Dorm Life 101

All About Living in the Dorms!

By Team G

 

Living in the dorms is one of the key experiences and core memories of your first year at Penn State. Whether living in a renovated or unrenovated dorm, there are many different ways to navigate dorm life and to maximize your experience. Penn State comprises five housing areas: North, South, East, West, and Pollock. All of these housing areas are made up of multiple halls, and each area has its own dining area/commons. Within the dorms, you will experience living with new people, shared bathrooms, having an RA, and so much more. In this blog, we will highlight what we believe to be the most important and relevant aspects of dorm life: living with roommates, bathroom hacks, navigating dining halls, and decorating your room!

 

One of your first friends at Penn State will be your roommate. For many people, this is the first time they are sharing a room with another person, let alone a stranger. While living with someone new and sharing a small space together can be quite an adjustment, having a roommate can also provide you with one of your best friends and be the source for fond new memories. A lot of you may have heard different roommate horror stories, but my first piece of advice with a roommate is to go into the situation with a positive attitude and without the negative thoughts and fear in your head. Making a connection with your roommate prior to living together is extremely integral in the foundations of your relationship. Whether you met over Facebook or you went random, once you know who your roommate is, make sure to reach out and start a regular stream of communication. I personally had weekly FaceTime calls with my roommate and we used these calls to get to know each other, plan out how we want to decorate our dorm, and generally understand each other’s plans and goals for college. Once you move in, it is always key to be considerate of each other to avoid conflict. Some basic rules of thumb include keeping your side of the room neat and tidy, not being loud while the other is studying, not keeping the lights on late into the night while the other is trying to sleep, and being quieter when the other is sleeping and you’re awake. Some ways to bond in person are to grab meals together, go walk your schedules together before classes begin, and to explore campus together.  

Meeting new people on the floor will also be easier if done with your roommate rather than alone. If you do have plans or have other friends made separately from your roommate, try to invite them if they don’t have other plans. For me personally, my roommate became my best friend and I am very lucky to have met her; however, there will be situations where roommates are not compatible and affects your college experience. If there is conflict, try to communicate in a rational and calm manner. If you are upset or heated from a roommate interaction, take some time to yourself, go on a walk, and try to clear your head and calm down before re-visiting the issue. If problems continue to persist, talk to your RA; they are there to help resolve conflict and come up with a solution. Some of these solutions include roommate contracts, having separate discussions with each roommate, and in extreme cases, changes in housing/roommates. Hopefully this will not be the case for any of you! Another aspect of roommate dynamics is the “in the middle” type of relationship. This is where you coexist with each other in harmony, but you are not close friends - and this is totally normal. It is totally okay if you and your roommate are not close but live together well. Having a roommate calls for a variety of experiences, but it can truly be one of the best aspects of your college life.

           Keeping a healthy and hygienic daily routine is an important step to feeling happy and clean during your first year of college, and it all starts with the bathroom. Penn State requires on-campus housing for your first year, so you will have one of two bathroom options: communal stalls or semi-private “pod” bathrooms. Most common are the completely communal bathrooms housing stalls for showers and toilets. “Pod” bathrooms enclose a communal shower, toilet, and sink in their own rooms, but are still housed in a communal location and for open use. After moving in, I recommend finding the bathrooms located closest to your dorm and over the first week figuring out when the bathrooms are the most crowded and which showers give the best water pressure and temperature. If many of the showers are taken in the evening or early in the morning, you may have to adjust your schedule to their availability. As for things you need for dorm bathrooms, there are two must-haves besides the obvious towel and washcloth/ loofah: shower shoes and a shower caddy. I cannot emphasize enough how important shower shoes are for hygiene and cleanliness. Communal bathrooms are full of bacteria, hair, dirty hygiene products, bugs, and so many more gross things that you don’t want your feet touching. Investing in a pair of flip flops, crocs, slides, or some form of shower shoes is well worth the money. In addition, shower caddies make life easier to carry bottles of shampoos or face products - anything you may want to bring with you to the bathroom. I personally loved the soft mesh shower caddy that had a lot of storage room, but also dried fast. There are also hard plastic versions that can hang in the shower. I recommend finding one with a key clip or some place where you can take your room key with you, as Penn State provides physical keys to enter your dorm doors. An important note, too, is to bring two towels and washcloths - or a loofah, if you prefer. Unless you are diligent with doing laundry on a weekly basis or at a set time, you will need another towel/ washcloth to rotate until the other is clean. If you do not plan on taking a change of clothes with you to the bathroom every time you shower, a robe or towel wrap is highly advisable to maintain privacy. Everybody has different levels of comfort walking around in the halls, but it is better to cover up at least enough to get back to your dorm. Lastly, cleaning up after yourself is a common courtesy in communal bathrooms - unclogging your hair from the drain, wiping down the sink, etc. Keeping a clean, habitable space for everyone in the hall helps with the comfort and cleanliness of the bathrooms that everyone will appreciate.

 

            Each residential area on campus includes a commons area, where you can find multiple places to get food, hang out with your friends, and discover your favorite study spots.  The dining commons offer a variety of foods and locations to get your meals.  In the East Commons, also known as the Findlay Commons, there are 10 different dining options.  Bowls is located on the second level, and offers acai bowls and overnight oats.  The Chef's Table has only in-person ordering and sells customizable burrito bowls.  At the Deli, you can create made-to-order subs and wraps.  Edge is a coffee shop that sells Starbucks Coffee and Refreshers, and also offers pastries and cakes.  The meal plan sadly does not give students a discount at Edge or any Starbucks location on campus.  At Flipps, you can order burgers, chicken tenders and sandwiches, fries, and mozzarella sticks.  If you want to order from Flipps, make sure to order early as their wait time can take hours.  There is also a pasta and pizza location that offers made-to-order pasta or pizza that you can order by the slice or an entire box.  Pure is a dining station that is free of common food allergens and is stationed in a completely separate kitchen.  The most common dining option is the buffet.  The buffet contains an all-you-can-eat style option with its menu posted daily on the Penn State Go app.  Lastly, there is also a convenience style Market, which contains ready to go meals, toiletries, and household items.  The Market does have very high prices, so you can save money if you are able to get these items from Target, Walmart, etc.  The Warnock Commons, located in the North residential area, also has a Deli, Grill, Market, and a buffet.  In the Pollock Commons, you can also find an Edge, Market, and buffet.  The buffet at Pollock offers an extensive variety of foods, and includes an all-you-can-eat pasta and pizza section.  In addition, there is also an Asia Kitchen that offers bubble tea, customizable bowls, and more popular Asian dishes.  In Redifer Commons at South, you can find a Bowls, Edge, Deli, Market, Pasta, Grill, Buffet, and Salad Bar.  One option unique to the South Commons is called Fresco Y Caliente, which offers burritos, quesadillas, nachos, and tacos.  The Waring Commons at West also offers an Edge, Market, Grill that has cheesesteaks, chicken tenders and sandwiches, and deli sandwiches, and a Buffet.  The West Buffet is known on campus to be the best buffet of all the dining halls, from their pizza and pasta section, large variety of drink choices, ice cream bar, salad bar, and their warm chocolate chip cookies.  In addition to the dining halls, there are even more places to grab food on campus.  A very popular spot is the HUB.  With 11 different restaurants, it is a great place to grab lunch between classes and meet up with friends.  There are also four different Panera locations on campus, Starbucks in the library, Cafe Laura, Saxbys, and a Shake Smart at both the IM Building and White Building.  With the large variety of dining options Penn State has to offer, you are bound to find your favorites and share them with your friends.

One of the first things you may talk to your roommate about is decorating your dorm room. When choosing decorations, there are a few things you may want to keep in mind. It’s a lot cheaper and easier to get decorations that will carry through your four years at Penn State. Instead of buying all new trendy decorations each year, you may want to invest in or make some decorations that you know you’ll still like four years from now. Another thing to consider is you want your dorm to feel like home and be a place you look forward to spending time in. For me, that meant that I wanted to walk in and see pictures of all my friends and family, especially the ones from home that I missed seeing. A great addition to any dorm is a photo wall. You can make this in a collage style or hang photos from twine or lights across your room. This is a really cheap and easy way to make your dorm feel like home! One final thing to consider when decorating your dorm is ease of cleaning. In a small space, things get dusty pretty quickly. You want to make sure that your dorm is decorated enough that it’s a fun place to be, but not so much that it’s cluttered and hard to dust and clean. Overall, there are plenty of ways to decorate your dorm in a cheap way that fits your personal style!

 

Overall, living in the dorms is definitely a new environment to adjust to, but it is also quintessential first-year experience. We hope that this blog assisted you and answered some of your questions about dorm life and how to navigate through different potential challenges. We wish you luck in your first year, and hope you enjoy your new home at Penn State!