Some students, however, do not want to take part in this part of the college experience. They would prefer to live in an apartment or rent a house. The idea is that you live in more comfortable surroundings, you have a better chance to pick the roommates that you want, you do not need to worry about sharing a bathroom with so many people, and so on.
there is another very important side to this story that is not being addressed.
That would be, of course, the social aspect of dorm life. Living in a dorm is a social experience like no other social experience you will have. When you live in a dorm your freshman year of college, you will meet people you would otherwise have never met, and you will spend time with people in a way that would be very difficult in other circumstances. Very often you will make friends that you may have for the rest of your life, which just is not really possible in any other situation. People who opt not to stay in a dormitory when they go to college are missing out on a huge opportunity. Living in a dorm means being a part of a whole group of friends in a way that is unlike anything you have seen before. To say nothing of the convenience of being able to stay right on campus, near professors, classes, and other university resources, choosing to live in a dorm can mean a social experience that will not get anywhere else.