Close to classes, conveniently staying on campus, eat food whenever you want to, have people to clean up after you during over the long breaks, and fair prices that basically match the prices of renting a house or room in an apartment around the campus. What's better than living in college dorm rooms with a few friends and having people living close by? The truth can't be farther from what most people would expect out of college dorms. I'll be listing some of the bad features of living in a dorm with roommates and floor mates.
One of the worst things in college dorms are the bathrooms. It might be better if you live in a suite or have a bathroom in your room, but for most people we use community bathrooms where the whole floor uses a few bathrooms that are available. Beside the fact that you have to share bathrooms with 10 other people, you don't know what's in store for you when you go into the bathroom. You might find not flushed toilets, sinks filled with shavings, shower rooms that has unknown liquid flooding, or puddles of stains that you know you don't want to touch. Community bathrooms also have a bad reputation of being clean and the smell of community bathrooms aren't exactly pleasant. Half of the toilet paper I use in the bathroom are for cleaning the toilet seat and making sure none of my skin is physically touching the bathroom. Specifically for me our showers always have a puddle of water around the shower and the shower only has two temperature settings: boiling water or freezing water.
The excessive security system is also a terrible feature for college dorms. Imagine having an emergency and you need to go to the bathroom right this moment; you would have to use your ID card to swipe into your dorm, swipe into the stairs for some dorms, swipe into the floor that you are looking for, and finally reach the bathroom. By that time your bladder has either exploded or you're running back to your room to have your pants changed. In all due honesty, the security system isn't all that great when I could literally follow someone into the dorm after they swipe in.
Noise distractions and quiet hours are also a big minus to college dorms. If you need to study and your roommate or floor mates start to have a party and get really loud, you have the option of either moving to a quieter spot or tell them to shut up which it seems that neither option is optimal. Sometimes you want to stay up late to do something but your roommates are sleeping and you don't want to wake them up so you'll end up spending most of your time trying not to wake them rather than doing actual work. When we wake up our alarms would always wake up the wrong person first before the person that's suppose to get up wakes up, so the whole room would be pretty much awake before the alarm is actually turned off.
When we live in dorms, the basic dining plan is also required. I'm a simple person that likes convenience so dining hall food is fine for me most of the time, but for most people eating the same thing everyday and having to walk to the dining hall everyday to eat is tedious and frustrating. It's convenient that we have food prepared for us, but when the same food that's not exactly top quality is prepared everyday for students it gets boring and dull real fast.
Right now I'm currently lying on my bed typing this while hearing a dude next door playing his guitar and no offense but I'm not exactly fond of his guitar skills but I can't just walk over there and tell him to stop practicing. So in general if you prefer a quality living condition and want a place that you feel comfortable and relaxing, college dorms probably aren't the thing for you.
