How to Survive Living in a College Dorm

Last Updated: September 29, 2020

This article details everything you need to know to survive living in a college dorm, especially if is your first year. In general, college dorms aren't life-threatening environments compared to wilderness, war zones and the Tuesday Market Place in King's Lynn on a Saturday night, but if you do fear for your lifestyle, read this article to ensure your survival.

Part 1

Part 1 of 5:

Spending Time With Others

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Make friends. It seems to be an easy and fun thing to do, but remember that most of the people won’t really, truly care about you, and they only want to know your life so they can gossip about you. So choose your friends carefully, but be sure to get out and find good, trustworthy people you'd enjoy spending your time with.^{[1]
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Don't share your personal life with everyone. Everyone in dorms converses with everyone else, especially if they’ve formed little cliques/groups/squads. If you go telling everyone your business, don’t be surprised when your life turns into the focal point of everyone’s entertainment.
- Keep in mind that social media plays a huge part in this. If you follow/friend request everyone you meet on Instagram, Snapchat, Tumblr, Twitter, Facebook, etc., you’re setting yourself up for a hard time. Unless you want to feel like you have to monitor everything you post, use caution when following/friend requesting people.
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3
Avoid unprotected sex. Unprotected sex can result in contracting an STI or pregnancy. Even if you know and trust the person you're sleeping with, it's always safer to use protection.
- If you do choose to have unprotected sex, make sure both of you are tested for STIs first. Still be wary of this, as pregnancy is still a risk.

Part 2

Part 2 of 5:

Staying Healthy

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Eat well. Continuing to eat nutritious food is important for your health and well-being, as well as helping you sustain the energy needed to keep concentrating in classes.^{[2]
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- When you buy groceries, do not forget to buy healthy food. Don’t just buy snacks and junk food because too much junk food will cause you to be a very unhappy and unhealthy person.
- Buy food that you can eat for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Keep a stock of items for those times when you don’t feel like going to the dining hall.
- Ramen noodles/instant noodles and canned soups are always good go-to foods that are easy to store in a dorm. Be sure to get fresh vegetables to add with them, especially if you're eating them a lot. Don't completely rely your diet on ramen noodles. Ramen noodles contain extremely high amounts of sodium and will be very unhealthy to eat in a continuous basis.
- Keeping a supply of cereal and milk is a good idea, since cereal can be eaten at any time of day.
- Try to eat five portions of fresh fruit or vegetables every day.
- Make sure you eat enough fiber to keep your bowels healthy.

Part 3

Part 3 of 5:

Using Your Own Gear

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Bring your own appliances and electronics. This can include a refrigerator, a television, cooking supplies/silverware, movies, DVD/Blu-ray player, video game system, etc. You do not want to get too comfortable using other people’s stuff, even if they’re your roommate, because if things turn sour between you, you’re out of luck.^{[3]
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Don’t share everything. Avoid sharing all with your roommate/friends because they may start using you just for your things, they may break something, they may misplace or steal your things, and your roommate or friends may villainize you once you try to take your things back. Don’t put yourself in that position.

Part 4

Part 4 of 5:

Keeping Safe and Sensible

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Don’t go looking for trouble. When you see drama poking its ugly little head around the corner, go the other way. Don’t approach it, don’t converse with it, don’t play with it, just ignore it and go in the opposite direction. If someone seems to be in trouble, call for help immediately.
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Figure out if you can trust your roommate(s). Trusting your roomies is fine, and it’s great to be able to leave your room and not have to worry about anything being out-of-place when you get back; however, your judgment of who you can and cannot trust must be spot on before you even think about leaving your valuables out in the open.^{[4]
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Think carefully about sharing food. Sharing food can become problematic, because some people may take advantage of you and end up eating too much of your limited food supply. Only share food with people you trust not to behave this way.

Part 5

Part 5 of 5:

Coping with Challenges

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Learn to live with noise. Realize now that your neighbors are probably not going to be as quiet as you’d like them to be 90 percent of the time. Also realize that there isn’t always a lot you can personally do about that. It’s just something you’re going to have to learn how to deal with and ignore. Try turning music up decently loud and sitting with your phone or speaker as close to you as possible. This will help you tune out any loud sounds next door.^{[5]
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Work out a "privacy signal" with your roommate. College is often a time for sexual exploration. As such, you or your roommate may from time to time need some privacy in your room so they can bring their sexual partner there. A good way to make sure neither of you walks in on the other mid-act is to set up an indicator that the room is occupied and in need of privacy. Common solutions are to hang a tie, sock, or bandana from the doorknob.^{[6]
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Realize that the only cleaner will be you. You are no longer in the luxury of your home, which means that the bathrooms are often going to be disgusting, and there’s not much you can do about it.^{[7]
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- Get some shower shoes. Flip flops or sandals work, too. As mentioned, dorm bathrooms aren't the cleanest places. Avoid getting any of that shared filth on your feet by wearing shower shoes.

Community Q&A

Question

What if I want to live in a college dorm, but can't take my rabbit with me?

Community Answer

See if your parents or a friend can take care of it while you're at school. You can visit your rabbit when you are on breaks, and have them send you plenty of pictures.
Question

What if my dorm building is very old an dirty? Like cockroaches a considered a norm there?

Community Answer

if your dorm building is old and dirty, write a complaint to the house advisor and ask for either a cleanup or transfer to other dorm building. However, this is likely a situation that has been allowed to build for some time, in which case you might need to be more activist and start doing things like taking photos of the roaches, dirt and disrepair and compiling a dossier to send to the head of the college, along with signatures of other students, as a mass complaint. That is more likely to get a response than individual complaints falling on deaf ears of the residence management.
Question

I want to live in the college dorm but my parents want me to stay at home. I don't have a boyfriend, I don't drink and I wouldn't have a roomie. I have great grades. How can I convince them to let me live in residence?

Spaceship

Community Answer

Tell your parents why you want to live in residence instead of living at home. If they are worried that you won’t be able to handle yourself in residence prove them wrong by showing responsibility and cleaning your room well.