For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for July 14, 2023

I totally understand what Mike means. My first year of college was 55 years ago, and I was lucky enough to be assigned what was called an off-campus dorm. It was almost a mile from the college in a brand-new apartment building. There were 7 of us in each unit, but we had a full kitchen, a good-sized bathroom, and a living room.

Also, it’ll be easier to plan mischief without some dorm attendant breathing down your neck!!

Rooming off camps helps young adults learn to budget, pay bills, etc, compared to residential students in the dorm. The transition from dorm to apartment is tough on those kids as they are faced with being responsible for a leased space, finding roommates on their own, buying things they need for the apartment, paying for utilities, on top of finding transportation to work, etc. Kids who live off campus learn all that with the support of college friends. By the time they graduate, they are ready to live alone in their own apartment having learned how to budget, etc. That is if they get a good job to be able to afford living alone. I lived alone after college. I value my privacy. I don’t like sharing space. 4 years in the dorm was enough. I was lucky I was able to be able to be the sole tenant after college. These 2 years after college were my only solo years before I got married and started a family.

First year on campus – you meet a LOT more people. Of those, you will probably find a few that will join you in finding somewhere together off-campus.

I lieved off campus in an former motel room for over eight years at Penn State. I kept my privacy, and except for noisy neighbors, it was acceptable.

I know that times may have changed. But when I was a freshman, all of us were required to live in freshman dorms. I only knew one exception, a local student who lived at home. When one became an upperclassman, choice was allowed.

At this point at least one semester of dorm space (likely the first year) is already paid for. Save your off campus dream for next year.

When my son attended college it was required to live on campus for the first two years, then he and a friend got an apartment off campus.

Get a job and save your money during your freshman year. You’ll have your own apartment by your sophomore year of you do it right.

I left school at the age of 15 and started work 3 days later! I eventually made it to University in my early 20’s.

I was on my own when I went to community college in 1978-79 in Portsmouth, NH. I rented a room in a home for single women (Women’s City Club) which had a resident “house mother” who collected the rent of $60/month. I could walk to work at the hospital (nurses’ aide) and ride my bike to the grocery store. When my clinical rotation changed to a hospital in a different city (there was no bus service) I bought an old Plymouth Fury II for $50. I have tales about that car and that year but won’t elaborate now. Those days were tough but I was fortunate to have the ability to survive and went on to a successful career as an RN- had ten years Critical Care experience before switching to Pediatric Home Care.

Heh.

Seems logical to me. If I can’t lock the front door, it’s not private.

I joined a fraternity. About 40 guys in a big house with a cook. Made lifelong friends there.

Mike considering living with a tribe of men, but won’t live in a single dorm room?? I don’t think privacy is actually the issue here.

At my university, first-year freshmen had to live on campus.

First day at college, I looked at the rentals. One said, “Live on tertiary sediments!” Since I was a geology major, I moved in, and am still in touch with my old roommate

You’d probably be happier in the residences, Michael.

Note the dumb founded look on Dad’s face………..

I commuted through all my college years. I also worked, and usually went to college full time. My parents didn’t believe that females needed any education after high school except maybe secretarial school. I believed strongly in education and forged on. No secretarial school, although the secretarial classes I was forced to take in high school earned me some decent jobs to get through several college degrees. I was also a good bookkeeper.

I had enough dormitory living during my last two years of high school and then my first year in college. I finagled my way off campus and rented an apartment from that time on.

Of course, it was back to the dorms when I went into the Army, but even then, I was lucky that several of my assignments allowed me to live off-post in non-government housing. Over the years, I had a couple of great apartments in Washington, D.C., and maintained my apartment (rent-controlled) in NYC the entire time I was in the service.

What is this…LUANN??

When school starts,Mike’s rommate will be a major new character who stuck around until the end.

My freshman year in college was at a community college. No dorms, so I lived at home with my folks. Their rule was as long as I maintained a full schedule of classes, I did not have to pay rent.

My senior year at a small college that required all students to live on campus my “roommate” actually lived in town with his nurse girlfriend, so I had a single room for the price of a double.

The basement guy, is that… WEED?

The dicussion is about living on campus vs off-campus during first year.

I just looked it up, about housing for first year kids at the more famous well known universities—such as University of Toronto, or Western (where Mike is), and McGill in Montreal— and it seems that in Canada, not all universities have enough rooms for first year students, and many end up living off campus.

The first year students on scholarships get first dibs for rooms on campus.

As to the conversation in this strip, it isn’t really close to what happens, since the “residence” or dorm space, as it known here, would have been offered together with the acceptance letter. Kids don’t look for accommodation on their moving day, they already know where their living space is.

1st year ought to be mandatory on campus, res hall. Keeps them invested in whats going on. They can commute later, when they have to groove down.

Never lived in the dorms my entire life. After hearing all of the drama, noise, and complaints from friends who lived on campus in the 1980’s, I’m glad I didn’t take that route.

Back in the 1960s, I lived in the dorms for all 4 of my undergraduate years, except for 1 semester of student teaching, when I shared an apartment with two friends in Lancaster, PA. I really loved being away from the dorms, but my parents told me they couldn’t afford to foot the bill for an apartment for my last semester of studies, so it was back to the dorms for me. However, before going off to Wisconsin for graduate studies at UW-M, I waitressed the summer after graduation at a Howard Johnson’s restaurant and shared another apartment in Lancaster with a friend. That was great preparation for living on my own in Milwaukee in my own apartment! Those were the days!

John is thinking to himself that the high school was too hasty in passing Michael. Then again, public schools are diploma mills.

i loved campus life. all the poor, trapped girls were there too. i was not a “good boy”, but i was good, so i was told. i didn’t go back next year—i went to the west pacific in the navy. again. and again. after i married, settled down, and retired, daddy asked and VD?? startled (lucky?), i replied None. shoulda seen the look on my wife’s face. and for everything else, there’s MasterCard.

Had Michael gone to a military academy; there would be one choice. Michael will reside in the barracks until graduation day!

So it’s not hip to be square?