Dorm living is an essential part of the college experience. However, there comes a point where you have to give up dorm life and move on to apartment living. Dorms are a good transition space; you live on your own, away from your parents probably for the first time, but you don’t have to worry about food, cleaning or any other “adult” responsibilities. I recently got an on-campus apartment here at E-town, so I wanted to share some of the best parts of apartment living to encourage those who may be slightly hesitant about moving up to a new living space.
1. More Space
One of the biggest benefits of apartment living is the amount of space you get. Where in dorms you get one room and a bunch of shared common spaces, in an apartment you and your roommates get your own space. Here at E-town the on-campus apartments each have two bedrooms, a living area, a bathroom and a kitchen that is shared between four people. That’s a lot more space than what is offered in the dorms. Also, since all of the space is actually yours, not yours and the other 20 people that live on your floor’s, you get to utilize the space more and fill it with your things.
2. Less Sharing
As previously stated, when you live in an apartment, you have much more space to yourself, which means that you have to share much less when living in an apartment than in a dorm. In dorms, there can often be upwards of ten people sharing one bathroom space. Living in an apartment means you only have to share with the people you’re living with. Therefore, you only have to share with the people you choose, not every person that gets randomly assigned to the same floor as you. Also, having less people allows you to form a closer bond with those that you are living with; my roommates and I always sit in our living room watching Catfish or Shark Tank, while eating popcorn and talking.
3. Ability to Decorate
Going along with the idea that all the space in an apartment is yours, you get to decorate your living area much more freely. Everyone knows how prison-like dorm rooms can look, and the living areas can be even worse. When you live in an apartment, you have the ability to branch out your decorations to more than just your room, making every space that you usually spend time in look less dingy and boring.
4. Kitchen
One of the biggest selling points on an apartment for me was the ability to make my own food. While our main cafeteria, the Marketplace, often has good food, some meals can start to feel repetitive, and sometimes you just crave something they don’t serve. Plus, it can get annoying have to go all the way down to our student center, the BSC, and deal with giant crowds of people in the Marketplace for your meals every day. Also, what happens when you’re pulling an all-nighter and you get hungry when everything is closed? Having your own kitchen makes it easier to eat whatever you want, whenever you want. While most of the dorms on campus have kitchens that you can use in the common areas of the dorm buildings, they’re very small and it’s just easier to have a kitchen that you can keep stocked with all your food all the time.
5. Learn Responsibility
The apartments here are a part of the school’s on-campus housing, which means rent, electricity and other amenities aren’t a concern for those living there. However, living in the apartments still allows residents to become more responsible. Planning out meals and shopping is a major aspect of living in an apartment, that prepares you for the real world. Other major part of living in an apartment is cleaning for yourself. Buying cleaning supplies and planning out when to clean and making sure you actually clean up after yourself is incredibly important and will help you learn to be more responsible in the future.