage of it!

@invic – The Playboy Bunny was never there – she was always in class or working at the Club. And BTW some dorms are now coed so you never know who you might meet in their jammies in the hall.

@Darwin
ahahahaha! that would be quite fine, quite fine indeed. ahahahah. ah. That was good. Well only time will tell. I wonder if i will be as lucky. i can picture it now: i see a girl, scratch my head, put my hand into my back pack, take out the contraband, and look back at the girl, and then freak out and ask for an autograph. but thatd be if she was one at the time.

itd also be cool to tell my sons (when i am older and am a doc) i went to school with the girl in the magazines i told him to hide from his mother