Happy-Crappy: The Ins and Outs of Dorm Life

By Rebecca Loshelder

Looking to live on campus next year? This is your one stop shop for everything you need to know about dorm life, from an insider’s perspective.

Crappy

First off, living on-campus is expensive! We’re talking anywhere from 2 to 3 grand here…for one room (and sometimes exponentially more if you go to school in a big city). That you share. No wonder most people move off-campus after just one year-more space, less moolah.

So who’s the person you share that one room with? Well, that depends. You could request an old high school friend or somebody else you already know, but your chances of getting your favorite dorm go way down, since you have to pick “roommate over hall” or “hall over roommate” when you apply for housing. Your other option? Potluck-AKA random roommate. This could work out great or it could be the worst thing to ever happen. Nevertheless, it’s a good experience to learn about living with other people.

If you’re one of those people who cannot under any circumstances share a bathroom, save yourself the trouble and get an apartment. Depending on the type of dorm, you could be sharing with one other person or with your whole floor (same sex). On that same note, dorms aren’t the best places for cooking. Many of the dorms don’t have a kitchen, and the ones that do only have one, which the whole dorm shares. So don’t plan on baking every day at 3 PM unless you want to 1) wait for a few hours or 2) share with your 300 best friends.

Then there’s the fact that you can’t actually move into the dorms until they officially open, which is the same day for every dorm on campus. Meaning that if you want to get away from Mom and Dad as soon as possible, you’re going to be sharing A&M’s abundant parking spaces with every other on-campus resident. Move-out day is even better because not only do you have to have all your stuff out by a certain time on a certain day, you can’t leave until every last dust bunny is gone and your room is approved by your Resident Advisor (RA).

Finally, you’re going to have stupid people living in your dorm. That includes everything from heavy metal next door at 4 in the morning to having to evacuate the building because someone didn’t know how to make mac n’ cheese in the microwave and set off the fire alarm. So if you need 100% quiet to study, I suggest migrating to the sixth floor of Evans Library.

Happy

So what’s actually good about living in a dorm? A lot of things, actually. They’re in a great location. Meaning if you have an 8 AM class, you can probably get up at 7:45 and make it there on time. This is especially convenient if you don’t have a car because you can walk everywhere, and anywhere you absolutely have to go there’s probably a bus that goes there.

Another great thing about living on campus is that you don’t have to buy any furniture. All of the dorms come with a loftable bed, a desk and desk chair, a locking cabinet, and two shelves. The bare minimum, but more than enough when all you really do in college is study anyways. The one thing I would recommend bringing is a chair if you plan on having friends come and visit you unless want them all sitting on your bed.

The Resident Advisors (RAs) are really good about scheduling dorm events, everything from floor dinners to craft and movie nights. All completely optional, of course-but if you want a social life, you’re set. Plus you automatically gain a few hundred best friends without having to go anywhere, and that’s a great feeling to have.

Dorms are pretty safe, as only residents’ student ID cards can be used to get in. And every door only has two keys, yours and your roommate’s (unless, of course, you live in a single room-it’s a thing!). There’s also a visitation policy in the single-sex dorms, meaning that you can’t have your opposite-sex friends in the dorm from late night till early morning for the safety and comfort of the other residents. That being said, bad things do happen, so don’t let random people into the dorm and always lock your doors.

One final cool thing about the dorms at Texas A&M (I am sure other schools have similar things) is that some of them are part of Living Learning Communities (LLCs), such as the Engineering Living Learning Community in Mosher Hall and the Honors Housing Community in Lechner and McFadden Halls. LLCs make A&M’s huge campus smaller, help you to meet people like you (students and faculty), and offer a wide range of activities to help you foster your specific interests. They are a great opportunity academically, socially, and culturally for sure.

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