I don't understand the point of dorm life.

[J Arcane]

I got the notification the other day from university that I should hurry up and apply if I wish to reserve a place in the campus housing, and I actually started considering it because I thought, uncomfortable as the experience might be, it'd simplify my living situation a bit and save me some hassle at least.

Then I looked at the rates.

Why the fuck would I spend almost double my monthly loving expenses to live in a fucking closet and eat cafeteria food, exactly?

For the monthly cost of living in a room with three other people, I could still pay rent on a shared apartment three times over, and fucking forget single-occupancy rates.

Seriously, WTF is the point of this shit? Is the convenience really worth so much that it's worth sacrificing a huge chunk of cash, all of your privacy, any sense of a humane living space, and having to share a bathroom with another hundred people?

I feel like I must be missing something here, or else dorm life is an even bigger ripoff than textbook prices.

[resikel]

Dorm sex....

[Ink Asylum]

Nowadays it does seem like a huge expense, but most kids just pay that cost by taking out even higher loans. It's too easy to just put off the actual expense for a few more years.

Back when it wasn't so prohibitively expensive it probably made more sense, but now it's more tradition than anything else.

[Shieldmaiden]

Student housing is ridiculously overpriced. I knew people who paid over £800 a month for a room in a student flat, living five to each flat. I rented a house with a couple of friends and paid £360 rent, plus about £70 a month for bills. Our rooms were twice the size of any of the student ones I saw.

[Deimos]

I've never understood it either. I'd see the rate for a 4 bedroom dorm housing and think, "oh thats not so bad" only to later realize that's per person. The ONLY TINY SLIVER of an upside to that system is that if your dorm-mates don't pay rent one month they're out but you stay. In an apartment you're stuck picking up their half of the bill. Yeah though, it's a huge rip off and I am shocked to see my local University struggling to keep up with building enough dorm space.

[Vandabo]

Convenience and social life.

I lived in the dorms the first two years of school, but I was lucky to have it all paid for. My freshman year dorm experience was awesome. I actually lived in a dorm with semi-private bathrooms (shared between four people in a suite) which was great. I met lots of friends and was forced into a lot of social interactions that I would probably not have gotten involved in if I had lived in an apartment. When I did move out to an apartment, it was with two of the friends I had met in the dorms, so I never had any problems with shitty random housemates.

I think a lot of parents would rather their kids live in the dorms, because they are much more regulated. You don't have to worry about shitty landlords, and there is usually a meal plan that goes along with it. But really, the social aspect I think is the most important thing.

[Stmfuller]

I did the dorm life for two years in college, and i met my wife as well as one of my best friends from my time in college there. For me, it wasn't the dorm or the food. It was more about the social interaction I got and the friendships I made. It also can (albiet sometimes unwanted/forcefully) introduce you to different cultures and perspectives. For a kid that went to high school across from a corn field, that's something that's been useful.

I didn't get that (as much) when I moved off campus as an undergrad, nor am I getting it now as a grad student 7 years later. So, it's up to you really if the social interaction is worth it to you.

But yes, I agree purely from a money perspective dorm life is too expensive and the food is terrible.

[J Arcane]

I can meet people other ways besides spending 3 times the rent of the average shared rooms.

[pomeroy]

I lived in the dorms for four years. Two of those years, I was an RA (that last year, I was also the assistant residence director).

I loved it. It was really great for me, espcially since I was going to a school that was out of state. I knew nobody, but after my first hour in the dorms, I had already met three people (one of whom I'd end up being in his wedding) and made plans to go play frisbee in the commons area. I liked that I didn't have to worry about cooking, and that
there was always something interesting going on that I could involve myself in.

While it is super expensive, I wouldn't scoff at it. It has its place.

[Stmfuller]

Originally Posted by J Arcane

I can meet people other ways besides spending 3 times the rent of the average shared rooms.

Then it sounds like dorms aren't "for you"

[Camel]

I don't think many students straight out of high school have any idea what the normal price of renting is; living in the dorm is what everyone else is doing, so they do it too. Lots of schools also require freshmen to live in dorms, at least for a semester.

I lived in dorms for for years, mostly because there weren't that many great options as far as housing went in the area, and also because scholarships were paying for it. It's nice to be able to walk everywhere you need to go on campus and not have to drive, although I've been to plenty of campuses where you could do that even if you didn't live in student housing (my college was in the middle of a corn field, though).

[TheFlyingOrc]

Covered by student loans, you don't have to go through the financial application hurdles (no co-signing on a dorm room application), very little worry about an unreliable landlord, utilities are included, you're close to your classes and well integrated with student life.

Many universities also require you to stay in them, or require you to stay in them during certain years.

The big problem is that first thing, though. Anything where a large percentage of your population buying it literally does not care about the price in any way destroys the ability of market forces to act on it, and prices skyrocket.

[Ink Asylum]

From an article I read today about how hard it is to make friends when you're over 30.

As external conditions change, it becomes tougher to meet the three conditions that sociologists since the 1950s have considered crucial to making close friends: proximity; repeated, unplanned interactions; and a setting that encourages people to let their guard down and confide in each other, said Rebecca G. Adams, a professor of sociology and gerontology at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. This is why so many people meet their lifelong friends in college, she added.

[Vandabo]

Originally Posted by J Arcane

I can meet people other ways besides spending 3 times the rent of the average shared rooms.

From what I've gathered of your history, a stable living situation with a healthy social aspect probably would have done you pretty good...

For many people, it's a great, secure way to get a toehold in a new place, with a lot of social support and often some beneficial academic perks as well. You being 30 and already world-weary and streetwise means you can much more confidently move into a new place and take care of yourself. But for most of these kids it's their first time living away from home. Many are not prepared to find an apartment and roommates and live on their own without any supervision or support. The dorms are kind of training wheels for living away from home, with the bonus of the possibility of making a lot of new friends.

[J Arcane]

I guess that's an advantage of having waited 10 years to go to school.

I see the chunk of change I get in a term I get and go "holy shit, I can do a lot with that!" and want to make shit last (or at least spend it living the way I never could on a cook's wage.)

The amount I'd be saving by living off campus would literally be enough to buy a brand new gaming PC every term. I'm not even exaggerating.

I guess one nice advantage if you're horribly irresponsible with money is that since everything is paid up, including food, from the beginning of the term, you're guaranteed not to starve or go hungry if you blow the rest of it on cases of MGD.

Which is probably common with college students I would imagine ...

[Vandabo]

J, you're going to UO right? I went to OSU myself, but I had friends that went there and I heard pretty bad shit about their housing system. When they would come up and visit my dorm they were amazed. Of course, that was 10 years ago now... In any case, for your situation it really doesn't make a lot of sense, but the benefits outweigh the costs for a bunch of kids.

[Squidbot]

Originally Posted by J Arcane

my monthly loving expenses

Nobody has picked up on this. Cog, I am disappoint.

[J Arcane]

Originally Posted by Vandabo

J, you're going to UO right? I went to OSU myself, but I had friends that went there and I heard pretty bad shit about their housing system. When they would come up and visit my dorm they were amazed. Of course, that was 10 years ago now... In any case, for your situation it really doesn't make a lot of sense, but the benefits outweigh the costs for a bunch of kids.

Yeah, and it looks like space might even be worse than average at UO's dorms. My comparison was not mere hyperbole, I'm pretty sure the last place I lived I actually did have a walk-in closet that was as large as even the prettied up pictures of the dorms at UO.

[J Arcane]

Originally Posted by Squidbot

Nobody has picked up on this. Cog, I am disappoint.

Well, I am a man who dates around.

[Handmade.Mercury]

This is why most people at my university moved out after the first year of mandatory dorm-living. Most of the cost was in the $2,800 meal plan which gave us unlimited meals to all of the cafeterias, the one in my dorm really just being a small food court.