BTW. The fraternities have chefs with good food but I don’t think kids typically get to live in the fraternity houses until junior year.
Interesting. Don’t think he is interested in fraternities. But, that’s okay - maybe he will learn how to cook, but I am not holding my breath!
U of Arizona has nice new honors dorms, fwiw.
I have heard that too - thanks!
I would place food rankings higher than dorms. In general, and I’ve visited a lot of schools with my kids, the dorm rooms are pretty much all the same. Plus, if you are looking at bigger schools, there are so many dorm options that a general rating might not help you…you might get a newer/nicer one, might not. Now if you can narrow that down to Honors Dorms, great, that helps with that, you know the actual building you will get. But still…the differences really seem to be minor with dorms once you are inside the actual room and wasn’t a factor in our decision making at all. Now if you’re really down to two otherwise equal options, and one school has a great reputation for food and one is bad, that matters!
Don’t let the food or dorms at GT deter you. It’s a top-notch school with so much else to offer. Money is spent on more important things than freshman housing or dining hall food. My student was in one of the “bad” freshman dorms and yet was so sad to leave when Covid hit. I thought they were kind of scary looking but no complaints from the kids. Sophomore housing is excellent. Many students opt for on-campus apartments with friends. They get their own room and there are only two to a bathroom. As for food, there are options other than dining halls. Many students join a frat or sorority, which entitles them to the (usually cheaper) Greek meal plan, which means they can take meals prepared by the chef at the Greek house. This applies to all pledges, even freshmen, and certainly not only those who live in the house. There are also outlets of several chain restaurants on and around campus, and many options for takeout in the area. IMHO, the school is so good and offers so much that it can get away with providing meh-quality freshman housing. I think it goes without saying that most applicants would be so happy just to get into Georgia Tech, that freshman accommodations would be much lower on the wider scale of importance.
@WhrlingColleges puts it well: for students who want the learning opportunities of schools of GT’s caliber, dorms and food are way down the list of dealbreakers.
Moreover, I don’t know any colleges where the experience is the same all 4 years (cf @randomPeople). The rooms/halls/dorms allotted to 1st years are typically the 'worst" (by size, modernization, location etc) a college has to offer, and the options usually get better as you go up the ranks.
When the Collegekids headed off to college their HS friend chat groups all posted pictures as they moved into their dorms, so between them (and way too many college tours) I have seen dozens of dorm rooms, at colleges ranging in size, expense, selectivity and geography from Harvard to UKy, Pomona to Oxford and Ithaca College to ASU. The best dorm rooms- by a good margin- were at OSU and High Point. The rest were much of a muchness.
It may depend on the Frat, but my son is living in his for his 2nd year. Also you can start eating at the house when you are a 1st year right when you start pledging.
You can view pictures of all of the on-campus housing options here: https://housing.gatech.edu/housing-options
I would consider the freshman dorms to be pretty standard, but some have been more recently renovated than others. The dorms are mostly only for freshmen (not for 4 years). After Freshman year, most move into on-campus apartments (also viewable on at the above link), Greek Housing, or into off-campus apartments. There are several off-campus high-rise apartments that have been built recently and they are nice. My understanding is the cost of these is similar to on-campus apartments on a monthly basis, but you have to sign a 12-month lease, so you may get stuck paying for months you are not on campus over the summer if you can’t find a sub-letter. All the apartments, both on and off campus, have kitchens, so most people drop the meal plan after freshman year as well.
Can’t imagine “all else being equal” with many school comparisons, but it does seem silly to remove Tech from consideration due to some questionable Niche rating for housing and food that likely only has any relevance for freshman year.
I stayed home during fall semester and did all of my classes online. I am thinking of living on campus next semester, but I’m wondering if it is worth it to go. If I live in a single on a floor will I get to know other people on the floor? Are there opportunities to hang out with others? Do people wear masks all the time? It is fun or should I stay home and do the semester online? How did you get to know people if you lived alone in a single?