One of the most stressful and important factors of freshman year at college is dorm life. Seniors across the country are beginning to finalize their plans for roommates, what halls they are staying in, and even their dining plans.
For most students, rooming with someone from their high schools or childhood friends is a far superior option.
“For me, it was a no-brainer to room with a friend,” senior Luke Smith said. “Me and my future roommate have been friends pretty much since middle school, and we have gotten closer over the last three years of high school. We really started hanging out outside of school when we started discussing college and talked about rooming together.”
Others plan to room with someone from another school, part of the state, or even a complete stranger from another state. Most students do this to make new friends and enjoy their time in college with new people
“I decided to room with someone from out of state,” senior Brett Odgers said. “I wanted to room with someone I wasn’t really familiar with to spread my friend group out. I have a couple friends from around Greenwood going to the same school, and they’re rooming together so it’ll be fun for us to all hangout together with a new person in the circle.”
The process for finding a roommate begins after finding a school with a good education but also nice dorm halls. Going to a school with dirty rooms or having a room without centralized A/C can turn away students from attending the schools.
“I chose Ball State over a couple other schools because of how new the dorm hall I’m staying in is,” Smith said. “The hall we chose, Botsford/Swinford, is brand new and was finished in 2019. It was kind of a no-brainer when I learned it’s only been lived in for five years. It has A/C and a really nice common area downstairs, in-house washers and dryers and a bunch of other rooms with computers and printers for school stuff.”
After students pick their halls, they are encouraged to tour the hall and a possible room they will be living in. At Ball State, students are invited to school specific preview days where they are introduced to their Living-Learning Communities and the specific hall they are influenced to live in.
“Bots/Swin is a beautiful place, and the rooms are spacious,” Smith said. “The rooms have high ceilings to loft beds up and really big windows for natural light. The only downside is tile floors which can be easily fixed with some rugs. I really like how customizable BSU makes it for students to move stuff around. I can’t wait to get to school in August and get the room set up how we want it. It’s one of the highlights for me this fall.”
Student athletes who are continuing their sports into college take into account the living spaces as well when committing to their future homes. Most athletes live in athlete-only dorms and are able to have single rooms to themselves.
“It played a big role for me in deciding where I wanted to play football,” senior Gabe Folco said. “The dorms came second to academics and athletics, but Franklin College has really nice dorm halls.”
One of the best things about dorm life is the availability of washers and dryers. Some schools do not provide these in every dorm hall. So picking a hall meticulously that is either close to the laundromat or has in-house units is important.
“I know some halls at Purdue don’t have the washers and dryers so most students try to get into the waitlist early to get a good hall with everything they need,” Odgers said. “It can be extremely stressful to get into the list early and register with a deposit down.
Having a fridge plus a desk and closet space play bigger factors than most people expect.
“We have to rent a fridge from Ball State,” Smith said. “It’s better than buying one because other than being at school I don’t have use for a mini fridge really. It’ll be nice because they bring it in and install and plug everything in and take it out at breaks and when school is over. We don’t really have to worry about any of that stuff so it’s a plus. The rooms come with desks and dressers inside the closets. Having storage space isn’t a concern since there’s so much room there.”
Some colleges are suitcase schools, meaning students stay a couple of days during the week for class and leave from Friday to Monday. Similar to those schools are colleges that are regional campuses that mostly contain athletes or students from the area.
“IU Columbus is a regional school with mostly athletes on campus,” senior Brendan Bailey said. “I’m going with two other Greenwood guys to play baseball there, and they only have one apartment area for the athletes to live off-campus. All the other students live in or close to Columbus. The apartments are separate from the school, and we have to pay rent, but it isn’t under any control with the school so we can do whatever we want within the rules of the complex.”
Indiana State is considered to be one of the ‘suitcase schools’ in Terre Haute.
“ISU is a suitcase school but it doesn’t bother me since I’m playing football there,” senior Brock Riddle said. “I don’t mind that part of it too much. I’ll probably come home some in the offseason too, but it didn’t really play much of a role for me in the commitment process.”
