Upperclassmen have many more options than freshmen when it comes to finding housing. Even with new choices of an off-campus house or apartment, some decide to stay in the residence halls for a second, third or fourth year. We talked to three IU students who decided to return to residence halls.
Macy Heinold is a sophomore majoring in health fitness specialist
Robert Stackhouse is a sophomore majoring in finance and accounting
Rachel Fuller is a senior majoring in legal studies
IDS: Do you think staying in the dorms was a good choice?
Heinold: For my situation I do believe living in the dorms was a good choice. I left at the end of the semester last year for medical leave. I did not get to finish out living in the dorm and thought it would be a good way to meet people again. I also want to rush again since I had to leave and rushing from a dorm seems to be a lot easier.
Stackhouse: Unfortunately, I didn’t really have a choice when it came to living in the dorms again. My plans with some off campus housing fell through late in the year and the only thing left available was to sign up for the dorms again. That being said, I’m happy with how things turned out.
Fuller: Staying in the dorms was a great choice for me personally. My parents feel way more relaxed about my safety, and I enjoy the close proximity to everything with living on campus. I do not have to worry about buses because I can walk anywhere I need to go.
IDS: What is it like to live with freshmen?
Heinold: To be honest, there are always going to be people around you that you do not get along with or enjoy being around. Living with some of the freshmen is very annoying, but other ones are great and I enjoy being around them. Being 20 and living with 18-year-olds is sometimes a bit much because the maturity level is so different for some people.
Stackhouse: Living with freshmen is interesting because you get to see them develop and adapt to college very much like how we all did when we were freshmen. By complete chance my random roommate this year was also a sophomore, but on a floor full of freshmen it’s entertaining to hear them complain about A100 and K201 and hear about how they’ve walked everywhere for the first three months of school because they couldn’t understand where the A bus goes.
IDS: What is the best thing about returning to the dorms?
Heinold: The best thing about staying in the dorms is being right on campus and not having to worry about taking a shuttle to my classes. I can walk to all my classes, the gym, library and stadium. I love the location.
Stackhouse: First of all, it’s so nice being on campus and relatively close to pretty much every building and stadium at IU. Nothing beats sleeping until 10 minutes before class starts and still being able to make it on time. In addition to that, it’s great to meet so many new people at one time. In addition to all the people I met last year, I was able to make friends with and meet tons of freshmen throughout my floor and building I would never have met had I lived somewhere else.
Fuller: The best thing about the dorms is not having to worry about cleaning. The cleaning is done for me. Also being so close I can stay at the library really late, for example, and I do not feel unsafe making it back to my room.
IDS: What is the worst thing about returning to the dorms?
Heinold: The worst thing about living in the dorms is I signed up for a single room and ended up having two suite mates I get annoyed with. I thought I was signing up for my own space since I had lived with a roommate last year. Also living in Briscoe, it is sometimes annoying to walk a decent distance to get food. I know that sounds pathetic, but in the cold it seems far.
Stackhouse: The worst thing is easily the food. Everyone who doesn’t live in the dorms after freshman year loves to come back and get the occasional C-Store sub. But after a year and a half straight of Gresham Food Court, nothing is very appealing there anymore. Thankfully, Forest opened up a new food court which has been great. So there’s at least some new variety.
Fuller: The worst thing about living in the dorms is I have gotten tired of the food and go out a lot with my friends instead. Plus, I wish I had a big kitchen to cook in.
IDS: Are you living in the same residence hall? If not, why?
Heinold: Last year I lived in Mcnutt and this year I live in Briscoe. I decided to live in a different dorm because living in Mcnutt with my amazing floor was one of the best things to ever happen to me and I did not want to replace those memories I already had from McNutt. Also, I wanted to upgrade to Briscoe since that would be my second year living in a dorm.
Stackhouse: Both last year and this year I’ve been in McNutt. I was on Bordner floor two last year, and I loved McNutt and the Northwest neighborhood in general. A lot of people don’t know that as a returning resident you can be very specific and choose the building and even exact room that you want. I choose to live in Bocobo and live on the second floor this year (BoDos as we’ve nicknamed it) because it’s the closest to the bus stop, food court and Kelley.
Fuller: I have lived in Teter all four years because of its location. Plus my mom lived there when she went to IU, so I kind of consider it a little tradition to carry on.
