At Michigan State University, you are required to live on-campus in the dormitory halls for your first two years- with some exceptions. Although I was a part of the students permitted to live off campus after freshman year, my roommate wasn’t. So, I decided to stay with her for an extra year in the dorms.
As a junior this year, I was finally able to move out into an apartment off-campus for the first time. It was so exciting to be able to have my own space decorated and adjusted to my own preferences! However, once the school year started, a few days after moving in, I started to notice some stark differences between dorm living and apartment living- which were not all positive.
Here are some pros and cons of living in off-campus housing that I’ve noticed so far:
Con: All my classes are so much further.
All of the buildings where I attend classes are much further away than before since I now live off-campus. This means I had to reconsider my mode of transportation multiple times, since my classes are now double the distance to travel than when I was living in the dorms. Everything is still pretty far away, even though there are some shortcuts to take when walking to cut down the total walking time.
Pro: I got to bring my car up to college.
Living off-campus means cooking your own food and meals, which means grocery shopping. As an out-of-state student living nine hours away from campus, my parents were a little hesitant when I told them that I wanted to bring my car to college. However, when I told them I would need a car to access grocery stores and bring all of the food back to my apartment, my parents agreed. On top of that, it’s nice going somewhere I need without having to pay for an Uber, bothering my friends who have cars for a ride, or walking over half an hour to get to the location.
Con: I have to wake up earlier to get to my classes on time.
For some classes, I’ve been using my car as transportation. At MSU, there is a commuter lot you can park at. A bus comes to the lot and takes you to the middle of campus. This commuter lot happened to be the closest one to a building where I have multiple classes, so I purchased a parking pass for that lot. I have to get ready, drive to the lot, wait for the bus that only comes roughly every 15 minutes, take that bus, and walk to class from the bus stop. Getting ready now takes a lot more time than it did when I lived in the dorms and only had a short walk to a bus station. In order to avoid being late, I leave an hour and twenty minutes before my class starts. As a result, I have to get up at least two and a half hours before my class even starts. This directly affects my sleep schedule, which was hard to adjust to at first, since it’s now much earlier than I’d like it to be.
Pro: I have my own space to decorate however I’d like.
Being in the dorms meant that the entire room was shared. The half of the room I had in the already tiny dorm room was hard to decorate to its potential. It never really felt “homey” to me. I also didn’t want to overstep into my roommate’s side of the room. I didn’t end up decorating all that much anyway. With my own room this year, I was able to decorate every inch and really make the place feel like home.
Con: There are no Combo-X-Changes.
At MSU, Combo-X-Changes are a part of the meal plans, which consist of an A-item (drink), a B-item (entree) and a C-item (snack). They can be purchased at any of the Sparty’s mini market locations. You get 12 combos per week, which can be used with any combination of A, B and C items. These really came in handy when I felt too tired or busy to go to the dining halls, or even in between classes to fill me up before classes. However, now that I’m living off campus, I don’t have a meal plan and didn’t select the option to pay for a set number of combos. Now, I’m left with just the memories of how nice the combos were.
Pro: I can have my own schedule for sleeping, doing homework, etc.
In the dorms, I felt like my roommate and I tried to line up our sleeping and homework schedules, so we wouldn’t bother each other. It wasn’t really an issue for us, as we had similar schedules coming into MSU anyways. However, it was still a consideration we both discussed beforehand. We prioritized lining our schedules up so that the person who stayed up late doing homework or anything else didn’t disturb the other person who was sleeping. Now that we live in an apartment, this wasn’t something my roommates and I had to discuss prior to living together. We all have separate rooms and spaces to do whatever we want, even when those things may not line up with the others’ schedules.
After living off-campus for over a month, these are the pros and cons I have experienced. Although there are some things I miss about living on-campus, I still think it’s nice “graduating” to off-campus living. I’m excited to experience all the great things about living off-campus, after experiencing all the great things about living on-campus.