When you go to college, you have to live somewhere__ for most students, they live on campus. When selecting a dorm building or room you tend to get randomly put with someone, but other times you pick who you live with. But when living with someone else it doesn’t always go as planned and instead, problems arise. I’ve asked a couple of students about their experiences with housing at Arcadia.
Addison Altoft said, “I have two roommates. The first roommate was chosen at random, and it’s not the best pairing honestly. My other roommate is a friend of mine who wasn’t getting along well with one of her two roommates, and I conveniently had an extra bed in my room from my other roommate dropping out before school began. Living with my randomly selected roommate hasn’t been the best, mainly because of how much I hate the sound of typing and the fact that seems to be all she does while in the room, other than sleep. Living with my other roommate, however, is great because of how alike we are and how well we get along.”
“I had such bad interactions with roommates in the past but this one is truly more peaceful, so I’m not going to complain about them outright, but I truly just want a single next year. I’m so over living with people and I am dying for my own space. I wish getting accommodations at this school was easier because I can not share my space again next year, I will genuinely crash out. I met my current roommate last semester after I was having issues with that year’s roommate and we roomed based on the fact that we were both clean and preferred to ‘coexist’. We no longer want a friendship out of being roommates. It’s awkward, but also more peaceful than when I lived with friends,” said another, who wished to remain anonymous.
Jennifer Coulibaly said, “I don’t appreciate it when people don’t follow the cleaning schedule. Also being in Knight Hall I don’t like being able to control the heat or air in my room. When I have problems with my roommates I usually just ask or advertise on missed connections.”
“In the castle, I felt a little isolated, there was a hornet problem, the arrangement of all of these girls felt very sterile and cold, and there were problems with the AC. I will always have a special attachment to Heinz, but there was a pretty terrible stink bug problem, but otherwise I really liked it. Oak I love very much and I have no problem with it, I have a much larger space with single accommodations, and I love having my own washer/dryer among other things. I’ve had troubles with roommates, but I feel Arcadia handled them swiftly and with care. I currently have two roommates I met during a last minute during an emergency room change. I love them very much! They are so kind and gentle with me and they have become some of my best friends. If there are any issues, like if I accidentally forget a mess, or if the room is too cold, or if someone isn’t coming back until late, we just communicate,” said Betty Moss.
Anna Stevens said, “I have two roommates: an RA, and the girl I share my room with. I got placed with them randomly, as during my first year when trying to pick my roommate didn’t go so well. I really like my roommates though, the one who I share a room with and I have gotten so close we feel like siblings almost. Honestly, it’s not bad compared to my first year. They both for the most part clean up after themselves, and we all do equal amounts of cleaning. The only thing I can think of is accidentally being too loud. If there’s anything else that’s been annoying my roommates, then they’ve stayed quiet on it. My experiences living here haven’t been the nicest. Last year, my apartment was falling apart, and when my roommates and I would get services to come in and fix things, they were horrified at the conditions. They also said the apartment wasn’t supposed to be lived in that year due to its conditions, but there we were. We were all actually moved out at the end of the first semester because of how bad it was. Living in Oak as well as the dorms aren’t horrible. In Kistler, I did have an issue with bees in the air conditioner as well as noisy neighbors but it was nothing horrid. My second year though in Oak was bad as mentioned before, but my third year so far has been rather uneventful besides a pregnant mouse.”
Natalie Toy said, “I have roommates. All three are my friends, I was scrambling to get a room together for Oak and they needed a place to stay. Honestly, I can’t complain too much. Rooming with them has been so much better than my previous experiences. I think it’s just been cleaning differences but everyone keeps up with their mess and doesn’t let the apartment become a zoo. Things break obviously, that’s natural. I think my problems this year have been the constant sprinting outside my door at like 1 am, finding a dead mouse, scrubbing my toilet, and finding out that it was painted over at some point to hide that it’s old.”
“I live in Thomas Hall. I am loving it so far. I have one roommate. We ended up rooming together since we both are on the track team. Living with Redjee has been great. I am really glad that we were paired together. We’ve actually never had an argument, so I would say that no problems have come up,” said Aaron Lemons.
“I lived in Heinz (freshman year) and Oak Summit (sophomore year). It was a very tight space to live in, especially being two girls who had a lot of clothes and a lot of stuff. We each had our closet but it still wasn’t enough space. It wasn’t the best but it wasn’t the worst. It took some getting used to but we made it work. The dressers were small and didn’t fit all of my clothes, and the closet couldn’t fit my clothes either. There also weren’t a lot of common areas to hang out in. I found myself cooped up in my room with my roommate with nowhere to go really. A problem I faced with Heinz was the bathrooms and the upkeep of them. They were hardly cleaned and the showers were just filthy. I had control over cleaning my room and my belongings but the bathroom was disgusting. I have been with the same roommate since freshman year. I found her through Arcadia’s pairing system that matched our likes, and dislikes and we then messaged each other and have been living with each other ever since. I love her, she is my best friend. Our spaces get messy at times but we both were able to get it together and there was nothing to argue about,” said Delaney Bell.
Students who live on college campuses have different experiences with a few setbacks. While most students do complain about living on campus, it is all a part of the college experience that you later tell people. Also, it might be difficult to live with others you don’t know, but students do find ways of adapting to the situation.
Featured Image by Creative Commons
