College Living: On-Campus VS Off-Campus

When you think about “college life” what’s the first thing that pops into your mind? Because for me before I came to school, it was always that one scene in Pitch Perfect when they’re partying in the swimming pool and doing the riff-off. And while some parts of college are like that, something I didn’t realize is that a big part of what college experience you get can be dependent on where you choose to live.

I figured after going to college for approximately 2 full years (granted part of that was during quarantine,) I know a thing or two about college life and the reality of living away from home at the age of 18. So, I figured I would share with you what dorming on-campus vs. living off-campus is like.

DISCLAIMER: THESE ARE MY OWN PERSONAL EXPERIENCES LIVING AWAY BOTH ON AND OFF-CAMPUS AND MAY NOT BE YOURS. PLEASE TAKE EVERYTHING I SAY WITH A GRAIN OF SALT.

Okay now that that’s out of the way, let’s get into it. As you know from my “about'' page (if you read it of course,) I live in Rhode Island during the school year and take classes in communication studies and journalism. I lived in a dorm for most of my freshman year before COVID sent us home. Originally, the plan for sophomore year was to live in a suite-style dorm on campus with three other girls but once again, due to COVID my school had canceled all of its student’s on-campus housing and made them re-choose rooms and roommates. This meant that there was a chance that I would get a bad room and random roommates so instead of dorming, my five friends and I decided it would be better to rent an off-campus beach house. Now, I rent a different beach house with two other roommates, Ava and Sarah. The other three girls, Ava, Emma, and Maddy, are also in a beach house about a 10-minute drive from us. And as much as I loved both living situations, they definitely have their pros and cons.

If you do it right, living in the dorms is a great experience to make new friends. My freshman year, everyone in our hall knew everyone and for the most part, everyone got along. It was really fun to be able to just walk out of your room and immediately get to see people and just hang out with them. And the best part is that my dorm was a “living-learning community” which basically means everyone in my dorm was either the same major or had a similar major to me. This meant if I had a question about something, I could walk down the hall to my classmate’s dorm and ask them without having to organize a whole study group or wait for a text response. However, this is only possible if you all leave your doors open the first couple of days after your move in. My freshman year, my roommates and I kept our door shut and this caused us to be coined as the “Ice Queens” by the guys who lived across the hall. They thought because we kept our door shut, we weren’t friendly and didn’t want to meet anyone. In reality, we just didn’t know. Luckily, we are now very close with them and it is something we still laugh about to this day.

Another great thing about living on campus is that everything is basically provided for you. Food, a gym, the library, health center and even your classes are only about a five minute walk depending on your campus size. The only reason to leave campus unless it’s for things like shopping or going out to dinner. I definitely utilized the study lounges as well as the health center when I got pink eye (we don’t talk about it.) Just try and see everything that your campus offers you and take advantage of it because when you live off campus, it's a completely different story.

Freshman year was also really interesting because, for the first time since I got my license, I didn’t have my car. Like I said before, you don’t really NEED your car on-campus but the freedom of actually getting to go out and drive somewhere just because you want to is non-existent in college. Most universities won’t allow students to have a car on-campus. And if they do, parking passes are ridiculously expensive and in my opinion, not worth it. The good thing for me is that one of my friends did this thing called “Zipcar” where you basically rent a car to drive around by the hour. It was much cheaper than an Uber so we always utilized that when we could (thanks Drew!) But when you’re on campus, I found you really can’t leave if you don’t have a car without it being an all-day affair.

I think that something that really didn’t change for me between freshman and sophomore year was my weekly schedule. For me, the week was reserved for classes and homework. Although during the nighttime freshman year I did a lot of hanging out in the lounge with friends. I will say however that one of the negative things about living in the dorms is that it is sometimes difficult to keep up with your sleeping schedule. My dorm was the unofficial “hangout dorm” where all of our friends would come and just sit and talk and do work. This meant that we were up until probably 3 a.m. just talking. And when you have a 9 a.m. the next day, that’s not really great for your physical or mental health. And even when everyone is out of your room and in a lounge, sometimes FOMO hits hard and you stay up anyways. If I have to give one piece of advice to any incoming college freshman, it would be to please go to bed at a reasonable hour. Your body will thank you later.

Another downside of living in a dorm is RAs. Now I will be the first one to come out and say that RAs are completely necessary because if you throw 100 college students in a building without any supervision, it will cause anarchy. My RA freshman year went home every weekend and when the rest of the dorm got word of this, it caused a 200 person hall-party where the game “throw the stick of butter and see what happens” was created. The game is exactly what the name sounds like.

I will also be the first to say that personally, I am a sober girl and my friends can attest to that. However, it’s college and RAs will definitely be on the look for those who are not. All I’m going to say is to be smart and safe about what you choose to do or not to do. Also, you can get in trouble for smaller things like laughing too loud at a certain time, having too many people in your room, and even having a tapestry that is not fire-resistant hanging up. These are all things that you really don’t have to worry about when you live in an off-campus house which is always a plus.

While living in the dorms was fun, when sophomore year rolled around, we had to figure out how to do things a bit differently. For one thing, we weren’t on campus anymore which meant no dining hall which meant I would have to learn how to cook for myself. I was blessed with a mom who would make my brother and I a home cooked meal every night for dinner from the time we could chew solid food and a grandmother who was the same way. This meant that I never really learned to cook anything. One time I tried to boil pasta in a ceramic mug on the stove because I didn’t want to dirty a pan. Thankfully, my grandmother came into the kitchen and yelled at me so I avoided disaster there. However, I soon realized how absolutely pathetic this was and with the help of my roommates, learned how to cook.

On the brighter side, living off-campus also meant something amazing in that I had my car! My friends would argue that I’m not the best driver in the friend group but getting to go and explore all over Rhode Island was so much fun and probably the highlight of my sophomore year. I’m going to hold off on telling you all about the places I’ve been because I want to make a whole post about my favorite places in Rhode Island with pictures and everything so make sure you’re on the lookout for that. But if you ever get the opportunity to get your car on campus without paying a stupid amount of money, I highly suggest it. I never knew all of the beautiful spots in Rhode Island until I drove around looking for them.

However, having this car also meant that I was now a commuter in school and would have to drive to class every day. Now this wouldn’t be so bad if my school had adequate parking for its students. As you can probably guess, it does not. My house is about a 12 minute drive to campus and I have to leave an hour before my first class every morning just so that I know that I will get a good parking spot. And if I’m even five minutes off schedule, I have to park in the furthest lot and walk a mile just to get to my first class. Obviously this is unavoidable, however I wish I was prepared for this reality so I am choosing to prepare you.

Another bright side of living off-campus meant that I also didn’t have to share a room with anyone. Now I really didn’t mind sharing a room with people but I also had two great roommates who made living with other people incredibly easy. I’m sure that others who have had bad roommate experiences would be over the moon about having their own room and own space. But even as an extrovert, having a place to yourself that you can just chill and recharge in is an amazing thing. It’s also really fun decorating your room at school regardless of where you live because you really get to be creative. Freshman year I lived with Ava (the one I currently do not live with) and Emma. We had arguably and in my opinion, one of the best-decorated dorms in the whole hall. And Sophomore year I was able to really express myself through my decor which I loved. Regardless of where you live, take advantage of decorating and make it fun!

I honestly have so many more college posts coming but I thought that this would be a good one to start with to help incoming sophomores and juniors who were deciding on living on or off campus. And if you’re not in college and still read this blog, I hope you still found this post entertaining and enjoyable!

Have a lovely rest of your week!

- Meg

p.s. Here are some photos of my rooms the past two years! The first two are from last year in my off-campus house and the last one is from freshman year (I was the bottom bunk.) Enjoy!