Fact or Fiction: Dorm Life Edition
Okay let’s face it, dorm life is a mystery that a lot of people want to solve when looking at schools. This is the place where you would be living for 2-4 years of your life! I’ve been on campus going through RA training for the past two weeks, so I figured that now is the time to share a little bit about dorm life!
Dorms tend to be kind of messy and run down: Fiction
I’m honestly not sure why everyone thinks this about dorm rooms, but it’s not true. Are all of our dorms as fancy as a five start hotel? No, but they are comfortable and well kept. We have the most amazing facilities staff keeping our buildings in good shape everyday. Over every summer at least one dorm is renovated with each one being renovated every ten years. On a related note, have no fear of communal bathrooms, they’re nicer than you think!
The job of an RA is to police students: Fiction
It wouldn’t be honest of me to say that RAs don’t care about rules. We do. Most of them are pretty much common sense. It’s really a matter of making sure that students are safe. However, RAs are also responsible for fun stuff life bonding, which brings us to….
There is a strong sense of community in many dorms: Fact
In my own dorm this year, we already have a Facebook group, a Twitter account, a family photo of our duty team, and quite a bit of hall bonding (including an impromptu talent show one night)! I don’t think that I’ve ever lived in a dorm where residents don’t manage to form friendships over weekly hall dinners and snack breaks during finals.
Living in a dorm is important to the freshman year experience: Fact
Many of my friends now are people I met in my dorm freshman year. The RAs in dorms along with groups all over campus try to put together programs to help freshmen transition socially and academically to college life.
Even if dorm rooms are in good condition, they will still be the size of a glorified closet: Fiction
I first heard this myth from my mom. In the weeks leading up to my freshman year move-in, she repeatedly told me the story of how her room was barely wide enough to fit her twin sized bed. Oh, how times of changed! No dorm room is massive, but they are fairly roomy. Check out this single (it has two closets)! Not bad!
Dorms are more than just the place where I sleep and (sometimes) study: Fact
All of our dorms have common areas for students to hang out. Yes, you can sleep and study in your room, but dorms are also great places to meet new people playing games, watching TV shows, or just discussing topics of interest with you.
Everyone parties in dorms, so I’ll never have a quiet moment: Fiction
A random dorm isn’t really “the place to be” on any given Saturday night. It can get a bit noisy in some all-freshman dorms on the weekends, but with that sense of community comes some self-governing. Once residents of a dorm start to know each other, they become more comfortable asking people to be quieter and most people will respond well to that.