To Dorm or Not To Dorm? by Matthew Forman

You have recently graduated high school, worked hard on your grades, completed a ton (more or less) of College and University applications and essays, and have selected the school you are going to attend. Congratulation! You are on your way!

You, with the help of those around you, have made one of the first major decisions of your adult life. Now you’re faced with another major decision, one that will have an effect on how well you do in your college career. Do you live in a dorm or rent an apartment?

As with all of the choices you will need to make, there are pros and cons to both situations. In this article, we will take a look at dorm life at a typical school. I live in Murfreesboro, TN and attend Middle Tennessee State University, so a lot of the information I will be using comes from my school. That being said, the set up and situations here are fairly typical of most schools in the US.

The first consideration for you (and your family!) is going to be cost – it always is! An important thing to remember about dorm living is that IT”S NOT FREE! Currently at MTSU, dorm rent is $2025.00 per semester, plus a meal plan (required for freshmen living in the dorms) of $1232.00 each semester. That’s an extra $3257.00 per semester, or $6514.00 a year, if you do not take the summer semester!

The good news here is that up to one half of your payment can be deferred. The bad news is that the colleges and universities do not set the prices. In Tennessee, the State Board of Regents tells all of the schools that come under the board how much to charge. Sounds expensive, doesn’t it? Other than the food, let’s see what you get for your money.
The major downside – you normally cannot choose your roommate, at least not in your freshman year. We also have “overflow” housing for those students who want to be on campus but the normal rooms are filled. What is overflow housing? Some of the rooms in some of the dorms get a third bed and a third roommate.

At MTSU, there are just over 3,200 student resident rooms available for over 28,000 students! Obviously, not everyone can have a dorm room, and in fact MTSU does not require freshmen to live in the dorms. Many schools have this requirement, check with yours. The typical room has 2 beds, desks and closets, and in the ‘traditional’ dorm, communal showers and restrooms, a central kitchen and living area, a group study room, and laundry facilities. Other dorms have 2 people sharing a room, and every 2 rooms share a “private” bathroom. There are also 2 and 4 bedroom apartments on campus, with each apartment having its own shared kitchen and living room. These are reserved for female students and students with families living on campus with them.

There is also the security factor. Outside of wild parties, all colleges and universities are actually relatively safe for dorm residents. Each dorm here has a 24 hour help desk, with direct lines to campus police. As with most schools nationwide, most assaults are away from campus, or the attacker is on campus illegally.

A great, and usually overlooked, benefit to dorm living is PARKING! When you live off campus, it can sometimes take an hour to find parking! Many dorm residents decide to remain in dorms for their entire 4 years, in part because of just this reason. As Timothy, a senior at MTSU who lives in the dorms, told me, “I can get up 30 minutes before class, shower, eat, and still be on time anywhere on campus!”