So you’re thinking it might be time to cut the cord with dorm life. Maybe you’re tired of living the fun but occasionally draining undergrad housing culture 24/7. Maybe your dorm room is no longer meeting your needs in terms of flexibility and amenities. Maybe you’re just the kind of person who doesn’t like to stay in one place for too long!

No matter what your reason, moving off campus is a big decision, and it’s one I had to face last year. I made the choice to move off campus for my junior of year of college, and I’ve never been happier. I did it because I wanted to live in a larger space, but there have been so many additional benefits.

That being said, moving off campus has also made many things in my life more difficult. I think it’s smart that many schools make you live on campus your freshman year, because I’m not sure that I could have handled off-campus life initially. You have to be ready for it.

Table of Contents

Off-Campus Living 101

There’s a reason that dorm life is so quintessentially college. When most people think of their times at university and college, I suspect they picture (insert name) Hall, with all the good, bad and crazy that came along with it. But there is good, bad and crazy off-campus too, which makes this decision so hard.

Below, I’ve addressed some of those different elements.

There’s a loss of simplicity

It is much easier to live on campus. College dorms are tailored specifically to the weird quasi-adult phase that we all currently exist in, where we can live on our own and take care of ourselves but can’t really cook and get confused by credit cards.