Apartment or Dorm?

I say go with the dorms too.Sounds to me like money may be a bit rough for you and your family,and your going to need a lot of stuff to fill out a decent apartment/house - your own bed, furniture,entertainment center,pots/pans,etc,etc.which obviously costs a lot of money,and if you go for a furnished apartment your wallet will be taking a serious hit as well. And yeah if you go for non-furnished you and your friends could split costs for stuff like that, but once you split from each other, it'll be rough to decide who gets what.
But, yeah start off in the dorms, and find yourself a rich sugar-mama/girlfriend to mooch off of for the other semesters.

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Originally Posted by FirstBlood

Because there's nothing better than having a whole dormroom to yourself.

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Indeed. You wouldnt have to worry about the whole sock on the doorknob etiquette.

Myself, Tracer, and two other friends of mine lived in an apartment when we graduated from high school, there was a point where alot of people weren't talking to each other, one guy we dont ever talk to anymore unfortunately. I'd go with a dorm, if I could do things differently I'd have maybe done that, instead of being a commuting bastard. Be careful if you go for the apartment.

A lot of people told me to live in the dorms my first year.

I didn't listen, and I'm moving out of my house and into my first apartment on June 1st. I decided against the whole dorm thing because im going to a huge state school (NC State - School of Design) and dorms are small, packed, and shitty. My girlfriend is in summer school there now, and she gets her own dorm, but says its the definition of shitty, right now to the huge stains on the floors/walls. I found an awesome place, 2 bedroom, 550 a month, and closer to the Design building than all but 2 dorms. It's just an 8 min walk across a park, so it worked out great. Another reason is I'm so ready to get out of my town, and this lets me spend all summer on my own, instead of trapped in the shithole I currently inhabit for another summer. Parking was a big deal too, its hard to get a pass, its 600 a year, and the parking lots are a mile away from where all my classes will be. I get 2 spaces at my place, so atleast I wont feel so trapped.

Live in the dorms for a year or two. It'll give you a chance to make freinds, not worry about bills, and focus on your studies. Socially, it's night and day. I've really had trouble meeting people since moving out of the dorms. But it costs ALOT in the long run. It's like $600 a month or something when you break it down. So eventually it's wise to move on.

So it looks like everyone who is or has been in college says to stick with the dorms, while the person who is not in college is getting an apartment.

No offense to you Lobo, but you should take that into consideration Swift.

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and I'd really like a place that I wouldn't mind living in for four years.

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Dont even THINK that anything you do now will last all four years. I started at NJIT, convinced thats where Ill be all four years, as a Computer Science major, but nothing ended the way it started. Do not plan for the future when youre in college, be flexible always.

Well, you all made some very good points, and I do appreciate the help. I'm definitely considering just living in a dorm the first or second year, but if I can find a deal on an apartment that ends up being cheaper and is in walking distance of the school, I'll probably go with it.

diff: You're right about the four year thing. I'm not even 100% sure right now that this is the right school for me. If it doesn't end up working out, I guess I'll already need to have some options figured out.

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Originally Posted by station82o

Myself, Tracer, and two other friends of mine lived in an apartment when we graduated from high school, there was a point where alot of people weren't talking to each other, one guy we dont ever talk to anymore unfortunately. I'd go with a dorm, if I could do things differently I'd have maybe done that, instead of being a commuting bastard. Be careful if you go for the apartment.

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Barring V we got along ok (actually, for the time I was there I did get a long with him, it was just that he was a slob)... Greg and I didn't so well but that wasn't a big deal. I think we're an exception to that norm of 'going at each others throats' thing, but even then everything was far from peachy. Also, we were unwise in our selection of places, with all the wrong priorites so we could have done much better. Also, UH dorms (Moody Towers for freshmen) is no where near as nice as a prision so that also influenced our descision (that and I wasn't going to school so I'd be at home with parents).

If I were going to school though, and it wasn't UH, I would definitly go with a dorm.

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Originally Posted by Mike

Those don't look too bad.

Don't live with friends if any of yours are going to the same school. SpoDaddy and I made that mistake and nearly killed one another.

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Ah, it's only for a period of time. I've lived with a friend for the past 8 months or so. We share a room and worked at the same place for almost 6 months so we never had much time apart. For awhile it was to the point where we didn't talk very much and I tried to be absent from whatever he was doing as often as I could, even encouraging other friends not to invite him along sometimes. Eventually all the resentment and bitterness just faded away and we get along fine now like we did before we lived together.

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Originally Posted by Swift

Well, you all made some very good points, and I do appreciate the help. I'm definitely considering just living in a dorm the first or second year, but if I can find a deal on an apartment that ends up being cheaper and is in walking distance of the school, I'll probably go with it.

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The apartment will be cheaper and have more space. Dorms cost alot, on a per month basis. It works out a little better if you look at it per year, but you need to realize you won't be allowed to live there 4-5 months out of the year.

I'll probably end up living in a dorm unless I find local people to help rent with at an apartment when I go to college. My only real concerns are the fact that I have sleeping issues when it comes to noise, and I turn into a raving psycho bitch when people snore or are loud when I'm trying to get some shuteye.

The other? Jesus Christ, so much crap gets stolen. Both my parents lost incredibly valuable things due to roommates or the dorm life in general, and I hear about all this other petty or serious theft from most college people I know. Maybe it's just Ohio. My dad lost his awesome guitar, my mother lost a very sentimental ring from her dead father, and my brother's friend had the engagement ring for his girlfriend stolen three days before he had planned to propose.