Living on- vs off-campus

chilloutdude
Fri, 13 Jul 2018 00:12:24 +0000

I’m going to be transferring to Cornell this fall as a sophomore and didn’t get regular housing. Instead, I got temporary housing on North Campus (1st year campus). I’m considering living off-campus instead, since I lived in dorms all of high school and again my freshman year (I went to a fairly small LAC).

I know a lot of people seem to value the dorms as an “experience” for building social connections, but my freshman year, I didn’t form a single friendship in my dorm other than my roommates. I feel like I made most of my friends in classes or clubs, and if I lived in the same dorm as them that was just a sidenote. Another concern is that this on-campus assignment is temporary. I think it’s a study lounge converted to a quintuple, but I’ve heard that it’s a pretty big space. I will eventually be moved to a permanent room, but there is no information on where this would be or when it would happen because it would be into a room another student has left.

I am living in an apartment this summer with one housemate and personally like this a lot better than the dorms, especially since I like having a kitchen and haven’t had a room to myself in 5 years. I am looking at an apartment right near campus with two other transfer sophomores. My parents seem to strongly want me to live on campus, I think for social reasons and because the school is large. Am I missing something about living on-campus that everyone seems to love so much?