Living in the dorms can be a really amazing experience, but it won’t always seem like it. Most likely, you grew up with your own bedroom - with your parents and siblings in separate rooms. But, even if you shared a room with your sibling, you were sharing it with a person you were very close to and knew well. Now, all of a sudden you’re not only living on your own, away from your family, but you’re living in close quarters with a bunch of strangers. How crazy is that?
However, Emerson College dorm life is far from traditional, and now that the Little Building is under renovation, there are no buildings that offer normal, dorm-style living. So what does this mean for you? Well, first things first, your life is going to be a hell of a lot easier than your friends at other schools. But, just because you live in a suite with your own bathroom, that does not mean you are living in the lap of luxury. Sure, you don’t have to share a bathroom with 50 other kids, but there are a lot more responsibilities, cleaning wise, and socially that come with living in a suite.
When you live in a suite, you are responsible for cleaning everything... everything. It is important that you hold up your end of the bargain and actually clean. It is incredibly easy to manage if all of you put in the work and work together. Trust me, if you don’t clean, the people you live with won’t like you very much. I’m not trying to be harsh, but it is one of the responsibilities that come with living in the suite and it genuinely isn’t hard. I recommend everyone in the suite has a chore cycle, so you all take turns sweeping, mopping, cleaning the bathroom, and taking out the trash. Also, after living in a suite for a year, the best way to handle the dishes is to clean your own dish either right after you finish, or at least soon after so it doesn’t stack up. The reason I suggest doing this and not taking turns doing the dishes is because since you are all on meal plans, not everyone will use dishes. I’ve found that there is usually one or two people in the suite who actually use dishes. So it is rather unfair for other people in the suite to be doing one person’s dishes if they don’t use them.
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Before I entered Emerson, I decided to take the route of finding suitemates online. I found a group of four other girls and we requested to live in a five person suite. It seemed like a dream come true, but it wasn’t. We ended up in a six person suite, and since I was the one who was supposed to have a single, I was randomly assigned to a roommate. Little did I know I would become best friends with my randomly assigned roommate, and only like one of the roommates I selected.
Going into college, I think everyone wants to believe that they are going to be best friends with the people they live with, especially if you chose them online. But that usually isn’t the case. However, I think it’s really important that you don’t come into college with these expectations, because there is a large chance it will hinder your experience. Don’t get me wrong, you can definitely be friends with the people you live with, I am good friends with two of them. But, I am also on bad terms with two of them because we forced ourselves to be friends when we just didn’t work.
Additionally, especially when you live in a Piano Row suite, you will feel no need to go into your common room. This seems like such a small, non-problematic situation, but once you realize you don’t really know anyone outside of your suite, you’ll realize that it is. But fret not, this is easy to prevent! My best advice is to go to Orientation events during the first week, go into your common room, talk to people you wouldn’t normally, and to be brave. This can be really scary, but it’s important to remember that everyone around you wants to make friends too. You may think they settled into their friend groups, but no matter what, people are always looking to make new friends.
So just be wary, dorm life is a great experience, but it won’t always be as great as it seems. Have fun with it, but be prepared to compromise and to deal with problems.