Staying Connected While Living Off-Campus

William & Mary is such a tight-knit community, which is largely fostered by many students living on campus, even beyond their freshman year. For me, however, dorm-life was something with which I was not particularly infatuated with since I really appreciate having my own kitchen, bathroom, etc., so for my junior year, I decided to live off-campus. Not everyone is as fortunate as I am, however, getting to choose to live off-campus—for many transfers, there is limited on-campus housing availability and therefore they are not provided with the chance to live on-campus. I am here to assuage the concern that you will find yourself distanced from the community if you live off-campus.

I will acknowledge that living off-campus requires a bit more effort to stay connected to W&M, but there are ways to easily integrate yourself in the community that will keep you connected and involved. One easy way to feel integrated into the community is to join a club (or a dozen clubs). This not only allows you to forge friendships with people that share your interests, but it also encourages you to spend a good amount of time on campus, whether it be for meetings or for club-events. Furthermore, clubs often encourage you to network with other clubs and organizations around campus, as well as different faculty and staff, further fostering a relationship to William & Mary and the community.

Another way to feel more connected to W&M is to push yourself to spend as much time on-campus as you can. While it can be tempting to stay at home and snuggle up with Netflix (or homework), I really encourage you to get out to campus and sit on the Sadler Terrace or the Sunken Garden for an hour or so whenever you can. There’s always something going on at W&M—just spend some time on campus and you’ll be surprised by the things you get to experience, how many people you run into, and how many events you’ll walk into by happenstance.

Living off-campus can seem scary at first, but if you put in a little effort you will be pleasantly surprised at how easy it is to be a part of this awesome community.

– Katianna Tron