To read Meghan Hartley’s opposing opinion, click here
On-campus living is familiar to most college kids, however, off-campus living is the superior option.
According to MLive, most universities and colleges in Michigan require freshman to live on-campus, with some exceptions for commuting and married students. This is no different for Ferris. Ferris requires students under 20 to live on campus, except those who commute or are married.
Living on your own in college is the next step of freedom for some young adults. There are no parents telling you to pick up your room or do the dishes. However, most students first realize this freedom in the dorms, which come with their own restrictions.
With quiet hours, room checks, odd smells, a lack of vacant laundry machinery and loud neighbors, it oddly feels like confinement. Plus, having a RA live next to me was like having someone who isn’t related to you act like your mom. That is one of the many reasons why on-campus living was not for me.
Living off-campus, I don’t have to deal with the nasty body odor of freshman boys who haven’t learned how to do laundry yet, I’m never woken up by my upstairs neighbor redecorating their room at 4 a.m., I don’t have to hear every single person on my floor’s alarm go off all morning and, personally, I didn’t love being woken up every Saturday by the roar of fans at Top Taggart field. Mostly because I’m not a morning person, nor a football person, but also because I could hear the play by play of every home game from my bed in North Bond, probably just as good as everyone in the bleachers.
Having to endure parking at Ferris is also a whole can of worms, and the dorm parking lots are dreadful. It’s a madhouse — a battlefield truly — just to park your car.
Think about this as well: off-campus living equals a commuter parking pass. I know we’ve all parked in the commuter lots, and maybe even been served a ticket or two for it, but with off-campus living, it helps eliminate that problem.
Now for a touchy subject for those of you in the dorms right now. How’s that double XL twin bed of yours? Did you get a mattress topper yet? I won’t even mention the shared bathrooms.
On-campus living isn’t always completely negative, though. Being in walking distance from most of the buildings on campus, exposed to events and meeting new people who are also new are some of the positives to on-campus living.
However, the dorms for me were like living a year at band camp, and I served my two semesters. Now my only worries are, “how early is that guy going to mow his lawn today?” and “can you please get your dog to stop barking?”