A lot of students in the US prefer living in dorms instead of renting apartments as it’s cheaper and more convenient to live on campus. For first-year students, moving to a dorm is a new experience, and it’s not often great. In case you want to discover how to survive in a college dorm, utilize the guide below.
Discover What to Expect
For starters, if you have no prior experience living in dorms, you need to do research. Ask your friends who already live in dorms, explore some blog posts, and watch videos to learn more about college dorms’ lifestyle and how to survive living there.
For sure, you will learn that, in most dorms, students are more likely to have fun than study. Consequently, most of them get help with assignments to hang out with friends and maintain a high college score with no fuss.
Purchase Earplugs and Eye Mask
If you’re used to falling asleep in a quiet environment, there is bad news for you. Dorms gather a lot of young people in one place. Most of them aren’t focused on healthy night sleep and education.
You have to be ready that your roommate can have all-nighters to pass an assignment till the past due. Also, your neighbors can have frequent parties.
Therefore, do not hesitate to purchase earplugs with an eye mask to sleep well at night. To wake up in the morning, buy a vibrating wristband with an inbuilt alarm. Also, smart-bands can track sleeping time and send regular reports.
Respect your Roommate
Being respectful to others is one of the main rules for all students who live in dorms. Definitely, there shouldn’t be any piece of respect for those who don’t respect others or even steal.
However, if you don’t want to turn your life in a dorm into a nightmare, you have to treat your roommate with respect and expect the same in response.
For instance, if your mate asks you to turn off the light late at night, order an essay online to delegate your assignment to professionals. Thereby, both you and your roommate will go to sleep on time. Yet, you will also get your homework done with no hassle.
Don’t Break a Dorm’s Policies
That’s a well-known fact that all dorms have rules that all students have to follow. Moving to a dorm, you have to learn all the rules. Otherwise, you may be fined or most likely get dismissed from a dorm. If you’re eligible to consume alcohol, you have to avoid doing this in a dorm, unlike its allowed.
Find a Quiet Place
Living in a dorm, you have to forget about privacy. Nevertheless, sometimes students want to stay alone and get rid of the everyday routine. Thereby, you will need to explore a dorm’s building and its outlying territories to find a secret place where you’ll be able to hide from everyone.
So that nobody will ask you, “Hey, can you do my math homework?” if you’re good at exact sciences. Also, this place can become your zen area to relax after a hard day.
Always Mark your Things
A dorm is a public place, and your room as well. You have to share it with a roommate. It’s okay to use others’ pens, notebooks, and other things without permission. Therefore, do not hesitate to mark your toiletries and things that you don’t want others to take, even for a few minutes. Also, by marking your property, you will easily find your things if they get lost suddenly.
There’s No Space Like Home
One of the downsides of living in a dorm is that they rarely have anything in the way of decoration or homeliness. Staring at white or cream walls isn’t just boring when you’re trying to write an essay. It can often induce homesickness as the sudden change from your home to this can be more taxing on your mental health than you think.
That’s why it’s important you bring a little bit of home with you and decorate the place to feel more like your space than something you rent from the college. Take some wall hangings or decorations from home and put them up. Maybe even try some peel-and-stick cute wallpapers to cover up those bland walls (they come right off very easily so no worries about leaving a mess behind). Anything you do that makes your dorm room “your space” can really help you adjust to your new surroundings and keep morale up.
Make Sure Your Appliances Work
When you live at home, everything you have is taken care of for you. If the oven has stopped working, your parents will fix it. If your shower is only producing cold water, the plumber that has been booked before you even realized there was a problem has resolved the issue. You don’t even give these things a second thought when you are living a comfortable life with your parents. But this all changes in a heartbeat when you move to college and are living with people who are likely to be in the same situation as you.
One of the most important appliances you will have in your dorm is your HVAC system, which is ultimately responsible for the warm and cool air you experience during the winter and summer months. When this appliance breaks, it could leave you feeling very uncomfortable in your surroundings, and you will want it repairing as soon as possible. Whilst there will be many professionals in your local area that could help, your parents may have told you to get in touch with somewhere like Mister Quik Home Services because they have a good track record. You can visit Mister Quik Home Services here >> for more information. Before the problem has a chance to get any worse, you should make sure that you start the process of getting it fixed as soon as possible. And this relates to any appliance that you have within your student housing accommodation or dorm room.
Plan a Budget
Living in a dorm, you have to avoid splurges. Renters Insurance, rent, utilities and food bills all pile up, so you might not be left with much wiggle room. It is a simple recommendation to not spend much, but in practice that is hard to follow. Being a college dorm student, you will always want to enhance your room, eat out instead of cooking meals in a shared kitchen, or purchase new gadgets.
The only way not to spend all your money in a few days is to plan a budget. You need to indicate all your approximate expenses for each month. In case your income is lower than your spendings, you have to reduce expenses or find a side hustle.
Note, students in the US are allowed to work 20 hours per week only. However, if your friends always ask you, “Can you write my essay now?” don’t be shy to help your acquaintances and earn some money.
Make Friends and Have Fun
Doubtless, there is no need to spend all your time in a dorm studying. It’s vital to make new friends, enlarge your connections, and have fun. Feel free to hang out with your new friends. In case you don’t have free time, reach professional academic writers online and order top-grade assignments to free your schedule.
Top 3 Reasons To Live in Dorm
First of all, most teenagers choose dorms because it’s more affordable than renting an apartment.
The second reason why teenagers choose dorms is the social opportunities and the ability to make many friends. It is hard to do that, spending all the time locked in your apartment.
The third reason is a convenient location. There is no need to make long distances every day to attend a college and get back home after lectures, living in a dorm.