When it comes to dorm life, the movies and television shows portray a particular version of things. Generally, just about everyone in the dorm is gorgeous and popular, and it's basically paradise. In reality, that's often the farthest possible thing from the truth — while you certainly can make lasting friendships in a dorm, you're also probably spending a whole lot of time with a bunch of people that you don't particularly like. Plus, the sheer factor of having so many young adults crammed into a small space is basically begging for drama and scandal to take place.
So, if you've somehow managed to skip the dorm experience and have always wondered what it's really like, wonder no more — we've gathered confessions from people who want the world to know exactly what goes on in those dorm rooms behind closed doors. Some of the confessions are adorable and fairly harmless, others are so scandalous they practically warrant their own soap opera plot lines. One thing is for sure, though — it seems that life in a dorm is never boring.
Here are 9 confessions from college students who got real about what dorm life was really like, and what really went on.
9. Must Have Been Something In The Water In That Suite
Even if you go to a large college, you often find that it's a smaller world than you thought. Some guy you meet ends up being besties with a guy you used to date, or, as this student did, you find out that several guys you spent some time with actually live in the same suite. We're not sure if this just happened by accident or, when she was over with one of the guys, she caught a glimpse of his roommates and decided to try to tackle the whole suite, but nonetheless — it's quite an accomplishment. We just hope that she doesn't want to get serious with any of the guys because it would be pretty awkward to come over to the suite and see all the other guys you'd gotten with at some point in the past.
8. This Is Probably The Most Adorable Secret Ever
There are very, very few dorms that allow animals because, well, that just adds a whole other element into the mix. Dorms are often gross enough with all the students wandering through in various states of intoxication — adding pets into the mix is just begging for trouble. Plus, students usually don't stay in the same room for more than a year, which means you want to keep it in decent condition for the next person, not all chewed up because your pooch was teething on your desk legs. However, let's be honest — who doesn't want a cuddly, furry friend to hang out with after a long day, or after a particularly stressful final exam? Having a dog in your dorm sounds amazing, and we have to hand it to this student, it's probably not easy hiding something like that for even a day, let alone a month.
7. Forget The Bar Crawl, It's Craft Night!
Many students feel the pressure to hit the bar or club every weekend because they finally have the freedom to do so, and because they see so many other people doing it, that they don't want to miss out. And while you definitely want to try out all the college experiences, let's be honest — sometimes, you just don't feel up to it. Even if you love your girls and love nothing more than dancing the night away with them, there are times when you just want to have a low key night in, watching Netflix and having some snacks and maybe doing a few crafts. The student writing this confession seems to think her choice for the evening is lame, but we give her props for realizing she needs a little crafting self-care time.
6. An Exhibitionist In The Making
There are many scenes during portrayals of dorm life on television or in movies where someone doesn't realize that they're visible to others outside the dorm and gets caught doing something embarrassing. However, this person isn't doing anything accidentally — they're letting their exhibitionist flag fly as they change for all of campus to see. Hey, listen — everyone's got a thing, and if dangling the possibility of someone spotting them changing is what gets this student through the day, then by all means, go for it. There might be an uncomfortable situation if someone sees them who really doesn't feel comfortable seeing that kind of thing, but at the same time, you could potentially run that risk just about everywhere. Let's just hope none of his or her professors walk by, though — that would be awkward!
5. This Is So Disgusting We Can't Even Handle It
When you're in a standard dorm with two people crammed in one tiny room, you often get very, very close to your roommate. Sometimes, you forge a lifelong friendship — sometimes, you just tolerate them for a year. The point is, though, that you're living with them in close quarters, so you're bound to see or do some things that you never thought you would. This student was just innocently going through his drawers to find a shirt to wear, and he stumbled across some, well, bodily fluids that his roommate had deposited there sometime in the past. Like, how does this even happen? Was his roommate too drunk to know the difference between a drawer and a garbage can? We'd be requesting a new roommate ASAP because that's just disgusting.
4. Talk About Introducing The Freshmen To Campus Life
Many students take jobs as resident advisors because it's a good way to guarantee room and board on campus, and it's kind of nice to mentor the incoming students and shape their college experience. Some take the role more seriously than others, but regardless, RAs are supposed to help look out for the well-being of their dorm residents. They're kind of like the hall's moms and dads. However, this RA didn't exactly have mentorship in mind when he or she decided to take on the role — he or she was more interested in scoping out the new batch of freshmen that walked through the dorm's doors and see if there was any tantalizing fresh meat to be had. This is basically an awkward situation just waiting to happen when things go south.
3. As Long As This RA Isn't Ratting Out The Residents
Like we said, RAs are supposed to be kind of like a dorm's moms and dads — they look after the residents, they answer their questions, and they try to ensure they're having a good college experience and not getting in over their heads. However, don't forget that most RAs are often a year or two older than the other dorm residents, at most — they're probably hitting a lot of the same parties on and off campus, and it's got to be hard to make that switch when stepping in the walls of the dorm where they work. This RA doesn't even try — as long as his or her residents don't rat them out to campus administration, he or she is content to just get hammered right alongside the residents. I mean, that's a certain kind of bonding, perhaps.
2. That Wouldn't Be Fun To Deal With In The Morning
Unless you lucked out and got a luxe dorm suite, chances are, your dorm will look pretty similar no matter where you are — a small twin bed, a small desk, and a wardrobe or closet for keeping all your clothes in. There's likely one window, and one door that opens into the dorm hallway. So, it isn't exactly as if you're in a penthouse with multiple doors and closets and rooms that could become confusing if you were intoxicated in some way. However, this student apparently opened one door and thought that they had somehow made it all the way to the bathroom and used the facilities there, when in fact, they just opened their closet door and went. We don't even want to know what kind of hungover clean up this must have been like — gross.
1. I Mean, How Far Can The Bathroom Be?
Okay, while there are certain students who cultivate a bit of a 'lazy, easy-going' persona, this is going a bit above and beyond. First of all, unless your dorm is incredibly poorly planned, chances are you're not more than a minute or two from a bathroom at any given time. Second, dorms almost always have security measures, and someone hanging out at all times of the day, so it's not as if you need to be concerned about your safety on the trek to the bathroom. So, this comes down to sheer laziness, as the student confesses — but come on, who wants to sleep in a dorm room that smells like urine? What if you need to do something in that sink, and you have to disinfect it first because you peed in it a few nights ago? Gross.