Double or single? Students debate in preparation for room selection

With room selection for on-campus housing coming up in January, students are beginning to contemplate housing options for next year. One consideration is whether or not to live in a single.

Though it’s not the traditional image of life in a college dorm, hundreds of students at Penn request singles every year.

Weighing their on-campus options for next year, many freshmen said they would prefer to live in suites or apartments with roommates to going without them entirely. While students said they would prefer having singles again next year, many on-campus apartments like those in the high rises require tenants to live in a double room for at least one semester out of the year.

Life in a single has its benefits. Students in singles never have to cope with the stress of fighting with a roommate or work around another person’s schedule. Students like College freshman Alison Gern appreciate not having to worry about a sleeping roommate when they get back to their rooms at odd hours.

“When it’s late at night and I don’t want to be in the library anymore, I can go back to my room and study without having to worry about waking somebody else up,” Gern said.

Living in a single also means never having to live with a roommate’s visiting friends or significant others, and never having to clear your own visitors with a roommate first. It cuts down on awkwardness and allows privacy whenever it’s needed.

Without roommates, students in singles can enjoy time to themselves often denied to those with roommates.

“After a really stressful day … it’s nice to be able to come back to my room and completely relax without anyone else there,” College freshman Gina Kahng said.

Some might simply want their own space, or haven’t chosen a roommate and are nervous about receiving a randomly assigned one, like Kahng.

“I realized there wasn’t anyone I was requesting and I didn’t want to go with random,” Kahng said.

Many students worry that they won’t get along with randomly assigned roommates, who they can’t screen beyond a cursory housing survey. Other students receive singles even though it wasn’t their first choice. No matter how a student ends up in one, living in a single can have a big impact on your college experience.

Living without roommates can feel isolating for some students since there is no one automatically in your space, and it can require more effort to find people to socialize with.

However, Kahng said she doesn’t regret her decision to live in a single.

“I really like being around people, but I also need my own space,” Kahng said. “When you have a roommate, I think it’s hard to find that space a lot of the time.”