<p>Residence hall life becomes the high life
By MEGAN K. SCOTT </p>
<p>The Associated Press</p>
<p>NEW YORK -- If Chelsea Johnson wanted, she could get an automated wake-up call in the morning, leave her clothes at the concierge desk for dry cleaning, grab some free pretzels and a banana from a snack cart and then unwind in a hot tub with several of her friends.</p>
<p>No, Johnson is not living in a high-end condo.</p>
<p>Rather, she is one of the 2,800 undergrad students at High Point University, "where every student gets an extraordinary education in a fun environment with caring people."</p>
<p>At High Point in North Carolina, that means an ice cream truck with free frozen treats, part-time valet parking, live music in the cafeteria, and a birthday card signed by the president with a Starbucks gift card tucked inside on a student's special day. Freshmen don't have to live in dorms with long corridors of bunks beds and communal baths: they live in apartment-like housing.</p>
<p>Diff'rent strokes for diff'rent folks, I guess. But I wouldn't allow Son to choose his college based on dorm amenities anymore than I'd use cupholders as a decision factor for my next car. </p>
<p>But, I'm a meam mom. Just ask my kids. They don't even have TVs in their rooms. And they have to SHARE a pc that sits in an open area of the house.</p>
<p>ETA: OOPS. Instead of <em>a</em> decision factor, I should have said <em>the</em> decision factor.</p>
<p>Oh my...that WAS a factor in choosing my most recent car purchase!</p>
<p>The dorms shouldn't be the number one reason a person chooses a school, but honestly, the kids need to LIVE there. If they don't like the accommodations, they won't be happy. Both of my kids scratched schools from their lists because of the housing arrangements. It's not any more unreasonable than the kid who won't get out of the car for the info session saying "I hate this place" before they have even seen it.</p>
<p>We're mean parents too...only one TV in the house. No video games. And they didn't get their first cell phones until the summer before they left for college.</p>
Marc Scheer, author of "No Sucker Left Behind: Avoiding the Great College Rip-Off," worries that the amenities can increase the price of college. Including room and board for students living on campus, charges for public four-year colleges were $13,589, or 5.9 percent higher in 2007 than the previous year, according to the College Board. At private four-year schools, total charges rose by the same percentage to $32,307.
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<p>If I'm doing my math right, that's increases of $757 and $1799 per year, respectively. That's a lot of bananas. </p>
<p>As a potential full-freight family, I find this sort of thing infuriating. I've provided valet parking--with personal driver!--, free frozen treats, a 24-hour dining hall, private rooms, cleaning service and free laundry for many, many years. I didn't expect to pay for my children to have these things when they went off to college. This is not bang for my buck, this is a waste of my money. High-speed internet is one thing; HDTV and hot tubs are another.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Oh my...that WAS a factor in choosing my most recent car purchase!</p>
<p>The dorms shouldn't be the number one reason a person chooses a school, but honestly, the kids need to LIVE there. If they don't like the accommodations, they won't be happy. Both of my kids scratched schools from their lists because of the housing arrangements. It's not any more unreasonable than the kid who won't get out of the car for the info session saying "I hate this place" before they have even seen it.</p>
<p>We're mean parents too...only one TV in the house. No video games. And they didn't get their first cell phones until the summer before they left for college.
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</p>
<p>I totally agree about ruling out a school because a kid can't see himself living there. </p>
<p>But the kid who rules out a school simply because he can't get a single with a private bath freshman year may be passing on a wonderful education. </p>
<p>Double rooms with communal baths down the hall have served American college kids for generations. Now all of a sudden that's not good enough. Give me a break.</p>
<p>My feelings aren't aimed at you, thumper. They're aimed at all the enablers producing spoiled whiners. Resort-like colleges are enabling.</p>
<p>That sure doesn't sound anything like the dorm that I lived in from 2003 to 2007.</p>
<p>And you know what? I chose my dorm. I chose it for the people, the culture, the fact that it was old and admins didn't care if you modified it a bit, the fact that you could (and people did) paint gorgeous murals on the walls and ceiling tiles and build some of their own furniture. It had real character created and maintained by generations of residents. It had people whom I related to, who had my back no matter what, people with whom I developed friendships that last well beyond college. It was the sort of place where residents built a roller coaster in the courtyard during freshman Orientation and ran hand-crafted robots through the hallways. And it was comparatively cheap, too. I wouldn't have traded it for some luxury hall where the best thing that it has going for it is the amenities.</p>
<p>Too funny!! At our state flagship all freshman boys were housed in a single dorm. It was called The Jungle, and not because it had a lot of tropical plants adorning the building. Amenities included bare lightbulbs in the hallways, swinging doors on the communal bathrooms, and broken locks on the outside doors -- not that the latter really mattered since the more athletic residents would climb the brick exterior to gain entry through upper floor windows. Ah the good old days. Sigh.</p>
<p>DD was talking to a friend who will go to her school in the fall who was trying to decide which dorms she should put on her housing request. She was considering the various new buildings with shared bathrooms etc. DD stated that she should absolutley ask for one of the typical dorms - doubles with one bathroom per floor. She said she met most of her floor friends in the bathroom!</p>
<p>After all these lux dorms, how are they going to handle that ratty first apartment???</p>
<p>The article is a prime example of that school of rather shoddy journalism where an extreme, unusual example is presented as a trend or norm. Honestly, my kids didn't have any amenities like that in their colleges, and no one else's kids I know did, either.</p>
<p>I think, also, that there is a difference between a kid turning down a college because of a particularly off-putting dorm situation, versus a kid deliberately picking a school for a resort atmosphere. the first is understandable and accomodate-able; the second is a non-starter for this paying parent.</p>
<p>I was appalled when we saw each of the dorms that our sons would be living in at a private university in the South. I think that the rooms had been singles at one point that were converted into doubles. One of the rooms had one very small closet and a wardrobe that was behind a water pipe. Neither dorm had air conditioning. Considering what we were paying in tuition -- I was shocked. Especially since the state university that I attended 30 years ago had air conditioned dorms.</p>
<p>But, I'm the mom who was sending her only children 7 hours away. My sons loved their dorms! They didn't care about the size or lack thereof. They love the school, their friends and can't wait to return in August! They did mind the lack of air conditioning, especially since it didn't cool off until -- well I don't think it ever cooled off. But they either spent time in the great rooms or quickly made friends with the kids who did have air conditioning.</p>
<p>The point is try not to let your son or daughter (or in our case, Mom) pre judge the school because of the dorm rooms. There is so much more to a school than the dorms. Also, on a positive note, each of my sons have become incredibly neat. Unlike when they were living at home and left clothes, shoes and sporting equipment lying around, they quickly learned that they couldn't do that in their dorm rooms because there literally would be no place to walk or sit if they had.</p>
<p>I have read some articles about this school, and a big push to make it "comfortable" for their students. All of that said, I have heard that high marks are given for their academics as well. I know a middle aged student who is currently attending. She absolutely raves about the school's academics and professional opportunities.</p>
<p>I resent paying for a country club atmosphere, but I would resent it more if I paid top dollar for my children to be housed in forced triples designed for 2, and live with filthy hallway bathrooms that are not cleaned enough (and I do blame the messy students for part of that, but it is still unsanitary).</p>
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[quote]
It's not any more unreasonable than the kid who won't get out of the car for the info session saying "I hate this place" before they have even seen it.
<p>"If they don't like the accommodations, they won't be happy"</p>
<p>Oh poor dears. If my kids didn't like the accomodations, they would be welcome to pay for better themselves.</p>
<p>My oldest scraped together a down payment and bought himself a tiny, fixer upper house. He says that he is amazed that most of his friends would rather pay big bucks in rent or live with their parents because they refuse to live in a "dump" like his. Maybe because they were spoiled by their college accomodations.</p>
<p>My dad (who's 67) always says that dorm living has changed... Of course, he's speaking about the complimentary maid service, complete with laundry, that he enjoyed in his dorm!</p>
<p>OMG New Hope ... the JUNGLE!!! Just as lovely as you describe ... and it's still there! The one they pulled down and rebuilt was South ...
We thought we had cushy dorms because they were dorms with only 60 residents and our own dining hall and first floor lounge.</p>
<p>(Somehow, the Jungle has a real name that seems to have been completely lost. Unlike the Frats ... which was not the fraternities cuz they got kicked off campus a zillion years ago. I was only there a million years ago. The Frats were 60 person dorms as described above ... and were actually known as Northwest Campus. Talk about the Frats and no currrent or recent student knows what quad you mean -- talk about the Jungle and it's been the Jungle for 50+ years!</p>
