Living in a dorm is considered to be part of the “ultimate college experience.” It is certainly a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, but students often forget there are other options available. Despite its convenience, dorm life pales in comparison to renting an apartment.
College dorms do have their perks. Living away from home can be scary, especially if you don’t know anyone when you go into college. Therefore, the biggest incentive to living in a dorm is the community behind it. Making new friends is certainly easier when crammed into a room full of peers. Additionally, dormitories allow the students to live right on campus. A ten-minute walk to class beats having to take a bus to campus.
However, aside from those two aspects, apartments hold several advantages over dorms. While apartments may be more difficult to find and manage than a dorm, the extra effort is more than worth the benefits. Regardless of how social you may be, sharing an average 14-by-16 room with another person will eventually get old. In an apartment, however, you can have an entire room completely to yourself. Even better, apartments often come with a personal bathroom instead of a public hall bathroom. This difference alone makes apartments luxurious in comparison.
Apartments allow for far more privacy as well as personal utilities. Instead of having to wait for a whole floor of students to finish their laundry, you can clean your clothes in a personal washer and dryer. This privacy also gives students a chance to taste true independence. Without resident advisers barking orders to clean your room, you must take the initiative and clean the space yourself. This initiative takes a maturity that everyone needs to gain before leaving college to truly consider themselves an adult.
Another aspect of adulthood everyone should learn is the ability to cook. With great responsibility comes great food. While students in dorms are restricted to an overpriced meal plan for under-cooked food, those who live in an apartment instead have a kitchen of their own to try their hand at being chefs. Unless you enjoy boiling hot dogs in a coffee pot, cooking options are limited in the confines of a dorm space.
While dorms are convenient, there is a reason only 39 percent of students choose to live in student housing. Apartments are simply a more private, more spacious and, best of all, cheaper alternative. Not only does living in an apartment allow for more freedom, but also the freedom allowed forges skills and practices that prepare you for life outside of college as well.
Ethan Gilberti is a 19-year-old English sophomore from New Orleans, Louisiana.
