As a first year student at UND, you're required to live on campus for the first full academic year, and every year after it is 'strongly encouraged'. It certainly is nice being close to your classes (especially if you sleep in too late) and the dining centers, however, there are plenty of things they don't tell you while building up the dorms' reputation during the tours and orientation. While for some it is a positive living arrangement for the college experience, you're not cued in on some of the drawbacks until you're immersed in dorm life, such as:
1. After Orientation and Move-In: the dreaded 'Icebreakers'
In an attempt to further the bond of the dorm "community" the RA's from each floor generally hold meetings with their first (or second, etc.) year residents throughout the school year to go over policies, events, and more. My least favorite of these by far was the first one, the invasive "Icebreakers". These get-to-know-you's akin to the first day of class start out basic, where you're from, your major, and standard things like this. From there, depending on your RA the questions may get progressively more awkward and/or you're thrust into "fun" games like the Human Knot or something along those lines with people you met less than an hour ago, often times in the middle of a public area like the quad or dorm hallway.
2. Rolling the Dice with your Roommate
Now for those who already knew their roommate before they moved in, this is not as apparent an issue. But if you start out your first, etc. year with a randomly assigned roommate, it's great to stay optimistic, but usually the scale is not tipped in your favor. The general consensus I've noticed is that when it comes to randoms, you either love them or hate them, no in-between, and it's often the latter - for me, this was both my Freshman and Sophomore year experiences. But even if you room with people you've known previously, all bets may be off, too. Friends of mine who have lived with people they knew previously discovered they did not really know them until they lived with them.
3. Strategic Studying
Carve out a place other than your room or dorm to study. On multiple occasions throughout my on-campus living experience I found it increasingly difficult to study within the confines of my dormitory. I learned quickly if I really wanted to get something done, another place on campus was probably better, even despite being in the Honors' dorms. With the possible exception of your dorm room there are almost always people continuously passing through as a distraction; you might get asked to go eat or hang out and might easily welcome the distraction and procrastination. There are also events and meetings that happen within the dorms that take up space and time. And most importantly there is often an abundance of noise, which you likely can't control, bringing me to my next point....
4. Up in Flames
I think I discovered more quickly than anything else that the dorms inevitably became notorious for one re-occurrence: fire alarms. Most commonly at night, usually after 10 P.M., I counted at least 8 fire alarms that went off during my first year in Johnstone-Fulton Hall. People pulled them for fun, set them off by destroying our floor's microwave with an overcooked bag of popcorn, and caused other cooking mishaps like scorching bacon in the ground floor's kitchenettes.
5. Laundry
Laundry was one of the more frustrating aspects of dorm life (third to #2 and #4, though). The ratio of washers and dryers to students and their laundry always seemed to be off, especially when one person was tying up three machines on their own. It became a lot easier to just drive home and do laundry - this is one college stereotype that is very real.
Though I did have some good moments in the dorms, by and large I couldn't wait to get off campus after my Sophomore (and getting a single apartment was the smartest thing I've done in that realm thus far), but living off campus comes with its own set of caveats as well...
