College housing, looking for advice

So you'll have to bear with me on this, its a little long, but I'm looking for a little advice anyone is willing to give.  Rather than go on some "life advice" forum I'd ask the people who have my interests.

I'm currently 20 years old, and a sophomore undergraduate student.  I live in a really nice new dorm that gives me a semi-private room (central area with 2 small bedrooms and locking doors).  Since I'm inching ever closer to real life every year, I figured it would be good for me to start getting used to "living on my own" (aka living a bit farther from campus and not having a meal plan) by getting an apartment.

Now a small tangent.  

I am a very introverted, quiet, but not antisocial person.  I can know a lot of people, but it takes a lot of connecting for me to make friends.  I really only have about 5 people that I hang out with when I am at home.  This has caused me some problems in college.  Because there are sooo many people in so many different classes and places I can barely ever make friends.  All the people that I think I can consider friends I'm not even on calling-them-up-and-asking-if-they-want-to-hang-out terms with, it still feels really awkward.  So these people are ones that I met through the programs that my hall puts on and hang out with whenever we happen to be downstairs in the dorm.

Back to the present.

Its about a month from the semester ending, and I still haven't had time to look at the apartments around here.  It would have to happen during summer if I am going to move.  This week though, we had elections for the "executive board" of our hall, which is basically the president, vice president, secretary, etc. of the stuff our hall does.  My friends, the ones who it is fun but still a little awkward with, are taking all of the major positions.  The person who I probably know best is going to be president.  This makes next year look totally awesome from my view, the people I know are going to be organizing everything.

I was talking to my friend tonight online and talking about how I think I may be wanting to stay here because of the reasons I just mentioned, and she said she disagreed with me.  She said you just don't meet people where you live, you do it in the organizations you join and the classes you have.  "Dorm lobbies are not where you meet friends," she said.  That's my first question, is she wrong?  I kind of want to win the argument, but I'm also curious about if I'm just not thinking right.

So that's my current situation.  What do you think I should do?  Stay in the dorm and keep making progress on the friends I have now, or be an adult and try to live and feed myself on my own since I will be turning 21 next year?    

Other facts someone might want: I'm a journalism (pre)major, and the apartments I would probably live in are pre-furnished, with separate bathrooms and bedrooms like my dorm now.  It's mainly the independence and having to feed myself I was thinking about.