Do you wish you could go back in time and tell your younger self to try something different?

If I could, I would have told myself not to live in Central Campus Residence Hall as a first-year.

I remember touring UVM in 2017, knowing that I wanted to live in CCRH.

The residence hall was built in 2016 and is in its third year of housing the Wellness Environment first-year class, according to UVM’s website.

I am now a sophomore, and I still live on Central campus. As a first-year, I lived in CCRH, and I am currently living in Converse Hall.

Living in Converse Hall was definitely not my first choice, and unfortunately was a last resort due to my housing lottery number.

My dream of living off of Central campus didn’t come true, but I am making do with what I have.

Both CCRH and Converse have an ideal campus location. In under two minutes you can be at your 8:30 a.m. lecture in Old Mill.

Despite that, I believe by living on Central campus you are missing out on the typical college social experience.

As a first-year, I only knew the people living in my dorm. For the first few months of college, I really believed that most first-years only lived on Central campus, which is far from the truth.

Personally, I found it quiet, unwelcoming and too brand-new. Before starting my first year at UVM I imagined the dorms to be rowdy and fun.

This was not what I found when I lived in CCRH. The first time I visited Trinity campus is when I realized I was missing out on the true college experience.

On Trinity, everyone’s dorm room doors were open and everyone was hanging out together.

In this moment, I realized that Central wasn’t all that everyone made it out to be.

In a residence hall as big as CCRH, I never even met most of the students.

One of my closest friends today lived a floor below me last year, and I didn’t meet her until April.

Sophomore Isabel Wilder looked back at her time living on Central campus.

“Living on Central campus my first year made me feel very isolated. Even though I was living with 700 other first-years, there was something about it that made me feel separated from the rest of campus,” Wilder said

“I noticed myself staying in the small circle of Central campus. Now living on Redstone sophomore year, I am so much happier.”

Living in CCRH also means all of the essentials are at your doorstep.

Alongside Wilder, sophomore Sophi Ohler lived in CCRH her first year.

“When I lived in CCRH, you had the gym, dining hall and classes all in one place,” Ohler said. “It made you feel isolated from all other activities on campus.”

As a college first-year, isolation is an unpleasant feeling.

I came to UVM not knowing anyone, and living on Central campus surely didn’t help me meet different people.

In CCRH, the same group of people are sleeping, eating and working out with you on a daily basis.

This is sure to stunt your social growth while starting your journey at UVM.

My main takeaway is that living in CCRH or Converse on Central campus seems nice on the surface.

However, once you live there for a while, you realize what you are truly missing out on.