Apartment for freshman year in college?

Well you would miss out on the most important year of college experiencing dorm life and making tons of friends. However, If you can afford a small house, by all means do it. I don't think apartments generally allow house cats, and that's not a good environment for a cat anyway. Too many young people concentrated in a small area could be bad news for a cat. Kids are so immature that some of them think it's a big deal if a cat jumps on their car. It's not, but they think it is.

most colleges if they have dorms require 1st year students or freshmen live in the dorms the 1st year unless you live in that city or close enough to the school to still live with the parents.

Most schools will not allow freshmen to live off-campus unless they live with their parents. So don't plan on being able to skip the dorm as a freshman at least. It's also a good idea to live on-campus as a first year student so you have some sort of support system and to facilitate making friends and participating in campus life. Also note that in many places living off-campus will require a car. And many schools do not allow freshmen to park on campus, and even once you're allowed to park on-campus, university parking is notoriously horrible at almost every school in the country.