Posted on April 8th, 2009 in University
I’m going to be moving into an apartment soon, and I thought that I’d help out any incoming freshman (at any university) who may be considering staying in the dorms. Here’s my top reasons why I cannot wait to get the hell out of here. This is based upon dorms that are set up in what I’d consider the “classic” way – you share a single room with one other person with community bathrooms.
- No matter what they tell you, your room will not be that big. Especially when you consider that you are sharing the room with another person, and more than likely you will both bring lots of crap, and all of these things will result in a very limited amount of space.
- You will have to deal with another person who will, unless you’re very lucky, have a schedule unlike your’s and you will have to deal with them waking up much earlier than you, trashing the room, coming back to the room drunk (and I’ve heard stories of drunken roommates barfing all over the room). In my case specifically one of my former roommates was a theatre major who, forgive me, was obviously in a much easier curriculum than me, who is in the college of engineering.
- Your roommate will probably not have the same standards of cleanliness as you. My theatre roommate that I mentioned previously was especially nasty – and I have photos to prove it. She would leave pizza containers and food on her desk for literally months, and only cleaned up when she had to before breaks when the RAs would check the rooms.
- Your roommate will probably not have the same standards of decency as you. For instance, my theatre roommate liked to sit around the room with only a shirt on. She also liked to talk loudly on the phone about her sex life, and proclaim that all women felt like she did. Hmm.
- Your roommate will probably not like the same music as you. Since my theatre roommate is making such a good example, I will use her again. She absolutely loved musicals. I think musicals are the spawn of satan. I would be listening to my music, she would come into the room and start blaring her shit at top volume with apparent disregard for whatever I was doing.
- Most dorms are completely overpriced, no matter what they tell you at orientation, tours, whatever. I found out that my dorm equates to about $800 a month (but this includes food and all utilities except for TV). However, I can get an apartment for $200 a month that includes all utilities except for electricity. Unless I’m eating $600 worth of food or using $600 electricity, I fail to see how that’s a bargain.
- Dorms force you out on breaks. Nevermind that you’ve already paid the monthly ‘rate’ in the form of a massive prepayment at the beginning of the semester. This makes it hard to get a job if they know you won’t be there for a month over Christmas break, and Thanksgiving break, etc.
- The cafeteria is hardly ever what it’s cracked up to be. Our cafeteria in particular has okay food, but you have to wait in horrendous lines and deal with crappy hours. You end up scheduling your whole day around what time you can manage to go and eat there, and get the food you had already paid for. I should also mention that the food is grossly overpriced: a meal at our cafeteria equates to $8. For a ham sandwich, milk, Koolaid, and chips. What a bargain.
- Freshman congregate in dorms. I don’t like to stereotype by age, but there are a larger number of freshman in the dorms who have their parents pay for everything and this generally equates to them being spoiled brats who care nothing about others around them. No, RAs will probably not come to your rescue when they decide to rampage up and down the halls at 4 a.m. screaming, and when you ask them to be quiet because you have a 7:30 a.m. class or work, they won’t give a shit – or at least the spoiled brats in my hallway never did.
- The dorms reek of the same sort of crap you’d have to deal with if you had stayed at home to go to college. I have to ask permission to use the kitchen, I have to sign in guests (it’s my room that I’ve already paid for, why do I have to ask permission if I can have someone in the room???), I receive a penalty if I lock myself out of my room too many times (nevermind the fact it costs them nothing to loan me the key so I can get my key out of the room, as long as the spare is returned there is no cost involved), the entire floor gets called into a meeting if a few people decide to do something stupid like smoke weed in the trash room, and if I come back to the dorms too late I have to “check in” with the front desk even if I was just gone for 10 minutes to get something from the quick shop. Oh, and we have to have all pets registered with the front desk, we have to have our computers registered before we can connect to the network, and you’re supposed to get permission from your roommate before you have any friends over to the room. If I wanted to deal with so much permission-asking and general crap I would have stayed at home.
Some people have tried to tell me that the dorms are a “learning experience” that is or will be very valuable later. Total bullshit. Having to put up with the crap listed here inhibits doing what you came to college to do – learn about your field. The stress I’ve had because of this stuff only makes it harder to focus on your classes and do what you need to do. The only thing the dorms have that is positive in my opinion is that they make it easier to meet new people. However, you can do that at the student union any day and not have to pay upwards of $3,000 to do so.
Wow, ..lol.
I’ve never much like the idea of a ‘dorm’.
But this seems to be a little more of a rant then a guide lol xD
I feel so fortunate to not have to live on campus, I really ought to IM you more often to rub it in
jks jks
Hope you have a better time in your new apartment ~.^
Take care.
~ dumpling
wow lol i hate how i went turing in some colleges and they must have lied to me they said that they had maids and shit but i didnt see any when i wen and yeh some people are arsholes and dont even give their roomates the time of day to STFU i get pissed at these people and it sux when you really need sleep but cant cause of the fuck-faces jamming in the whee hours of the night. its like come on! >.>
All so true! Yet… I’m not sure why I signed up for another year of dorming…
Glad, I only lived in them for 2 trimesters at my university. I feel your pain, glad to hear you will be getting your own place.
Cindy
Everyone talks about how much they hate the dorms, but for the most part everyone is happy they did it. It’s your first year of college, most of the time, you know NO ONE, so the dorms are the perfect place to start. Personally, I’m glad it is over but I wouldn’t have changed it for anything else. I’ve met some of my best college friends there and would not have done so without it.
@Chicago MBA Program (why do people have such obvious spam names…?): I’m actually a sophomore and this is my second year in the dorms, unfortunately. I’m sure there are a good chunk of people who would say they’re happy that they went the dorm route – it’s probably the easier transition from home to college. However, at least at my university, when you’re a senior in high school talking to school reps about coming to their school they will talk of nothing but good things about the dorms (as outlined in my post) which almost all turn out to be lies. You get so little for the huge amount you pay for it’s almost a form of false advertisement, in my opinion. In the event that you get stuck with a horrible roommate you’re going to end up spending so much time dealing with that instead of doing what you came there for (studying, learning, whatever) that I hardly see a plus… You could say that if your roommate was that bad that you could just camp out at the library, but then what the hell are you paying $3,000 a semester for?
I concur that I’ve met a lot of neat people through the dorms, but in most cases these are people I would have met anyway through my curriculum. I maintain that things probably would have turned out similarly had I started out in an apartment and not the dorms.
hi =). i must say that i totally agree with all you said there. i can’t believe i’ve lived through it for a year. all the annoyances just add to my stress. i hate one of my roommates. i can’t wait to move out. dormlife is a totally useless experience. and the living condition isn’t even that great. smells. noises. i paid for housekeeping service but they still make me clean the room and empty the trash when i leave for breaks. i wish i found out about the negative side of dorms before i signed the contract :-/
The dorm I was in wasn’t nearly as bad as what you’ve described. Don’t get me wrong, my roommate was a slob (I have pictures to prove it as well). She washed her sheets TWICE in 9 months, cleaned for winter break, spring break and actual move out move out. Who cares if you have to clean your own room, housekeeping is cleaning the bathroom and the hallways. And.. it’s real life. Isn’t it?
You have to deal with crap from people, and get along with them to an extent. But if you have such obvious differences, talk about it. Don’t let it go undiscussed, it’ll only get worse. And advice, don’t insult the person you live with’s major – I’m not a theatre major myself, I’m and art major.
@Jeni: You know, I would have talked to her about it – except she always came stumbling in around 1 am. And slept in far past when I had to get up. I’m so tired of the “just get over it” mentality – again, at least at my dorm – you pay upwards of $800 a month to “get over it” which is more than just a tad bit ridiculous. I had no qualms about cleaning up MY OWN mess, but I’m not cleaning up after some other slob who I have the misfortune of living with. You DO have to deal with crap from people in real life but they [the PR/marketing people for the dorms] need to come clean about what you have to put up with, and that this crap you have to put up with IS NOT conducive with being a college student. I’ve been stuck with the worst of the worst of roommates and I’m not at college to babysit … I’m at college to learn.
I just think that the “learning experience” from being in the dorms is completely overrated. The only good things that I’ve heard from people about what they got from the dorms were a few friends… that’s it.
I wasn’t attempting to “insult” anyone’s major – if you seriously, honestly, 100% think that someone who is a theatre major is in the same boat as someone who is in an engineering degree, then you have no idea what you’re talking about. At all.