Heyylloo Blogger World! How is everyone doing today? As an incoming freshman to college, I am documenting that journey on this blog as well as providing insight for all the teens like me, who will one day stand in the battlefield of College applications and registration. I considered doing this post after numerous peers told me, they had chose to dorm for college. Me on the other hand. I chose not to. So today I will present to you the Ups and Downs of either choice, this way you can make the best decision for yourself!Alot of students has adopted this fantasy of dorms being this freedom away from home, and that dorms are just like the disney movies, and that everything will be rainbows and flowers. Really think critically in to the situation. Dorming looks fun, and it is fun. But is it worth it with all the hassle it comes with. When you dorm, realize you have to cook, clean, launder, as well pay your bills, and study. That is practically alot for a college student who has a low wage job and has a grade to sustain. Keep in mind many dorms do not come with ovens , or mini fridges, or a personal bathroom. Most everything is shared. So if you are the kind of person, who values privacy and freedom....dorms are not for you.
You will end up lugging your laundry around, waiting in lines to have it done, waking up and cooking, using either a microwave or hot plate, and using processed, unhealthy, instant cook food. You will end up cleaning after messy roommates, or having your already small space trampled by someone else. You will most likely end up sharing a bathroom. And, if you love your shower regime, say goodbye to that. Now you will have to share the bathroom and other people will put their soaps, shampoos, and beauty products in there as well. You will have to wait to pee, if there is a line at the door. You will end up pretty much using the dryer to get the wrinkles out of your clothes, since there will be no provided iron and board. You will have to fork out money for internet connection, grocery, cleaning products, and basic house care needs. If you get into trouble or fall ill, your family is too far to give immediate help. You have no medical insurance or medicinal help in a dorm, as your local doctor as back in your hometown. You will have so much piled on to your head along with actually getting your work done.
Now that sounded very negative and anti-dorm. But that was a snapshot of the reality of living by yourself in a few foots worth of space along with other students. Now here is the good side for dorming. If you dorm, you will learn responsibility, you will become more mature and self sufficient. You will learn so many cooking, laundry, and shopping hacks, that will be of use in adult life. Dorms in a sense, force you to grow up. Since you are your own, everything is liable on you. Dorms also allow you to learn sharing and cooperation, you also make more memories than a Non-dorm student. You get to connect with the campus, go on crazy adventures, live a little and break a few rules, no one is there to stop you. You get to make friends and end up becoming like a family with your fellow dorm residents. You can go anywhere you want, do and eat as you please. Its like being in your own world, where what you say goes. You get go to parties and actually experience a very vibrant social life and have the most fun you have ever had. That dorm becomes like a home for you, and the college campus becomes your new neighborhood.
While those are the opposing sides of dorming, here is a glimpse of staying at home and being a commuter student. For starters, your bills are paid for. You can use the internet at home, sleep in your room in you comfortable bed. You don't have to share with strangers, you aren't forking out thousands to pay for a small box of a room, called a dorm. You can stay in your home town, no home sickness. You come home and do your work in your little place, you get to study more and focus more. There is no crazy partying or crazy students to distract you. There is food on the table, and ease at home. There is a tv, wifi, refrigerator, oven, washing machine, all you can need at home. You have little worries for grocery, or bills, or running to be first in line at the bathroom. You can shower when you please, eat when you please, you don't have to follow school rules at home, or have to eat dining hall meals. You can live your life as you have been used to, in ease and comfort at home. There is no extra added stress or an extra price tag to living at home, like you always did. It is alot more comfy to come home and take a nap, to do homework and studying in your little bedroom. Its all yours and its all familiar. Plus, your parents or family are right by you, so if any trouble occurs, you have backup.
But staying at home can have drawbacks as well. For instance, you don't get to do the crazy partying or have as a vibrant social life. Your parents can still instill rules and chores on you, you are still under their custody. You will not get the totally free essence that dorms have. You will have to commute to your college, which can be painstakingly strenuous at times. You will still have to put up with your siblings or crazy family. You will not get a change of lifestyle and you won't get to be as involved on campus. You won't be able to make as many new friends or make as many memories as someone living at college. You will still have to make it home on time and wake up on time to get to class. You will be stuck in your same little town and not be having those new experiences as the rest. Drawbacks on any situation depend on your home life and family. But this is the basic overview.
Now that I have laid down just the few of the many scenarios that can occur in either type of residency, it is up to you to weight the outcomes and choose. Personally, what I recommend is that you stay home for your bachelors. Bachelor degrees are 4 year degrees that are the mere stepping stone to go ahead to get a masters or go to a special school, like medical school. Bachelors are very primary degrees and many students aspire to go ahead in a career. By staying home during your bachelor years, it will be an easier transition into college, and you save loads of money. That loads of money saved comes to use when you decide to go for a masters or medical/pharmacy/dentistry school. Master degrees have very low seating available, so the chances of you being accepted to an out of state college are very high, thus eventually you will have to dorm. It is better to stay at home on your first degree and then move out for your higher degrees. Higher degrees usually require a move out anyway, since they will be in faraway colleges or require residency programs.
That was just my little bit on the matter. I hope this post offered some insight to the situation on both sides. It is totally subjective, it depends on how far you will go, how many years of school you choose, and your family or home life. Regardless, make the most of your college years, they are an emblem of your youth at the finest. It doesn't come around again. It is one of the most awaited times of your life that will be gone in a blink of an eye. Enjoy it!
Thankyou for reading!
-ISBAH xoxo
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