It has been two years after graduation, and I can still remember driving up to my dorm at Princeton, about to live away from home for the very first time. Unlike my very conservative parents, whom I had carefully kept uninformed, I knew what I was getting into, or I thought I did: a co-ed dorm. No visitation restrictions or leave-the-door-open rules for me: I was going to be where the boys were.

My mother's piercing cry could have been heard half a world away. "STELLA," she screamed, "there are BOYS in this hallway!"

"Oh, yes, there are!" I grinned, now that it was too late for her to do anything about it. Thinking only of how fun it would be to get near boys after 18 years of parentally imposed segregation from them, I had no idea what I was getting into.

Here's what I learned, and what you need to know if you'll be living in a dorm where your dormmates use the toilet standing up.

The first couple of weeks of living in a co-ed dorm are purely overwhelming. You'll be surrounded by boys at all hours of the day, many of them cute and fun to talk to. After you've noshed on a few late-night pizzas with them and even seen them wearing nothing but towels on the way to the bathroom -- "a fun bonus," says a college gal who wishes to remain anonymous -- it might seem only natural to take the next step and date one of them. As tempting as the idea may be, it's best to keep your dating life and your dorm life separate.

I made this mistake and got together with the guy across the hall just a week into my college career. When we broke up about two weeks later, I had to see him all the time -- at meals, hanging out with friends, on the way to class. It was very weird. "You can meet plenty of people in class and in extra curricular activities without all that potential for disaster," says former residential advisor Aparna Kesarwala. "Who needs the drama?"

"Co-ed dorms give more of a glimpse into the daily lives of the opposite gender," says Princeton senior Asher Siebert. This means that guys won't only see you after you've performed whatever beauty rituals you need to feel ready to face the world. They'll see you in your sweats at 2 a.m. the night before a physics final, when you're tired, grouchy, and hardly looking your best. They'll see you standing over the sink, spitting out a mouthful of toothpaste. They might even see you covered in a mud mask with cucumbers over your eyes, should your roommate be cruel enough to open the door to visitors when you're in such a state. It's unnerving at first, but you'll get used to it. After all, these are the same guys you'll see answering the door for a pizza delivery guy wearing their most decrepit old T-shirts and boxers with embarrassing prints on them.

Oh, it's not officially co-ed... You will have single-sex bathrooms even if your dorm is mixed. But the sign on the door that says "women" doesn't always mean that male dormmates will keep out, or vice versa.

"I don't really like sharing," says junior Andrew Wang. "We have to act a certain way when girls are in the bathroom." So, while you might get a glimpse into guys' grooming habits, you needn't worry about Joe from down the hall walking in on you.

"There are occasionally couples showering together, which I find mildly disturbing," adds Asher. Do your hallmates a favor and keep the romantic antics behind something more substantial than a shower curtain.

Everybody knows that after graduation, there's no such thing as an all-female apartment building. "Co-ed dorms are more representative of the real world," says Aparna. She's right. Now that I have a boyfriend and live in a two-bedroom apartment with another guy, nothing either of them does phases me, whether it's leaving food in the refrigerator until it's capable of walking out on its own or wearing the same shirt for weeks on end without washing it.

As it turns out, my mother needn't have worried so much about her darling daughter living among boys for the very first time; I didn't end up nearly the queen of debauchery that she feared. But I learned more about boys than I would have any other way – and because of it, I'm ready for the world.