<p>While the HCOL housing was definitely nicer (cleaner, newer, private bathrooms etc), I really have not regretted my decision for a second. I made amazing friends in my own res hall my first year, and now nine of us live together in a house downtown. Although yes, I may have missed out on living with my HCOL friends and seeing them every day in the halls as well as in class, I felt incredibly lucky to have two wonderful groups of friends, especially when they all became friends with one another! One of the things we all did was create an intramural broomball team – a few of us that were close created the team and I brought in some non-HCOL friends and they brought in some other HCOL friends that I did not know. That was three years ago, and we have played together every semester since then, and just recently finished up our final season as second semester seniors. </p>
<p>In my experience, UVM students are extraordinarily welcoming and friendly – this is really conducive to having different groups of friends and really never feeling left out regardless of the friends you make or the place that you choose to live.</p>