Dorm or Apartment for Rent?

Ah, college dormitories—havens of hedonism, homework help (and distractions), and the inevitable hellish noises. Campus-area apartments for college students are filled with people you don’t know and who don’t want to know you, far enough from campus to discourage class attendance, and not guaranteed to be much quieter or cleaner than a dormitory. So which should you pick as a college student? Let’s explore in detail some drawbacks and benefits of both options.

A built-in social life

Because dorms often match up roommates and floormates by shared characteristics like gender, class year, or course of study, you’ll often have at least something in common with your floormates. If nothing else, you’ll have lack of friends in common your first year, and will be able to make some lasting buddies. While you might meet a person or two in your apartment complex, there’s nothing like sharing a living room, kitchen, or bathroom to force you to interact with others. And you’re almost guaranteed to have at least one class in common with at least one person on your floor, so you can have a buddy to walk you to class—where you’re guaranteed to meet even more people.

Living in a dormitory can also provide increased motivation (theoretically, at least…) to go to class. If you’re confronted with a throng of classgoers when you stumble out of bed to brush your teeth, you’ll be more driven to actually get dressed and show up to class rather than just crawl back into bed. Moreover, if you live in the dorms, you’ll most likely have people to knock on your door when it’s time to head to class, or to help you with notes or homework if you miss a day or don’t understand what’s happening in a particular course. In your apartment, however, you could sleep right through class and never know it, and you’ll have to schedule a catch-up session with friends—you can’t just head down the hall. And, depending on the nature of your apartment complex, your neighbors might be downright unfriendly—few people share the unusual hours of a college student, and even fewer will be pleased about your all-night ragers, even if you’re nice enough to invite them.

Culinary considerations (and community)

Since some kind of meal plan is usually included with your dormitory plan, not being able to use the communal kitchen due to dish disasters isn’t necessarily a major drawback of dorm life. It’s hard to understand the time it takes to shop for and prepare decent meals until you have to do it yourself. Having a meal plan is not only convenient and time saving; it also provides an excellent opportunity for socialization. Sharing lukewarm cafeteria pizza may not seem like an ideal bonding experience, but many of your friendships will be formed or strengthened by eating together. Even though college is busy, eating is always necessary, so mealtime is a good excuse for taking a break from your studies to chat with friends. Having friends over to your apartment for dinner is certainly feasible, but it’s also more time-consuming for you, the cook, and difficult to arrange. Not much beats being able to grab essentially free (or at least already-paid-for) grub on campus between classes. On the other hand, there’s also something to be said for having more control over your food options, and the ability to prepare food the way you like it. Depending on your level of pickiness and the extent to which you’ve developed an aversion to cafeteria food, the meal plan that comes with campus living can be a deal maker or a deal breaker.

Cleanliness is next to… impossible?

In addition to convenient access to the cafeteria and other campus facilities (library, sports center, and so on), campus living also provides an extremely valuable service: janitorial staff. While nobody’s going to clean your room or do your dishes for you, dorm dwellers are usually guaranteed at least minimally clean toilets, sinks, and floors. This might not seem like much, but when you’ve carefully navigated through the disaster that is your apartment living room only to step on petrified jelly that your roommate dropped on the kitchen floor two weeks ago, you might long for the days when someone came by several times a week with a mop.

Being in a dorm can also make it easier to get access to cleaning supplies like a broom or vacuum for tidying up your own room. Rather than buying one, you can probably use a communal cleaning implement, saving yourself some money and hassle. At the same time, however, dorms are kept only very minimally clean. A messy roommate or a messy common room can be annoying for those who like things neat. If you start thinking you’ll scream the next time you find the dorm sink clogged with someone’s nasty leftovers, getting your own apartment might be the best option for you. You’ll have more control over your surroundings, and if things are messy, at least it’s your fault and you can address the situation promptly (that is, unless you have the dreaded messy roommate…).

It’s not where you live, it’s who you live with (…or is it?)

The roommate situation is always a sticky one. You can make a lifelong friend or a lifelong enemy with any roommate, but especially the one you have your freshman year. Because your first-year roommate is often based on random chance or random assignment, rather than self-selection, there’s potential for a lot of conflict or a lot of common interests. If you have an awful roommate, you can always request to live elsewhere; if the situation is seriously dire, you can probably stay with a friend temporarily. If you can work out your roommate difficulties, though, you should be able to have a fun experience living in the dorms.

Moreover, even if you decide to live with a friend in an apartment, that doesn’t guarantee your living styles will be compatible. Your friend might be outrageously fun at a party, but might be outrageously messy at home—not to mention irritatingly irresponsible about paying bills. Living with a friend can also be detrimental to your studies, as you might spend all your time hanging out instead of doing work. Even though it might not seem appealing in theory, having a roommate who’s friendly but not your best friend could be helpful in enabling you to take school seriously and balance work with socializing.

Bills, bills, bills…

Apartment living can also be more complicated than dorm life. Not only do you have to pay monthly rent, but there are also energy bills, water bills, cable bills, and more. All this accounting may be more than you want to handle at this point in your life. Unless you have a steady source of income, or your parents are kind enough to help you out, you might want to avoid committing yourself to paying staggering monthly fees just to survive. In the dorms, the lights are always on, the internet is always speedy, and you never have to worry about the heat being shut off, because the college (not you) is footing the bill.

The bottom line

Both dorm and apartment living have their advantages and drawbacks. It’s up to you to decide which fits best with you as an individual who needs to get things done on campus and off. It’s probably worth your while to give dorm living a try for a year or at least a semester—if you don’t, you won’t be able to identify with your classmates’ complaints or their tales of spontaneous 3 a.m. study break dance parties in the common room. If dorm living isn’t right for you, you’ll figure it out pretty quickly—but you’ll never know for sure unless you give it a try.