As a freshman and/or sophomore, you couldn't wait to get out of the dorms and get living off-campus. You longed for more space, your own kitchen, maybe a full-sized bed, and your own room. You couldn't wait for a clean shower where you didn't have to wear flip flops, and a common space that you only had to share with a few roommates instead of a whole floor. However, there are some things that you actually find yourself missing about the dorms once you get off-campus (even though you still wouldn't go back there). Here are some things that no one tells you about living off-campus in college.
You will have to become way more of an adult.
You have to start grocery shopping, meal-planning, budgeting, cooking and cleaning. Your dorm bathrooms got cleaned for you but now if your bathroom is gross you can only blame yourself. You have way more space than half of a room to keep clean, and you need to cook all your own meals and grocery shop rather than relying on a dining hall.
You most likely need your own transportation and have to wake up and leave your apartment earlier.
While on-campus, you could roll out of bed at 7:40 for your 8 am and still grab a bagel in the dining hall. Now you have to allow time to drive or walk onto campus, or make the bus on time. It takes longer to get to class and to get to anything on campus and you have to allot for that.
You don't know of all the parties like you used to.
Living in the dorms, you just somehow hear about all of the parties happening every weekend, but when you live off-campus you start to hear of less and less unless they are being thrown by your friends. You end up going to the bars every weekend and spending more money instead.
It's harder to meet people.
Sure you still have your classes, but living in dorms is a super easy way to constantly meet new people. Once you are off-campus you still meet people, but it just happens less often.
So there you have it. In my opinion there are still way more perks to living off-campus (more space, more peace and quiet, better kitchen amenities, choosing the people you live with), but these are some things that no one tends to tell you before you move off-campus and experience them for yourself.
