Apartment or dorm?

[DeadCactus]

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Not quite pre-med, but it's a question I'm sure many pre-meds here face.

Been in the dorms for two years.
No roommate next year either way and costs about the same either way.

Dorm:
It's nice being across the street from a gym and being able to wake up 5 minutes before class and make it on time. Plus having no monthly bills to worry about.

Apartment:
It would be nice to have a kitchen and more space. And to be able to park right where I live rather than a few blocks away.

 

[MyStiKxFury]

Let me guess, Jester West in UT austin?

 

[yepiminthere]

Stay in the dorms. Living in an apartment and paying all the bills (utilities, gas, sewage, etc) plus buying furniture, food, and so on is higly, HIGHLY overrated.

 

[Mobius1985]

Having to shop for food and cook it gets really old and takes a lot of time. Pick the dorm.

 

[45408]

Living on your own is nice if you ever want to have people over or throw a party or blast your music. But if you think you'd get lonely living by yourself in an apartment, the dorms might be nicer.

 

[tdd340]

Having to eat dorm food and have a surrogate mother (RA) is serisously overrated also, I would pick the apt. in a heartbeat.

 

[baylormed]

Having to shop for food and cook it gets really old and takes a lot of time. Pick the dorm.

Actually I find it time saving. In 3 hours during the weekend I can cook meals for myself for the whole week. Just stick them in the fridge and heat up as you get hungry, and it's much healthier/less expensive than eating out or having frozen meals all week long.

And having space is nice. If you get lonely, get a puppy. 😀

 

[MossPoh]

For two years of my life I had the best of both worlds. I lived in on-campus apartments (randomly assigned) with 3 other awesome roommates. We had our own room and kitchen. Didn't have to worry about any bills, and lived right across form a dining hall with a parking lot outside. Although I didn't want to pay the extra money, so I parked far away. Really...unless you party a lot...apartments are kind of overrated. It is nice to have a place you can call yours, but after that....eh. The cleaning, bills, shopping.....all builds up. If you want unfurnished you have to look into getting your stuff there too. (The problem I'm dealing with now with moving back to florida) My main reason with moving off campus was I needed a longer bed....sounds stupid I know, but when you are 6'5" those dorm beds just don't work. Also, I wanted to play xbox live and download more than 2 gigs a month...once again, stupid details but important for my stress levels. Another thing to note is that while apartments and dorms SEEM to equal out in price. You will probably wind up spending more with an apartment. Costs build up real fast. You don't feel like cooking? Order food...10 bucks. Especially cold winter or hot day? Electric bill may get real high. More than the basic internet? another 30 or 40 bucks a month. In addition, you just meet less people when you live in an apartment. If you have a friend base already then it doesnt matter, but if you are new then it just makes things tougher. I personally like to hangout with people NOT premed or information science.....not even german majors really. I don't talk shop outside of class....just not who I am.


*Note. Whether you are male or female also determines this. As the poster above said. She (You are a she right?) cooks meals and stores them. I did that like twice, but ran into problems with forgetting my food or not being home....and I'm a guy so naturally I'm a pig as well. 😛

*RAs also are a non-factor depending on school. Where I go to school, didn't matter at all. Dorm food was also quite good with a large variety available. Italian, Grilled Chicken, Veggies, special dishes, chinese, pizza...everything was available almost daily. Sunday Brunches rocked my socks off...and breakfasts with the omlettes. Aw yes, go high tuition.

 

[Depakote]

I hated living in dorms. I loved having my own apartment.

 

[DblHelix]

Dorms =

I hated feeling like I had no privacy and calling what is essentially a public restroom my own personal thrown room just doesn't work for me.

 

[notdeadyet]

Do you really want your first exposure to the drudgeries of real life be during your first year in medical school (looking for apartments, signing leases, cooking, washing, cleaning house, minor repairs, amateur plumbing, etc.)? I wouldn't.

Also, it's been many moons since I lived in the dorms. Maybe it's changed, but back in the day, folks who lived four years in the dorms were a little... off. The norm was that by the times folks were juniors, they wanted to stretch their wings and get away from dorm life.

Regardless, med school will be culture shock enough without adding "living out there" for the first time.

 

[akinf]

I've lived in the dorms for 3 years now and it is seriously over-rated. You get sick of it after a while. The cafeteria sucks, the food is super unhealthy, and if you live on a commuter campus, you feel so isolated when everyone goes home (this only applies if most of your friends don't live in res.).

Also, depending on the city you are in, if you don't have a car, things can get super annoying.

I'm just sick of dorms and can't wait until I get a med. acceptance...I am getting myself into an apartment pronto.

 

[Jonesie]

When I was in undergrad, most students moved off campus after the first year. I stayed in the dorms all four years because I figured I'd have the rest of my life to live in an apartment (or house, but not yet). I've never regretted the decision.

Even today, I'll walk by my old college campus and think about the time when I could wake up five minutes before class, lived across the street from the gym, and could walk into the cafeteria and have someone cook me a meal on the spot. It was great, and I totally took it for granted. The dorms may not be for everyone, but I'm glad that I chose them over moving into an off-campus apartment.

 

[ssquared]

Apartment! I live in a 10x11 box and it sucks. Really. I'm about ready to kill my roommate for want of more space. I'm living in an apartment next year for grad school and it's going to be wonderful to have my own room, own kitchen, own bathroom, etc. 😍

 

[DeadCactus]

"Let me guess, Jester West in UT austin?"

The one and only. Though next semester it will be a single room in East.

"Do you really want your first exposure to the drudgeries of real life be during your first year in medical school (looking for apartments, signing leases, cooking, washing, cleaning house, minor repairs, amateur plumbing, etc.)? I wouldn't."

This is actually one of the things pushing me to move out. To get used to this stuff while I'm already accustomed to my academic environment rather than while trying to cope with a brand new environment. I could put it off till my final year, but I'm not sure I want to do that the year I'll be working on applying to med school, doing my senior design project, etc...