Off Campus Housing or Dorm Room?

Posted by Naomi Rockler-Gladen Nov 8, 2006

Thinking of trading your dorm room in for an off campus apartment? Check out my article about questions students should ask themselves about off campus housing before they make the move. I hope this will make your decision easier!

Let me tell you about my experience as an undergraduate at Rutgers. I stayed in the dorms all four years, for a number of reasons. First, I lived in Demarest Hall, the greatest dormitory on the Planet Earth. Well, probably not, but it suited me well. It was a "special interest dorm," which means residents had to apply to live in special interest sections (like art, Spanish, creative writing, etc.) and participate in weekly activities. I was in the History section. The dorm attracted an ecclectic mix of students and was a genuine community, with all the advantages (friendships, activities, fun) and disadvantages (drama, drama, drama). Plus Demarest was centrally located on a campus where housing was hard to come by, which was a huge plus.

Having found a dorm that felt like home, I stuck around because it made me feel secure. I was dealing with some pretty heavy family and money issues, so having a community to return to was comforting. I had plenty of stress in my life, and the responsibility of an off campus apartment sounded like more stress than I wanted. In addition, housing in New Brunswick, New Jersey is neither cheap nor luxurious (to say the least), so I didn't have that incentive to leave the dorms. Most of my friends stayed in the dorms too, so that was the clincher.

In retrospect, I wish I had found an apartment senior year. It would have been a boost to my self-confidence to know I could live independently. When I visited a few years back, I walked through the cramped hallways of Demarest Hall and felt clautrophobic, and wondered how in the world I lived with so little space for so long? And how in the world did I eat at Brower Commons for four years?

On the other hand, I've had plenty of time since then to become independent, pay a mortgage, raise a daughter, and take care of all the responsibilities that come wth adulthood. So maybe enjoying the convenience of a dorm for awhile wasn't so bad.