As you grow older at Grove City College, living opportunities begin to increase. For the most part, freshmen men will live in either Memorial Hall or Hicks Hall until their sophomore year when more opportunities open up such as Lincoln, Ketler, Hopeman, or even the Colonial Apartments. Personally, I joined a fraternity my freshmen year so it is popular to live on the hall with your group.
But, my senior year, my roommate and I decided to enter the lottery for an apartment. Our hopes were to give us more room and ultimately more independence from the regular student life set up. It also helps if you are student teaching to have a kitchen to make meals for the day. The apartment comes with many pros but of course with everything there is a cost. The first most obvious cost or downfall is that you are further away from the heart of campus. This means you must add extra time into your schedule to account for the walk to class. Another cost is food. The apartments provide a full kitchen with the intention that students will cook for themselves. For a college student that is low on time or a budget, cooking food becomes more arduous.
Despite these downfalls, the apartments provided a multitude of benefits to students who live there. Some of the stand-out pros that I have found are the increased independence and the opportunity to learn how to cook. After college you enter the real world, and it is nice to have prior experience in cooking meals, especially on a budget. Another plus is the size of the space. Colonial offers spacious rooms and updated appliances. Overall, Colonial offers a sense of independence that you do not get anywhere else on campus, and it forces you to grow and live on your own. For me being so involved in my fraternity, I do not know if I would have done it again, but it has been a great experience and one I will always remember.
