Are College Dorms Noisy [From Student’s Point of View]

College is one of the most fun and exciting times in a person’s life, and that time means meeting and living with new people. For many, the college dorm is the place to stay, but there is one reservation that some may have. Are college dorms noisy places to live, and if so, is it worth it?

College dorms can be extremely noisy. This is especially true of college dorms at party schools such as Georgia State University, Florida State University, the University of Wisconsin, and several others. However, college dorms are not the only living complexes that can have loud residents.

If you are a college student looking for a good place to live, don’t worry because you have come to the right place!

Read on to learn just how noisy college dorms can get as well as some additional pros and cons to living in one. Hopefully, knowing these factors will help you to make an informed decision about which living place best suits your needs.

Pros and Cons

College dorms have their strengths and weaknesses to be sure, though keep in mind that dorms are not the only apartment complexes that can become noisy and somewhat irritating. Here are some pros and cons of living in a college dorm that you may want to know about before moving in.

Pros

Most dorms have only two-person bedrooms.

While some might have a hard time getting used to sharing a room, the plus side is that you will meet and grow close to a lot of friends this way.

Roommates who spend semester upon semester with each other can usually do one of two things. They will either hate every second of it, or they will become a tight-knit duo. This happens quite often, which just goes to show the beauty of living in a college dorm.

Because dorms are provided by the university itself, you can depend on them to have all the comforts of home. Most dorms have extremely nice amenities such as washing machines, good parking, and sometimes even a gym or pool or both. Those amenities are extremely valuable, especially for a college student who probably isn’t making a lot of money.

The dorms are also closer to campus than many other living places.

Not all students can afford a car or other means of transportation. Living in a dorm provides an easily walkable distance to college students who may not otherwise be able to access their classes and college utilities. College dorms will often make a big statement when it comes to convenience.

This proximity to campus, plus sharing rooms with different people makes it easy for students who live in college dorms to socialize and make friends.

The campus is as good a place as any to start talking to and getting to know fellow students. This provides students with excellent opportunities and a more well-balanced social life.

Each one of these pros varies just a little from college to college but for the most part, living in a dorm will give you a great experience. If you are lucky enough to get good managers, you shouldn’t encounter any sort of problems that can’t be resolved with a little collaboration.

Cons

Unfortunately, there are still a few issues that might come with living in a college dorm, and you may want to take these into account before making a concrete decision. As with the pros, these cons will vary somewhat, but each of them is possible to encounter.

As the title of this article suggests, college dorms can be incredibly noisy. From people partying to simply stomping around upstairs, you will likely have a loud neighbor at some point or another. Every semester brings new neighbors either upstairs or next door who were as loud as people could be.

Of course, this is also possible with other apartment complexes but dorms are closely quartered and the noise can be worse as a result.

Privacy might also be hard to come by if you live in a dorm. You won’t have a space to call your own, not the bathroom, not the kitchen, not even your bedroom usually. This won’t be a problem if you and your roommates get along like best friends, but it might still be tiring to never have a minute and a space to yourself.

As mentioned above, roommates in a college dorm can do one of two things. They can either grow as close together as brothers or sisters, or they can hate each other’s guts for the entirety of their time together. Everybody will (or at least should) try to make it work but there are some roommates out there that you find you just can’t connect with.

When this happens, living in a dorm is can be extremely difficult. Everything from the bathroom to the bedroom is shared and, as said, privacy can be difficult to come by. If you and your roommate are constantly butting heads, the only place you’ll ever have a break from them is on campus, and that might not be enough.

College dorms are also often much more expensive than a regular housing complex.

When it comes down to choosing amenities or a cheaper living place, money is no joke. Those amenities that come with a dorm are extremely nice but they certainly don’t come for free.

If you are willing to put up the cash for those amenities then great, but if not, you will probably want to choose somewhere else to live that won’t empty your wallet.

Depending on where you live (namely most of the party schools), you may find yourself smelling odd scents in the hallways and unfortunately, sometimes your dorm room.

Marijuana and other things have quickly become staples in college dorms because anybody who knows college students knows that they are sometimes reckless and wild and enjoy experimenting with different things.

If you don’t like the smell of drugs or alcohol, you should carefully consider living in a college dorm at whatever college you attend.

Related Article: Are College Dorms Safe? Why or Why Not?