The Main Scoop on Main Street
After freshman year at Bloomsburg University, students have the option of living on or off campus. Most sophomores choose to live off campus, but is the rush to get off of campus all the worthwhile? Is there anything they miss about living on campus? Or is off campus living much more luxurious? I got the inside scoop from three current sophomores at Bloomsburg University: Julie Williams, Kirsten Dematto, and Matt Brennan.
Williams and Dematto were roommates in the dorms of Elwell Hall their freshman year, and are roommates again this year. However, they live on Main Street now.
“We love our apartment down town, it’s the perfect size for two people and we each get our own room,” Dematto explains, “we can do our laundry right in our living room rather than paying for it in the basement of the dorms.”
Williams also brings up another point when discussing the good side about living off campus. “Our apartment is right near Dollar General, so whenever we run out of food or drinks, it’s really convenient to be able to just walk a minute down the road and get what we need,” says Williams, “We also have friends who live in our apartment building and in the apartment building across from us, so it’s easy to hang out when we are all in the same vicinity.”
Although Williams and Dematto love their ever-so-cozy two-person apartment, there are some downfalls to it. “Sometimes I miss being so close to the Commons or Husky Lounge” says Williams, “it’s annoying to have to walk ten minutes up to campus just to get food!”
Matt Brennan, who also lives on Main Street, is appreciative of the shuttles that pick up the students who live downtown. “I like the fact that shuttles come every so often because when it’s freezing or raining, or I’m just really tired, I like that there is a shuttle I can take rather than walking up that hill.”
Brennan also explains more of his pros about living off campus when he states, “My Fraternity house is also closer to my down town apartment than it was to my dorm last year, so that’s another plus to living off campus, since I’m there a lot.”
Even with all of these positive outlooks on living off campus, Brennan also mentions some drawbacks. “I have to wake up a lot earlier for classes since I am further away from classes living on Main Street, so that’s something I don’t like.”
He also says, “The gym and library are really far from where I live now, so when I want to work out or get homework done in the library, I have to plan out my day to go after classes, because once I’m back at my place, I usually don’t feel like going back up there.”
Overall, it is apparent that there are both pros and cons to living on and off campus. It seems as though most students after their freshman year choose to find apartments or houses rather than living in the dorms again, but it is understandable that students might miss some aspects of on campus living. Julie Williams, Kirsten Dematto, and Matt Brennan are just three examples of how, seemingly, most students feel about the switch from on campus to off campus living.
