A little bit about supplemental housing

Hi, my name is Mustafa. I’m a senior at Penn State, and I stayed in a supplemental housing room my freshman year…

The one thing I feared the most when I first applied for on-campus housing was being stuck in supplemental housing. Because the freshman class size has increased so much in the past few years, I’m almost positive some of you have to stay in these supplemental rooms. Well, have no fear! Living in supplemental housing was one of the most fun experiences I’ve had at Penn State.
I thought the supplemental housing was going to be a very hard experience. Sharing a room with 4-8 people is more challenging than sharing the room with just one more. I remember I was so worried about living in supplemental, but now I wish I could do it again! It gave me a chance to meet so many new people. There was always someone around, and I was never bored.

Let me tell you a little about my old supplemental room:
Our supplemental room was in Packer Hall (East). It was the largest room on our floor and everyone agreed it was the most fun. After getting together with my roommates, we moved our furniture around to give us the most living space. We put the closest to the side, two facing each other, with just enough room for one person to go in. Then we bunked our beds and put them to the other side. Then we put carpet in the middle of the room and put our appliances next to each other. We had two huge TV’s that normally would be too big for regular dorms. It didn’t matter, because our room was HUGE! We even had a disco ball attached to the ceiling. Everyone on our floor loved our room. We always had friends over because of the extra living space. We would hold video game tournaments, movie nights, birthday parties… a single dorm doesn’t have enough space to do all that!

Of course, living in supplemental requires you to work with your roommates. In my supplemental, we all had different schedules. I had class in the morning, and my roommates had class in the afternoon. When I got dressed for class, I made sure I didn’t make too much noise, and everything worked out fine. Another issue I thought would be a big problem was finding a quiet study place to do homework in the supplemental. With so many people, it is hard to have the room very quiet. But the great thing about Penn State is that there are so many other places to study. I found that I rarely worked in my room. I was always in the library, or the HUB, or outside!

So my point is simple: if you have received on-campus housing and you have to stay in supplemental housing, don’t worry. It will be a great experience and a chance for you to meet so many new people!