The dragons have lived in GA Tech and Duke college dorms over the summer, and the two things that matter to them are how comfortable the mattresses are and how good the food was. The rest of it-I sort of shuddered privately when I saw the Tech dorms, but the younger dragon loved it last year and this year. I’ve never seen the Duke dorms because my husband drives the older dragon there (12 hours round trip, poor guy!), but the only complaints I hear is when the food’s not good. Considering what they do to their rooms at home, I don’t think luxury dorms are really that desirable for young adults. Old parents, oh yeah, give me comfort and cool, but teens? Eh, just feed them well and get them a memory foam mattress topper and they’re good to go.
" I survived my entire childhood without AC in my Long Island bedroom" no thank you I do not want to go off to college just to “survive” this is 2015 being hot and sticky and uncomfortable is not necessary. and it can be very dangerous. the pilgrims did not have heat why bother having heat in homes most of them “survived” the winter. I always run across a person or two who think it is heroic or counter culture to not want air-conditioning. so, if you choose to not want to not use AC that is cool(sorry for the pun) but I want it as do the overwhelming majority of people.
Wow.
My point was merely that geography comes into play. If you’re going to school near the Canadian border, AC is typically less important that if you’re going to school in the deep south. I would be absolutely fine attending a school around here without AC. It’s not on right now-- I’m still on Long Island-- and I’m comfortable.
You “always run across a person or two who think it is heroic or counter culture to not want air conditioning.” So obviously this is important to you, a topic you’ve discussed frequently. Personally, I can’t remember ever being involved in another conversation on the topic.
So, wonderful. Find a school with central AC. And I’m guessing you’ll be looking at Northern schools.
My D will be living in an older dorm (in TN) with tiny rooms and no A/C this year. I expect she’ll spend more time In the library - especially the first 2 months back at school. Lol. Despite no a/c, she’s happy with her dorm draw because of its prime location.
Last year, she was in a beautiful dorm. Nothing crazy over the top like climbing walls or theaters, but new and upscale. It resembles a ski lodge with plush leather sofas, lots of glass, and a gorgeous stone fireplace.
While it’s great to get a nice dorm, students seem to care more about location and dorm “vibe” than they do dorm amenities.
We saw a variety of different dorms on tour. CMU showed us an LEED certified dorm with A/C, but admitted it was one of the nicest. RPI took us through something with narrow concrete corridors and no public spaces that was pretty grim. Brandeis showed us the Castle - it’s cute and historic on the outside hung ceilings and the worst of 70s office building on the inside. Caltech showed us the tour guide’s dorm which was one of the older not yet renovated ones. It had the typical totally painted/decorated by students corridors (lots of cartoons), a bunch of kids lounging on a very worn sofa all pointed out to us that the guide’s room was larger than average and not to get up our hopes! Harvard only shows dorms once you’ve been accepted.
My CMU kid ended up in a dorm that was off the main campus in an old apartment building - it was a good sized one bedroom apartment with just one roommate. He loved it and stayed in the room two years. My Tufts kid had a room at least as nice as any we saw the first year. His second year room was a tiny double on the top floor. The steeply sloped ceiling meant he hit his head when he sat up in bed. The architect who thought two people fit in that room, (and there were two closets so one assumes it was designed to be a double), should be shot. It also did not have nearly as well designed public lounges as his first-year dorm. I won’t even get into the lack of furniture that room had - but there were no bureaus or bookcases.
My D’s state school had the #1 spot on the Princeton Review list of worst dorms in the country a few years ago before she was in college. Since then, new student housing has been built and the older buildings have gotten some updates. She chose the newer dorm ($4899/yr which is the same price as the older dorms with bathroom down the hall) that have state of the art everything --gym, game room, sand volleyball court, on-site free tutoring center, Mac lab, iPad lounge, lounges on every other floor with 60" TV, stainless steel kitchens, free laundry, and large spacious rooms with semi-private bathroom shared by 4 students. The bathroom alone has about the same square footage as the older dorm bedrooms. She is right next to the dining hall (which was also revamped last year) and close to her classes. She loves it!
@Pizzagirl University of Cincinnati has an amazing lazy river and glass enclosed climbing wall but the dorm they showed us was the worst thing I have ever seen on a tour. :-S
@mathmom, my CMU D was in Moorewood E Tower and it was no great shakes compared to Stever House, which, as a tidbit of info, was the very first residence dorm in the country to receive LEED certification.
https://www.go-gba.org/projects/carnegie-mellon-university-stever-house-residental-hall/
D1 was in a new dorm 2nd year, on a floor with mostly guys who became close, fun friends, had a big room to herself (her roomie moved off campus,so she pushed the beds together to make one king size) but hated the dorm. Odd.
I’ve told the tale of the tour that took us to a triple, outfitted as a double (2 closets, 2 dressers, 2 desks, 2 bookcases, but 3 beds.) The guide’s explanation: they figure it out. Plus the torn screens, dead bugs, badly stained carpet. This was a small school, sometimes mentioned on CC as a safety- and one that could certainly use a bit more interest from prospects. No idea what they were thinking, but we had to assume they weren’t. Off the list.
Watch out for colleges with large numbers of doubles converted into triples, and with lounges turned into dorm rooms. I was surprised that one university took us into an old beat-up dorm. Then I found out that all of the other freshmen dorms were full of triples and converted lounges that they didn’t want us to see.
chaliesch…100% correct! a double made into a triple will make for a bad year! why schools still have anything but singles in 2015 is beyond me. you can be plenty social and retreat to your room when you want privacy or sleep. the same with hospitals and double rooms. when you check in a hotel there is not a random stranger laying in the other bed. but in a hospital you and another person sick enough to be hospitalized “share” a room.
and the ooo it it is part of the learning experience going to college (how to get along with others) is nonsense. I am going to school to learn biochem not how to negotiate the time the lights go out in my room.
Realize my description was confusing. It was a double with only 2 of everything, except beds.
One of mine was in a dbl converted to a quad, but two rooms and gear for all.
We saw triples in at least one college and lounge spaces temporarily turned into dorm rooms. We were told that most of those rooms did clear up a few weeks into the semester as kids dropped out or failed to show up. We had one tour guide who elected to stay in a triple. My favorite dorm arrangement is singles in a hall with shared bathrooms and good lounge spaces for freshmen, and either the same for upper classmen or suites where there are single bedrooms with a common lounges space, but also lounges so that you aren’t always stuck with your suitemates.
Well, some students (e.g., my oldest) want roommates, so there’s that. In addition, for schools with a large residential population, doubles (and triples) are a much more efficient use of available square footage; this is especially important for urban campuses, or schools that are otherwise constrained in how many buildings they can build, but it’s important for all of them, since larger buildings require more upkeep costs.
I lived in a quad in my sorority house and it was lots of fun. Having said that, of course we all knew one another upfront.
I don’t see the appeal of the suite/lounge system versus the more traditional doubles, personally.
This thread is so relevant to my family right now. We just completed a tour of a beautiful school which is an excellent fit for my son. And then we toured the model dorm. To say that we were less than impressed is an understatement . We then toured some of the other dorms , and although some of them were newer and slightly more updated, my son preferred the model dorm. When I asked my son if the state of the dorm would remove or drop this college lower on his list, he said no. He had already started thinking about adding more light and storage to the dark and somewhat small
space and identified areas on campus he could spend his time. He said “I just need someplace to sleep and shower , and I’m good.” I guess all those years in the Boy Scouts paid off.
30+ years ago when I was in college there weren’t enough rooms so they made “suites” (sounds luxurious!) out of 4 rooms, added a common door and crammed 10 of us in. The “lounge/common” area was a narrow dark hallway. Really showing my age here, but the phone was a party line that we shared with the suite upstairs. 20 girls, one line. It was impossible to call home!
You had a phone?
We had one hall phone for about 20 girls, too. No such thing as cell phones. If you wanted to make a call to your parents (long distance), you had to use a phone in another hall and call collect. Of course, there were no computers or any other electronic devices either. Ah, what a difference 50 years makes!
^ In my dorm (30+ years ago), there were 4 phone lines for ~300 students.
I do if there’s a lot of sex going on!