Undergraduates are required to live on campus for their first two years, but this requirement seems to have a mixed reaction from students.

Both upperclassmen and underclassmen shared pros and cons regarding life in residence halls.

“Living on campus is great because of how close I am to everything,” first-year Grace Cherouny said. “A con would be how I don’t really have any alone time so I feel like I am always having to be at my happiest and best around other people,” Cherouny said.

Sophomore Kira Wollensak, a resident of Wing Hall on Redstone Campus, said she spent  her first year at UVM in the “Back Five” dorms on Trinity Campus.

“There [weren’t] a lot of people in the Back Five,” Wollensak said.

Now that Wollensak lives in Wing Hall on Redstone, she said she is warming up to dorm life.  “I definitely like [Wing Hall] a lot more than the Back Five on Trinity,” she said.

Wollensak also said there are academic benefits to living in residence halls.

“You’re surrounded by people who are approximately the same age as you and approximately in the same classes as you,” she said. “If you have issues you can go talk to someone in your dorm rather than having to haul to office hours.”  

Kari Chapman, a junior who lives off-campus, offered a different perspective.

Chapman said she had experience with four different residence halls in her first four semesters at UVM. “I lived in Millis, Chittenden, Davis and L/L,” she said. “It was cool having the common space [in the L/L suites].”

But Chapman said living in close quarters resulted in “drama and cattiness” between roommates.

Chapman said she now enjoys living with four of her best friends in a house close to campus.

“We all have our own rooms,” she said.

Chapman said she appreciates this and recognizes this as a luxury not all students can have.

Residence halls seem to pose benefits and drawbacks for UVM students, but proximity to classes  seems to remain an important factor for those both on and off campus according to Chapman and Wollensak.

“I definitely, whole-heartedly prefer [living] off campus,” Chapman said.