Best:
1. No Dining Hall.
No matter how hard you tried to convince yourself those first few weeks of school that the dining hall “wasn’t that bad” you know you couldn’t wait for fall break to get some REAL food. No one actually likes the dining hall and it was the biggest reason I couldn’t wait to move off campus. Congrats for surviving 2+ years of it!
2. Not hearing every move all your neighbors make
Sure, having neighbors is nice, until it’s 3 am and you have class in 5 hours and you’re getting a play by play of their movie night. Or until its Thursday night and the girls upstairs just HAVE to go out while you’re trying to be a good student and all you can hear are the clumsy, tipsy girls stumbling around in heels that they clearly do NOT know how to walk around in. My personal favorite was the girls living above my freshman year room who had a literal stripper pole in their room and we could often hear them fooling around with it, at all hours of the day. At least in the comfort of your own home, the only neighbors you have to worry about is the cute old lady next door and her dog.
3. No communal bathrooms
My sophomore year I was lucky enough to get into a suite, so my roommates and I were able to have our own bathroom; but my freshman year communal bathroom experience was enough to make me NEVER want to share a bathroom with 30 girls again. We were constantly having meetings with our RA about being generally respectful and cleaning up after ourselves, girls would leave CLUMPS of hair on the walls and curtain, it wasn’t uncommon to find toilet paper all over the floor, and another favorite (*insert eyeroll*) was when girls would leave vomit in the toilets. It got so bad at one point that my RA withheld our “privileges” and told the custodial staff not to clean our bathroom any more than was required for a week. After that I couldn’t get out fast enough.
4. Not having to wait hours for empty washers and dryers & not having to worry about your laundry being taken out of the washer/dryer and thrown on the floor.
There was nothing more infuriating than having to do laundry and checking every 20 minutes for hours only to find that there are no washers and dryers empty because someone still hasn’t taken their laundry out. On the flip side, there’s nothing quite like the feeling of complete dread when you realize you completely forgot about your laundry and that it’s been sitting in the washer for 4 hours now…you hope.
5. No 2 AM fire drills
There’s nothing worse than finally settling into bed after a long day of classes, homework, and clubs and the fire alarm going off just as you’ve fallen asleep because someone couldn’t properly make their popcorn.
Worst:
1. Not being able to roll out of bed 10 min before class starts
I am not a morning person at all, so when I went away to college and lived only a 2 minute walk from where my classes were was possibly the BEST part about school. Unfortunately, that all ended abruptly when I moved off campus and now rely on the bus again like a middle schooler and have to leave at least a half hour before class to make sure I’m on time.
2. Grocery shopping
Don’t get me wrong I HATED the dining hall. I ate literally the same 4 things for 2 years straight thanks to my picky eating habits. But, there’s nothing more annoying than grocery shopping. How am I supposed to know what I’m going to want to eat for dinner 2 weeks from now? If you want to make grocery shopping particularly aggravating, go when you’re hungry.
3. Cooking for yourself
This goes hand in hand with grocery shopping. Like I said, I hated the dining hall, but it was sort of nice to not have to do any preparation or work. You just had to go in and swipe your card and the food was all yours. Most of my meals either come from the microwave or consist of a sandwich (usually peanut butter and jelly) because I’m too lazy to actually cook.
4. Paying bills
Talk about feeling like an adult, paying bills?? I still feel like a 13 year old sometimes, how am I supposed to pay bills? Learning how to budget isn’t fun and I am no longer interested in being an adult. Thanks for the offer, though.
5. Commuter parking
This is the exact reason I would much rather take the bus everyday as opposed to driving to school. First of all, paying for a parking spot. I am not paying $100 to not even be guaranteed a spot. And that brings me to my next point. There are only 3 commuter lots, which doesn’t leave very much room for all the commuters to park their cars on campus. The only way to get a spot is if you come to campus super early, and as previously mentioned I hate the mornings. There’s not a more aggravating way to start your morning than not being able to find a spot and being late to class.