Living on Campus: ‘It's Something That You Can’t Put a Price To’

TRANSCRIPT

Sarah Stephens (B.ARCH 3rd Year): I've chosen to live on campus for the past three years because of the sense of community that you get being able to see the same people every day whenever you walk out of the door. One of my favorite things is being able to walk down the street and wave at my friends or people that I've just met—and just kind of have this sense of community that goes further than the residence halls.

Stephens: Rowe Village was actually designed by a famous architect that's local to Chicago. It completely blocks the noise of the train whenever you're in your rooms; it gets light into every single room; and it provides these interior courtyard spaces that you have safety entering into your dorm room, and then there are also these wonderful rooftop decks that we have  that you can go out and enjoy and read a book or do some exercise or just look at downtown.  

Ricardo Bustillo: It's very easy to live on campus. You have everything close to you. You have the library, you have your classes, you have food at all places, so it's very convenient. It just made sense to me to live on campus. It's just easy to get anywhere, and I have all the amenities of living on campus.

Stephanie Bae (CS 3rd Year): I love living on campus. To see people every day, those small conversations you have passing through the elevator, you just see someone and the more you see someone you kind of just say, ‘Hi,’ and then that like builds a friendship, and I really love that because it's like someone you never thought that you would meet and now they could become your best friend.  

Stephens: Living in on-campus housing gives you this opportunity to just hop on the Red Line or the Green Line. It gives you this connection to the city that wouldn't be possible without  this effective transit system.

Bae: Living in Chicago has been so much fun. The more I see the city and the more I see what it has to offer, it kind of makes me want to stay here in the future. It just feels like such a welcoming environment. If someone came up to me and they wanted to live on campus but they weren't really sure what the environment was like, I would say just do it. With my commuter friends, they always tell me that they're like, ‘Oh, I wish I had that campus life experience of what it was like to live in a dorm, to have students live right next door to you, to see them passing by.’ It builds like a relationship with each other, and it's something that you can't put a price to it. Like, you have to have that as an experience, and I definitely think that living on campus gives you that kind of experience.