Dental School, roommate or no?

[HelicaseInitiator]

I wanted to know if it is better to live with a roommate or live by yourself during dental school. I was just accepted and already have friends wanting to room with me. I know it is cheaper to live with a roommate so you can split the cost, but my rent will be covered by my parent (thankfully!) I just wanted advice on what dental students found more helpful living with someone or living alone.

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[aqz]

Get a roommate or 4, preferably other people in your class who you can totally bro out with.

If you can't meet them in person, I highly recommend stalking their facebook and instagram accounts to get an idea of how much BFFL potential they have. You should also suggest exchanging daily snapchats to showcase the finest 10 second highlights of your life.

Just be prepared if worst comes to worst and your roommate suddenly reveals that he habitually doesn't flush after going #1 because that's his way of "conserving water." Next August can't come soon enough...

 

[Blake1e]

I chose to live solo, w/o roommates. I study and learn much faster when it's just me and the material. So having people around me would just be a huge distraction for me. I study almost entirely in my apartment. Not much of a fan of doing it in libraries.

Having a roommate or not is really up to what kind of study habits you have.

 

[Bernie Sanders]

Don't get a roommate. You might have to pay extra, but you don't want roomie problems adding more stress to what will probably be the most stressful time in your life.

 

[Confused1617]

Don't get a roommate. You might have to pay extra, but you don't want roomie problems adding more stress to what will probably be the most stressful time in your life.

Everyone should just listen to Bernie, or we will all be doomed!

 

[Bernie Sanders]

The top one tenth of one percent make more money than the bottom 99% blah blah blah. lol..

 

[Lock_Jaw]

I wanted to know if it is better to live with a roommate or live by yourself during dental school. I was just accepted and already have friends wanting to room with me. I know it is cheaper to live with a roommate so you can split the cost, but my rent will be covered by my parent (thankfully!) I just wanted advice on what dental students found more helpful living with someone or living alone.

I didn't get a roommate and I'm glad. I don't want to have to talk about school outside of school, plus I prefer to have my own space. Yeah, it costs a bit more, but to me that's worth it. Plus my GF wouldn't enjoy me having a roommate as well. YMMV

 

[cmcner]

What I saw is guys who got roommates did better than girls who got roommates. It's not a scientific study or anything but that's how it worked when I went to school.

 

[Dr. Dan]

It's honestly going to depend on the person you room with (so for the love of God, choose wisely) and if you can study/live without much additional stress together. If you're a solo kind of person, then live alone, but to be honest, I personally would get myself one male roomate who was in my class. Being BFFs would be a pretty sweet deal too. Oh and he has to be smart. And handsome.

 

[Screwtape]

Well I suppose I'm not surprised that a lot of SDNer's prefer to live alone...

But OP, if you can find someone in your class or another professional program I would strongly encourage living with someone! Save some cash (ALOT), usually have a larger living space, have someone to hang out with, have someone help you stay on top of assignments/class that you may miss due to the craziness. I would have to agree with the girl/guy roommate thing though. Random girl roommates in my class seemed to have wayyy more trouble than the guys. Pretty much all of the random guy roommates freshman year have stayed the same throughout dental school. The girls...pretty much the opposite.

 

[Faux]

Definitely save a lot of money. I just wanted to be alone the first two academic/lab heavy years.

 

[NMC2010]

Depends on who you are. I actually met my roommate here on SDN lol. Never knew him, and was worried about the idea of living with a random person. We met/saw each other only 2x before dental school. I'm not sure why we even agreed to room together - both of us were going out of our comfort zones. Yet here we are, still roommates now in D2. Best roommate I've ever had 😀

 

[akog]

Seems like it's safest to live alone for your first lease and then see who you bond with in school for your next lease

 

[Bernie Sanders]

oops wrong thread

 

[dentalgirl7893]

Seems like it's safest to live alone for your first lease and then see who you bond with in school for your next lease

I would do this if you're set on living with someone. You don't want to get there, adjust to a new level of learning and difficulty and find you also don't like your roommate. I live alone and pay an insane amount for it (Seattle living yay) but everyday I'm so glad I did it because I do better living alone (more introverted, like my own space, light sleeper). BUT one of my other friends got a roommate she's good friends with after our first quarter and loves it because she hates living alone. So id say do what you're most comfortable with. Make sure you know you'd like living with those friends because it can quickly turn a friendship awkward and sour if you don't groove well living together. Don't let money make the decision (especially since you're getting rent paid for ) because the money you'd save isn't worth your sanity if you hate having a roommate 🙂

 

[480640]

.

 

[Spee]

Depends on who you are. I actually met my roommate here on SDN lol. Never knew him, and was worried about the idea of living with a random person. We met/saw each other only 2x before dental school. I'm not sure why we even agreed to room together - both of us were going out of our comfort zones. Yet here we are, still roommates now in D2. Best roommate I've ever had 😀

Aren't you just saying that because he is here watching the forums? 😉

 

[aqz]

Aren't you just saying that because he is here watching the forums? 😉

I hope my roommate is watching the forums and takes a hint.

Just be prepared if worst comes to worst and your roommate suddenly reveals that he habitually doesn't flush after going #1 because that's his way of "conserving water." Next August can't come soon enough...

 

[Pedodel]

I could not have imagined dental school without roommates.
I thought it helped me a ton. Many times during the first 2 years, ( and also but in different ways the 3rd and 4th years) it was so helpful mentally knowing that I was not alone in my struggles.

We had a ton of work to do. I felt I was always falling behind. But is was comforting talking and living with my roommates ,knowing and seeing that they were doing the same things and feeling the same things as I was. When studying, If I had a question ,,, or they had a question ,,, we could talk a subject over, Easily.....next room over.
If we had a crazy busy exam period,,, I did not feel so bad or pathetic studying till 10pm on a Saturday night because they were doing the same. It helped a ton for me. My roommates were awesome! Some of my best lifetime friends.


By the way,,, I am not a group love kind of person,,,, I enjoy my own space and while I think am a very social person, I enjoy my own space and privacy. But in dental school, I really enjoyed and appreciated having roommates who were in my dental class. It was very helpfull and comforting. I would have been miserable living by myself..

 

[Greyangel6]

So I'm an introvert who loves independence and my own space => i live alone in a 1/1. It has a lot of perks in terms of you can study when you want, where you want, and not have to sync up with another person's studying schedules/habits. If I have questions about school/assignments, I typically try to ask after lecture, ask the FB group, text/facetime my classmates, etc. so I don't think it's that bad. It's also great that you can be as messy when you want, and then clean it up on your own time. But living alone also means you doing your chores on your own (grocecies shopping, laundry, cleaning up the place, etc.) all of which can be boring and felt like a waste of energy and time when you're doing them by yourself.

One of the perks of living with roommates is that they can be your backup alarm clock. I regret not having a roommate just for that one day that I missed/overslept the psychomotor exam hahah...

 

[NMC2010]

Aren't you just saying that because he is here watching the forums? 😉

What? No, of course not!

*looks over shoulder*...