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What do you recommend: Live alone your first year or with a roommate? I need some advice? What do most people do?

Are you incapable of doing a forum search?

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I'm living alone. The extra cost is worth it for privacy and peace. But that's because my last roommate situation was a disaster -- she was a coworker who tried to undermine my professional life. And the roommate before her was filthy -- she'd leave dirty dishes in the tub when the kitchen sink was full. The roommate before her was alright, but liked to walk around naked. I could go on, but I'll stop.

cinephile wrote:I'm living alone. The extra cost is worth it for privacy and peace. But that's because my last roommate situation was a disaster -- she was a coworker who tried to undermine my professional life. And the roommate before her was filthy -- she'd leave dirty dishes in the tub when the kitchen sink was full. The roommate before her was alright, but liked to walk around naked. I could go on, but I'll stop.

Wow. That's amazing. My roommates since freshman year of college have all been fantastic, by that standard.

There are benefits to living alone, definitely. But going back to school, I think I'll shoot for a roommate and cross my fingers about dishes in the bathtub. Damn.

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Roommate. Much cheaper and I've had pretty good luck with roommates during my years as an undergrad.

im living alone 1L. Dont even want to run the risk of having a bad roommate. I can live with just about anyone but i'd rather pay extra to not worry about it.

Sandro wrote:im living alone 1L. Dont even want to run the risk of having a bad roommate. I can live with just about anyone but i'd rather pay extra to not worry about it.

+1 thinking about getting a dog though

Well I had every intention on living alone because I hate roommates. But my sister recently decided to go to school in the DC Metro Area, so we've decided to stick it out together for now since the cost of living is so friggin high in and around DC. Not uber excited about living with her either, but I'm sure it'll be better than having some whack-job roommate.

I've lived alone too long (last 10 years) to risk getting a roommate, especially 1L year when any little annoyance will likely be magnified by stress. Plus I'm kind of a slob. (Not dishes-in-the-bathtub bad, though!)

Plus I'd like to live near the NU campus in Streeterville for 1L, and 2-bedroom places in McClurg and the like are more than twice the price of studios, so it wouldn't save any money anyway.

I had a hard time deciding but ultimately chose to live alone. I have a dog too, which often makes living alone more expensive (most places charge pet rent and decent apartments that allow dogs are generally more expensive), and I will absolutely have to leave school and potentially interrupt studying to get home to take care of him. (Most of my roommates in the past haven't had a problem letting him out or feeding him if necessary, so I won't have that luxury anymore.) That being said, I have had such a horrible string of roommates over the past 3 years that I just can't see myself staying even a little bit sane with the stress of school added to the crazy shit that roommates do. (My current roommate told me she thinks it's best if we don't share kitchen stuff because I wanted to keep the AC on all night. I'm still struggling with that logic.) So I'll be paying about twice what financial aid says I should be spending on housing, but I'll have a quiet, comfortable place to live and an extra bedroom that will become my office. And a trail right outside my back door where I can walk my dog. I figure, I won't have time to spend money on anything but gas & groceries, so I might as well live as comfortably as possible, right?

If you get a bad roommate, it's another level of stress added onto your LS stress

I'll be living with a roommate, but she'll be my wife. If not I would definitely be going it alone. 1L is purportedly way too hard to deal with any unnecessary stress that even a slightly batshit roommate would add.

I'll be living by myself. To me it is worth the extra cost just to have a place to shut the door and do what I want-- study, cook, work out, etc-- without having to be considerate of a roommate. I haven't had any disastrous living arrangements, in fact I've had a lot of fun living with good friends in the past, but for 1L I want to be able to keep my own schedule and not appear antisocial when I escape to my bedroom. Forced 24/7 cordiality, even with the greatest of roommates, can be tiresome IMO, plus I value my privacy and need alone time to recharge.

Hoosier wrote: So I'll be paying about twice what financial aid says I should be spending on housing

I only recently figured this out. I thought maybe if I lived in the dorms I could make it, but even that would exceed the COA budget. So, as stressful as it is, I think I'll live with a random person because otherwise I'd just be stressing about money.

But now for a fun ex-roommate story. Last year the three of us bought dishware together and split the cost, so I thought we could all use whatever. But one of the girls was really touchy about anyone using "her" plate/mug/bowl/etc. Only, she never told me to my face, she just left post-its on them marking them as hers. When I tried to ask her she just smiled and laughed it off and wouldn't talk about it.

For those of you who are living alone, I envy you.

I need to live alone so I can go crazy and set up my apartment like A Beautiful Mind (or Charlie in the mail room)

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