I Survived Living In A Dorm With No AC My Freshman Year
Trust me, you are going to need more than ONE fan.
Alright, you got your room assignment and you are living in the cheaper dorms with no air conditioning. But hey, it's not the end of the world. You may be upset about the amount of sweat you're about to release, but there is so much more to living in these residence halls than you think.
When I first got my room assignment, I was pretty bummed out because I was so used to cranking up my AC whenever I would feel the slightest bit of sweat. But I realized I had no choice as a freshman living on campus. Sure, we got a refund check. But that went straight to my parents.
As move-in day came closer, I purchased two fans. I knew it was going to be hot, but I didn't think that it would be like the sun was outside my window. I thought I was prepared and I thought I had EVERYTHING a freshman needed. Little did I know that I was going to be dripping sweat every day.
When I first moved in, I immediately set up my fan before I even thought about unpacking the rest of my stuff. My roommate at the time didn't even bring a fan and she had to go to Target to get one. Let me tell you, I was DYING. I ended up moving in by myself while my parents went to buy groceries for me because they didn't want to stay in the hot room.
After I was all settled in, I barely stayed in my room and hung out in the basement floor with friends, or went to my other friends' residence halls that actually had AC. This was all within the first week. Even showering was pointless because you would still feel sweaty after coming out of the shower. There was one point where I was just sitting on the bed dripping sweat and my sheets were WET. I wanted to cry.
Weeks later, the weather got much cooler and at this point, my roommate and I had six fans in total.
It got to the point where we didn't even need all of the fans because the weather started to change mid-September. We started opening our door to let more cool air in, and we always had people come into our room to say hi. I started to get used to it and forgot the fact that I was living in a dorm with no AC.
Even during the winter, I was extremely cold and even doubled up on bedding. Plus, I was always in and out of my dorm. The weather stayed like this my whole freshman year, and on hot days I would just turn on the fans and be fine. I guess I got used to it.
My main point is things always gets better if you just wait. The mistake I made was that I didn't have enough fans to hold me over. I was so worried about the temperature rather than having fun, when the lack of AC forced me to go out and make friends and stop worrying about the heat.
So yes, buy more than four fans if you want to survive, open your door to the public, meet new people who have dorms with AC, and always remind yourself that living in this "horrible" dorm is only temporary. Despite my room at the beginning of the year, freshman year was a good year.
