Can anyone tell me what dorms at boarding schools are like? Im from the UK and have never experienced dormitories!
1- What are the bathrooms like? Are the showers and all private or do you have to shower in front of everyone?
2- Are the rooms nice? Any schools with particulary nice dorms?
3- Are the dorms more like a home or is there constantly people everywhere? .. (bit weird a question I know.. )
For our daughter, she is in a dorm that has suites (14 girls, 2 to a room, in seven rooms with a central lounge and kitchen and a shared bathroom with individual showers and toilets). Other girl dorms are long halls with 30+ girls per hall. Yet another dorm offers some singles. The boys’ dorm rooms are much bigger than the girl rooms. My daughter’s suite is one of the quieter ones. The hall style dorms tend to be louder and more active. That is at this one school. You will likely get a different answer from each parent.
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-In all dorms, there are seperate shower stalls with individual curtains. In Ingham, however, there are no curtains.
-The rooms are great, particularly the upperclassmen single rooms.
-Your dorm is like your family. Everyone is always hanging out together and everyone becomes really really close. I wouldn't say there are constantly people everywhere though.
My kids went to BS where their dorms were big houses with about 12-15 kids plus houseparents. We also visited another school with a similar setup and other schools that had more traditional, large dormitories. At one of the last schools, they broke the big dorms up into smaller units similar to how some public schools have pods so that kids are in a smaller grouping.
Most schools have some photos of dorms on their websites and you may even be able to find out how many kids are in each dorm. That is certainly something to ask during your interview or ahead of time. We usually did not get to see the dorm bathrooms during our campus tours even though we would have liked to. I guess we were too shy to ask. Of course there could be people using the bathrooms when there is a tour.
Bathroom facilities were pretty private for my kids, shower enclosed. Each of their dorms had a common room for hanging out or having visits from the opposite sex, and a fridge and microwave for snacks. Many dorms have their own washer and dryer, but different schools have different laundry policies. At some schools you are required to subscribe to a laundry service at an additional fee.
