Roommate(s) or solo as a 1st year?

I lived alone for my first year and then got a roommate for my second. Living alone was fine during my first year because I was getting crushed at work and barely had time to sleep, let alone interact with other humans. My second year I had a little more time and was able to hang out a little bit more. Overall, my second year was more enjoyable because of a slightly better work lifestyle and always having someone to hang out with. Although we both worked in banking, my group was far more hour intensive (and subsequently more lax when it came to what time you showed up in the AM), so the morning shower was never an issue. Alot of times I woke up and worked out early anyways, so I would shower at the gym.

I've only had one good friend who was a banker who had a single, and he had a GF who visited every other weekend. You will know people in the city, room with some of them, it will dramatically decrease your costs and has numerous other benefits.

-Living with others gives you people outside of work to interact with when you choose to do so -Furniture and stuff is actually really expensive, being able to split this stuff up between multiple people is nice -Its hard to get a group of people together outside of work sometimes and having a built in base of people makes that easier -Banking is like college with money, so you can be messy, rude, have guests over all the time (as long as you're friends with your roommates)

In all, I think you'll find that getting a roommate, especially one you are friends with, will be quite a valuable experience.

I prefer living alone too. I love to socialize at work, but once I am at home, I want my full personal space with no other living thing (human, dog, cat whatever) impinging on it ;) It's so tiring to make conversation with your room mate after one hard day at work doing the same, I would imagine.

When I'm home I just want to relax so I would personally only live with people I'm comfortable with. With that said, I do enjoy other people's company and I like saving money. If I need alone alone time, I'll chill in my bedroom.

Outside of NYC, I find it hard to argue the case for a roommate.

I had roommates throughout college and during my first two years in consulting, but I upgraded to my own single after a transition to PE put a multiple on my previous income. Today, you couldn't pay me to go back to living with a roommate.

The biggest upside, as compbanker mentioned, is that you don't have to deal with any people or issues. I can have my girlfriend or friends over whenever I want, but I don't have to deal with a roommate or others hanging around my living room when I get back from an 18-hour day at the office.

I am beginning my Analyst program this coming July. My living arrangement is sharing a 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom apartment with a good friend who is also doing I-banking. This is probably the ideal arrangement with multiple benefits.

• You have your own room and bathroom, so there are no waiting issues.
• As PowerMonkey mentioned, splitting the cost of furniture and other things for the living space does save a lot of money.
• A shared 2 br 2 bath is less costly than a 1 br, and in most cases, less costly than a studio.

I've lived with roommates both my years. During my first year I barely had any time so rarely got to see them, but it was nice to have other people outside the world of banking/finance to chat with whenever I did have time.

This year I have more time and it's still a good arrangement.

However, I would note that in both cases here the roommate were friends I already knew from school or other places so they were not "random" by any means.

If you go with random roommates this would be a different story, but living with people you already know has been a good arrangement for me.

While I can't speak to this personally I have several good friends who went through this last year. I would caution you against living with someone from your analyst class. While it can have it's advantages, it means that you in affect never get away from work. It also gives you two conflict points, if you end up having problems with your roommate at work or in the apartment, it is bound to spill over. I would recommend more trying to live with a friend for college or something who you have know for awhile. Still, I know some people who love living with others from their analyst class, but definitely something to think on.

If I had the money, I'd live alone in a heartbeat.

That being said - if you're an M&A analyst, you'll likely be working long hours and will hardly be home. I'd recommend saving some cash and finding a roommate.

What city are you going to be in? If it's not NYC or SF, I'd definitely live with someone else. It'd be too easy for you to stay in on Fri & Sat nights living alone and having a roommate would force you to be more social.

monkeymania is right about all the disadvantages of living with a fellow i-banker, but on the other hand, if you don't know anyone who you could live with, I think it's better to live with someone who has at least the same kind of job (or works long hours at least) because nothing would suck more than having a roommate who parties in your apartment when you're trying to get your 4 hours of sleep... but it's really hard to tell, I'm also trying to decide about the same thing right now. I think i'll go with a roommate though, just to stay social and save money. Honestly, how many hours a week are you gonna spend in that apartment? And aren't you gonna be sleeping that whole time anyways?