People who have been to college or university, where did you live while you were there?

[Rulke]

Dorms first 2 years, third year "mods" (which were modular homes that were on campus) and final year an apartment (but school owned)

[Osede]

Dorm for two semesters (sophomore year due to our transfer program) , then move to apartment since

[archibaldcrane]

Dorms for two years, transferred schools, apartment for the next two. Rented two different houses with roommates my two years of grad school.

[Moss]

dorm the first year, house with roommates the rest is definitely the way to go

2 bedroom if you're private, 4 bedroom if you're a party person

Agree with this. House gives you personal space and room to throw parties. I will also say that I had the most fun freshman year because most of my dorm floor became friends and had good times.

Look into the rules of the dorms where you apply. At LSU you could ask to switch dorms if your roommate was a giant douche, so that really takes out the possible downside.

[Obev]

British perspective (London):

First year: halls. Didn't even meet anyone in my block - they may as well have been vampires. I met one guy who lived two doors from me on the day I moved out at the end of the year. I was sitting in the kitchen like it was 28 Days Later every time I cooked a meal that year. Spent more time in other people's flats, where good parties were had.

Second year: moar halls (I believe I may have been playing too much FFXI to get myself organised to flatshare earlier in the year). Boring people, but slightly more sociable (they actually introduced themselves, which is more than I can say for the first year troglodytes).

Third year: rented flat with two friends, one of whom turned out to be an OCD nightmare. Seriously, the other guy and I went away for a few weeks and by the time we returned there was a mountain of bin bags around the foot of the stairs because she was scared to touch rubbish. Not scared enough to keep it from piling up though. Madwoman. Anyways. Flat was really near to uni, but cramped as fuck and populated by a crazy person. Landlady ended up getting repossessed while I was in China over the summer, locks changed and all our stuff locked inside. I had one week left in China, and when I returned I had to literally get off the plane and go straight to the flat, argue with the new owners' agents with my tenancy agreement in hand, and cram a year's worth of course notes, guitars and a freaking sofa into a tiny car to escape. Mad, mad year.

MA year: rented flat with four better friends (some of whom I met in first year). We had a roof terrace with a fire and two of them were studying Arabic so intense amounts of water pipe tobacco was smoked out there. Great place. Further from uni, but far less cramped.

tl;dr: halls are pot luck, you can get cool people or the Invisible Man. Renting with friends, equally pot luck. You can get the Roof Terrace of Oriental Awesome, or you can get nightmare OCD rubbish-bag girl. Make sure you know the friends you meet before you agree to live with them.

[Silenka]

Oh, and btw, most will have a dorm that has a floor or 2 dedicated to international housing.

It's usually the one that keeps a couple floors open over winter and spring breaks.

Find out which one and try to live there. (that dorm, doesn't have to be on the international floors)

Trust me.

I didn't have to live in a dorm because I only finished up my last 2 years at university, but I did the dorm thing for a year anyhow. Being a transfer student (and possibly because my major was Japanese), I was lucky enough to be placed in the international/graduate dorm. This is absolutely the place to be. It's MUCH quieter than other dorms - generally no wild parties or crazy shit going on - and the people in it were really chill. In our case, it was also one of the better-upkept, fancier dorms.

However, I will say that it is expensive as fuck to live in a dorm. I'm glad I did it for one year, but my wallet isn't. And I'm still paying that off.

My 2nd year, I moved into a 2-bedroom apartment about a mile away from campus with my bf who moved here. Took the bus every day (campus offered a virtually free bus pass while enrolled). Much cheaper than a dorm, and if you can find a great roommate like I have, it's just absolutely the way to go.

[Dryr]

Best thing you can do is stay in dorms or within 5 minutes of walking to campus. It's a shame to throw away a year of classes (overall) due to a commute being an excuse to skip...

[Cream Soda]

Abandoned house. Do I win?

[Headspace]

Abandoned house. Do I win?

Even when you win, you lose.

[BaneTheBrawler]

nah son, CS is always winnin. you watch, dudes gonna be rich as fuck one day and instead of shitting in the yard and just leaving it, he'll have a butler with a pooper-scooper

[CoreyX]

Where I'm from everyone mostly just lives at home while going to college or gets their own place or shares a place with a friend. It's unheard of (and weird) for people to live in a dorm, basically only foreigners do that

[Waef]

Personally, I lived alone one year and found it incredibly boring. First year I was in the dorms and it was seriously the best year ever. Went to the events and made some people I expect to be friends with the rest of my life.

The first roommate I had was awful, the second was even worse, and the third and I got along okay but never talked. Right now I'm living with 3 other people, 2 of whom are awesome and one who is the worst person I've ever roomed with haha. That being said, I still prefer it to having my own place, because I've become awesome friends with the other 2 roommates.

You should definitely give the dorms a try just for the experience, and if you absolutely hate living with other people then you should consider getting your own place.

[Plow]

Personally, I lived alone one year and found it incredibly boring. First year I was in the dorms and it was seriously the best year ever. Went to the events and made some people I expect to be friends with the rest of my life.

The first roommate I had was awful, the second was even worse, and the third and I got along okay but never talked. Right now I'm living with 3 other people, 2 of whom are awesome and one who is the worst person I've ever roomed with haha. That being said, I still prefer it to having my own place, because I've become awesome friends with the other 2 roommates.

You should definitely give the dorms a try just for the experience, and if you absolutely hate living with other people then you should consider getting your own place.

I almost lived alone my sophomore year, the landlord was out of town when I needed to move in, so I got all moved in but hadn't signed the lease and shit yet... and then 2 friends got a 4 bedroom house and asked me and another guy to move in, so I ditched out on the single place and I'm soooooo glad I did.

I probably would have done better in my classes that year if I had lived alone lol, but yeah that was one of the best years of my life.

[Dranio]

off campus apartments all 5 years of college, a good sized studio the first 3, and the 1 bedroom I'm currently living in. Generally the first year requires you to live in dorms, but the exception is if your already a resident of the town. Since I was born and raised here, I wasn't required to live in the dorms at all. I've never done well with groups, I prefer living alone. Rent is fairly cheap anyway, $400 a month all utilities paid.

[Skett]

Dorms 1st year then flatshare for last 2