After all the heys and yays of getting admitted into college, the next thing is to start planning for college life. While creating your to-plan list, the accommodation has to be a priority. Typically, everyone gets an offer of accommodation in student dorms, but there are actually available alternatives to dorming. While the majority will go for campus accommodation, you should consider a few things before joining the bandwagon.
Just like every other accommodation option, student dorm has its advantages and disadvantages. It’s important to take a look at them before deciding if living in dorms is worth it.
Advantages
- Proximity: Staying in the dorm practically makes everywhere close to everywhere. Thus, you can get ready and get anywhere on campus in less than 1 hour. You can even save yourself the cost of transportation.
- Socialize easily: Staying on campus is being planted among a large bunch of people. The student dorm allows you to meet hundreds of people and learn about their various ways of living. It gives you a myriad of choices from which to pick friends. Student dorms are an interconnected community that could help international students get settled in a new country.
- Find study buddies easily: On-campus, everyone shares one thing in common, and that’s study. In such an environment, it is easy to find a reading partner who shares the same academic goals as you. You don’t have to rack your head over assignment alone since you can brainstorm with your study buddies.
- Good food: Living in student dorms saves the time and stress of cooking. Student dorms practically give you a buffet of delicious and fresh dishes. You are also assured of three-square-meals daily.
Disadvantages
- Noise: Dorming means living with the rowdiest people on earth; teenagers. It’s a season of their lives when they want to explore, discover, and express themselves. Though residence staff tries their best, there’s really nothing you can do about the voices, music, and noise from slamming doors. Dorming stifles the possibility of tranquility and ambiance, especially when you’re trying to catch some sleep or read in your room. Off-campus, you can get a serene environment to work and rest, with little or no noise from juvenile neighbors.
- No privacy: Living in student dorms will mean having a multitude in your room, your bathroom, your kitchen, and even your toilet. You don’t even get the chance to choose your own roommates. What’s worse is that you may have to cope with roommates that are saucy, noisy, or even smokers. You can hardly have some time to yourself or a little bit of personal space in the dorm. Everything you own is at risk of being borrowed by one roommate or the other, and the risk of these things not being returned intact is even higher. Using community toilets in dorms also exposes you to toilet infections.
- Room checks and laundry struggles: Dorming has a way of reminding you that you’re not independent. In student dorms, residence staff comes to check your room from time to time. This is to ensure that it’s tidy and free of any hazardous substances. You also have to worry about doing your laundry, especially if all the washers are full, with no one to claim the clothes in them. Staying off campus gives you the right to live without being checked by anyone. You can also get your laundry easily.
Most importantly, other alternatives can replicate almost every advantage that comes with student dorms. One of these alternatives is co-living. Off-campus co-living arrangements provide ambiance privacy and independence. Some co-living apartments are quite close to the campus. This makes it easy to socialize and get study buddies. Depending on your agreement with your roommates, you can eat or have a cooking roaster. By all standards, Co-living is the best alternative for dorms.
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