College living arrangements Part I: Dorms

Living arrangements tend to be an afterthought when you begin your college career and obsession from your sophomore year on. Whether you're living at home or striking out on your own to find housing, you're in for an adventure.
If you are able to live on campus, your options are usually limited to the college's dormitories. Dorms usually come with a lot of nice amenities. First, you can't beat the commute since you're on campus all the time. Second, housekeeping service is usually included so you don't have to worry if your room gets user-friendly around finals. Of course, dorm life isn't perfect. The downsides? Most public universities seem to think hiring prison architects is the thing to do when it comes to building modern dorms. They aren't usually very pretty. It's a good idea to go on a campus tour if possible so you can actually see the facilities. However, many colleges now offer video tours. Unfortunately, you don't get a good sense of the space or the sounds and smells of the dorm.

The downsides of dorm life:

• You can't usually pick your roommate and the "system" the residence life folks use to match people is usually based on a questionnaire both of you filled out with a parent hanging over your shoulder. In other words, it's based on bullshit.
• For some crazy reason, residence life professionals think eating is important in college, so you usually have to buy a meal plan as part of your housing. This can get pricey and the food is usually terrible. Also, be sure to ask about when the dining halls close. Sometimes, they actually shut down over holiday weekends. Lame, right? Better to know in advance than not.
• Shared bathrooms. It's bad enough sharing a bathroom with one roomy, but in a dorm, it's not unusual for 20 people to share a bathroom. Don't freak out just yet; in situations like that, it's a really big bathroom, but you know those wonderful rituals you like to perform in private like zit popping and face masks? Not happening.
• Noise. In a dorm, you have a lot of people living together, and a lot of them are really hyper. Consequently, if you want a quiet place to study, you usually need to look elsewhere.
• Smells. Some dorms have garbage chutes. If your room is near the bottom of one, guess who gets a nose full of garbage all the time?
• Being around freshmen all the time. First year students are wonderful people. They really are. I just don't want to live around them. You know how puppies have that funny walk because they haven't figured out how to coordinate all four legs yet? Freshmen are kind of like that only with basic life skills. They eat like pregnant women (as in a lot and with bizarre combinations), but they live life with the abandon of someone with one week left to live. Fun? Yes. Cute? Perhaps. Annoying? Oh yes. Once you're a sophomore, living around the freshmen will not sound so good.

What's good about the dorm?

• Only students at your school can live there. If you go for off-campus housing, you could be living next to anybody which is kind of cool, unless that somebody happens to be a real freak.
• Conduct is subject to the College's disciplinary policy. This can be a mixed one, but overall, I think it's a plus. Colleges don't like law suits, so if your roommate goes wacko on you, the residence life staff is highly motivated to take immediate action and at least separate you. Off campus, you need to seek justice through the appropriate legal authorities, and that can be time consuming and costly. On the downside, as we've seen with sexual assault cases on campuses, you may be pressured to downplay the severity of anything bad that happens in the dorm. I'm a strong believer in the idea that if someone commits a crime and it puts you in danger, the police should be involved. Residence Life people don't like that, but too bad. In summary: know that the college will usually support you if something goes bad between you and your roommate, but remember that you need to look out for yourself in the end.
• Being close to your classes, labs, and the libraries. You're more likely to use all of those resources if you're close to them, and you don't have to get up early or drive anywhere.
• Housekeeping service (usually).
• As a first year student, living with other people who are going through the same transition you're facing.