Living in a dorm can be great. You get to meet a bunch of new people and you don't have to drive to class. But living in a dorm also has a lot of downfalls. Here are 7 of the worst things about living in a dorm.
1. Upstairs neighbors.
The floor/ceilings of dorms are surprisingly thin. Every time someone jumps off their bed or walks heavily or does the dirty, you can hear it loud and clear.
2. Doors?
Usually, doors are pretty thick, but not in dorms. If I sit on my bed, I can hear every conversation people passing have. I have heard a lot of random gossip.
3. The bathrooms.
Some dorms have suite styles, where it's a couple of rooms sharing one bathroom, but my dorm is communal style. This means that the whole floor shares one bathroom with multiple stalls and showers. This sounds nice because you don't have to worry about cleaning your bathroom, but it also sucks sometimes. Like when you have to listen to someone throw up on a nice Sunday morning.
4. Laundry.
Doing laundry can be nice in dorms because you don't have to walk far, but, like most things, it also has its downfalls. Sometimes, none of the washers or dryers work. Sometimes, you pay to put your clothes in the dryer and then go back an hour later and find that someone took your clothes out and stole the rest of the time on the dryer.
5. Roommates.
Roommates kind of kill some of the fun of being in college. It's sort of like having a parent that always runs on the opposite schedule. You're trying to sleep, they're trying to write four papers. You're allergic to shellfish and all they eat is shrimp.
6. Not having control over the A/C.
They put the little thermostat in the room as a placebo. They make you think that whatever temperature you on is the temperature that the room is. But it is not. It is freezing cold in the summer and a million degrees in the summer.
7. The amount of space.
Dorm rooms are incredibly small. They are laughably small. How do they expect us to fit six books that have over a thousand pages each on a desk that is the size of a cracker box? Trying to fit all of the things that you own in half a 10-by-10 room is difficult and will make you greatly value the room you have at home.
Living in a dorm is a right of passage for many people going to college. It is your first taste of living alone and can be great at times. The RAs usually have some kind of event going on that usually involves free food. It's nice to be able to go to bed when you want and leave empty water bottles on your desk for a month because there is no one there to tell you not too. Please do not let these 7 little things scare you off. Living in a dorm has been an overall great experience and it has really help me become more patient with people and has taught me how to be a more considerate person.
