Living on campus certainly has its perks—you’re closer to classes, have easy access to the dining halls and you’re surrounded by your peers aka potential new friends. But moving off campus provides you with something we all came to college looking for…freedom!! Freedom to blast your music without the fear of getting written up, to cook whatever you’re craving for dinner and to have as many guests as you want without having to fill out a three day pass. But there’s more to it than just food and friends, so which housing option is superior?
Being that it is the time of the year when you must decide whether you want to take your chances with the BU housing lottery or hunt down a realtor to help you find your perfect apartment, I put on and off-campus living in a head to head battle to see which one is better.
FOOD:
Cooking off-campus is fun because you’re free to exercise your inner Ina Garten and make whichever delicious creations you crave. That is, fun until you run out of food and have to make a meal out of bell peppers, peanut butter and flavor blasted gold fish. Being sans dining hall means sometimes you’ll eat anything to avoid going back outside to Star Market.
When you live on campus (and have a dining plan), all the prepping, cooking and cleaning up is done for you. That sounds like a dream come true, except, how many days a week can you eat dining hall rotisserie chicken before wishing you could cook your own meal?
RA’s:
Resident Assistants are a great resource to reach out to if you need help with something, and they can definitely make you feel more secure when living on campus. Also, when else in your adult life will you be able to borrow a key when you lock yourself out, get a leak fixed or have someone change your lightbulb with such ease?
However, life without an RA means you don’t have to be quiet after a designated hour (except if you have moody neighbors, then you should be quiet) and allows you to live out your adult life with all of the freedom you desire. That means coffee makers, toasters and candles galore!
BATHROOMS:
There is really no way to sugar coat sharing a bathroom with a floor full of girls and boys. People are gross, you can’t deny it. The only good things that come out of a shared bathroom experience are the pleasantries you exchange with someone who has the same bathroom schedule as you (potential new friend!) and the blessing that you never have to clean it yourself.
Unless your roommates are truly foul, which you can avoid by a) living with people who are not foul or b) having a discussion about being less foul, sharing a bathroom with a handful of roommates is a breeze. Nothing is better than throwing away your shower shoes from Warren Towers and never turning back.
It’s pretty hard to choose which housing option comes out on top, but in the end it depends on what matters to you most and what you’re willing to sacrifice when staying on, or moving off campus (I miss you dining hall apple crisp). I call this one a tie.
