Tikeya, you may want to wait until you can afford a place of your own without a roomie.....Not trying to discourage you at all but I have some experience with the issue. I had a roommate who also had a dog so you would think it would be easier.....NO, the exact opposite...one dog is always the alpha and my dog was it. it caused a lot of tension in the house between my roommate and I as both of us loved our dogs to death and each other's dogs, but you never want to see your own dog having to play second fiddle to another's. Also, the roommate wasn't always looking out for the best interests of my dog. She certainly wasn't mistreating him or anything like that. In fact, the exact opposite, she loved him but her dog came first to her. And vice versa really, if I'm honest.
Having a roommate can be difficult to begin with and putting a dog in the mix makes it even more so. And then when you want to move out, it is hard to find a place that will accept a large full-grown animal, no matter how well behaved. My boyfriend and I are looking for a new place right now and as soon as we mention we have a large full-grown, completely housetrained dog, we get shut down....It's frustrating. We also have found that on the rare occasion the landlord says yes to the dog, the apartments are generally not nearly as nice and the reason they are saying yes is that they don't do any upkeep on the place. It's a sad situation, especially since, in my experience, pet owners and lovers are usually some of the best people in the world!!
I definitely think you should check the shelters for a purebred if that is what you have your heart set on. I think I have posted this before a long time ago, but I got Duncan from the SPCA and the dog next to him was a purebred bassett hound that the owner had to give up. He was only about a year old. Bassett hound puppies in this area go for about $1,000 each compared to the $150 SPCA fee and the wonderful feeling of saving a life!