Friday, March 29, 2024

Finding housing after freshman year

April 21, 2015

MSU freshmen face many transitions coming to college. They move in, then are expected to acclimate to college life and classes, make new friends and try to get along with their roommates - all within the few months MSU gives them until they must choose housing for their sophomore year. 

“Making a decision a month or two into college to go into an apartment was really stressful for me and I couldn’t… make that call that fast, that was too much pressure for me and it was easier to stay on campus,” studio art and professional writing freshman Hannah Countryman said. 

Countryman lives in a 4-person room in Akers this year, and plans to live in a triple in Hubbard next year. She is living with one of her current roommates again, and she said it was easier for them to find a place than her other two roommates, who are still trying to figure out an apartment situation. 

Though Countryman has more roommates than most incoming freshman, she thinks it’s better than having one roommate because they bonded quickly and became similar to a family unit. 

However, packaging freshman Elizabeth Wilson choose to live in her sorority house next year, preferring it to her crowded dorm in Wilson hall. 

“I’ll still have a roommate, but It’s, like, a whole house, so I’ll have…places…to just be on my own,” Wilson said. 

Wilson moved into her dorm with a friend from high school, but professional writing and media and information freshman Peyton Lombardo went in blind and had to change roommates. 

“We were fundamentally different people… and it was a little too hard to work it out,” Lombardo said. 

Lombardo decided to live in a single in Landon next year. Her and a few friends wanted to switch it up and move to north neighborhood together because of its proximity to Grand River.

Though Lombardo is happy with her decision, she agrees freshman are expected to decide too early. She had to wait in line for three hours at the union when the housing sign-up website went down. 

“We get here in September, late August, and then we’re forced to decide two months later,” Lombardo said, “ there really is a rush to get there early.” She said January would be an ideal time to sign up for housing. 

Countryman said being made to sign up so early cause’s plans to fall through and roommates to fall out, whereas having more time would help people decided who and where would be best for their living arrangements, adding she only sorted her situation out two months ago. 

Support student media! Please consider donating to The State News and help fund the future of journalism.

Discussion

Share and discuss “Finding housing after freshman year” on social media.