Going to college is a big step for anyone, especially for the majority of young people who have lived at home all their lives. If you’re going to attend school far away from home, you have to adjust to living in another place. While some people do find housing off campus, many students find themselves living in dorm rooms with crowds of other people. They have to adjust to sharing closet space, bathrooms, chairs, and everything else with other people. They have to adapt to different habits that their roommates and apartment-mates might have.
Getting Along with Your Dormmate
If you’re making the jump from living in your own bedroom at home to living in a dorm room at a university with two or three other people, you need to know what to expect. College offers enough challenges as you learn your way around campus, adapt to your class schedule, and get used to the homework load. Adjusting to living in a dorm adds another challenge to the mix. A lot of these tips reflect common-sense courtesy, but if you are not used to living in crowded quarters with several other people, you may not think of all the factors of courtesy offhand.
You need to realize that different people operate on different schedules. Not everyone goes to bed or wakes up at the same time. If you’re used to setting your alarm for 6:00 A.M. and hitting the snooze four times before jumping out of bed, you probably won’t make friends with your roommates right away. If you blast loud music with a subwoofer after midnight, you probably won’t hit it off with the roommate who likes to go to bed early. Sure, you can keep your schedule the way you want, but you should respect your roommates’ privacy and desire to sleep when they want.
Some college dorms are set up so several people on a hall share a bathroom with multiple showers. Other dorms divide into suites in which 5 or 6 people share a single bathroom. If you’re sharing a single shower with 5 other people, you should avoid taking excessively long when they need to get going early in the morning too.
You’ll only have so much space to store your things. Don’t hog all the dresser drawers if another person needs to put clothes in some of the drawers. Leave room on the desk for your roommate’s computer if he has to share your desk space. He might not appreciate your 32″ monitor and giant lava lamp taking up all the room on the desk.
Tension can build over time with the stress of school as people live together in a confined space. Don’t spark unnecessary rivalry with your roommates. Get to know them and their likes and dislikes.
Keeping these tips in mind will help the new college student adapt to life in the dorm. Sure, you’ll still need time to adjust to the world of a university campus, but you can enjoy life as much as possible while you learn the ropes of life at college.
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