Should I Live in the Dorms?

When I first started looking at colleges I wanted to attend after high school there was one local and one school about 400 miles away from where I lived. After visiting the distant school it became fairly obvious that it was a commuter school and if I was going to be living on campus, I would be one of the few. If I had to commute to school, I would much rather stay in an area that I was already familiar with, so I applied to the school about 20 mins from where I currently lived.

After applying my Mom asked if I was going to stay in the dorms. I hadn’t really even thought of that as an option at the time. I just figured I would commute to classes each day. I began to look into the dorms and the more I researched them, the more I wanted to stay there. I was one of the lucky ones who had Grandparents that put away money for me to go to school, so if I wanted to stay there I had money to do it.

I ended up deciding to stay in the dorms in college and it was one of the best decisions of my life! To this day, many of the good friends I have, were people I met in the dorms. When living in the dorms you are almost forced to interact with people you normally would not. You share the study rooms, the cafeteria, your room and possibly the restrooms. My dorm was set up as a “suite” of six rooms. There were three, two person rooms on each side. The three rooms on each side were separated by a restroom and a study room. There are also several events put on at the dorms. You attend campus sporting events together, movie nights and even special shows where they bring hypnotists in to make fools out of your new friends.

I know not everyone will have the funds to choose to live on campus. However, if you have the option and can afford it, I highly recommend it. The stories I have and the friends I made in the dorms were worth every penny.