Great article today in the Boston Globe about changes in dorms at Northeastern and Tufts:
Do you think universities should take a market based approach to housing and build housing tailored to the market expectations of wealthy families and leave the children of low and middle income families in other dorms?
Dorms should be nicer than those double rooms we all had in the 1960’s and ‘70s. Many colleges are upgrading those older facilities, and creating nicer living spaces.
I’m not sure that this is a low income vs high income issue. In most cases, the cost of housing is the same for each housing type regardless of family income.
@thumper1 But if the maximal financial aid doesn’t cover the price of the privately developed dorm rooms, the majority will be high income students. While financial aid students will likely stick with the older run down dorm rooms fully covered by financial aid.
What is the point of socioeconomic diversity in a college if the kids do not live side by side and interact socially?
I prefer the way most of the colleges we looked at do it, including Williams: everyone pays the same price for their dorm, whether the luck of the lottery places them in a single or a double or in a newer or an older building. And then the assignment of freshmen to dorms deliberately mixes students of different backgrounds, by socioeconomic levels as well as by race and by geography (different states and nations).
Separate is not equal. Separate also negates the main purpose of creating a diverse class.
I also think the cost should be the same for all students, except when it comes to single/double/triple…
At my kids’ school they assigned rooms by lottery.
My Northeastern D is paying $14K a year in rent in her shared off campus house, so those dorm rates sound pretty reasonably priced to me.
@ProfessorPlum168 yes but dorm rates are for 8 months whereas I’m assuming your daughter’s lease is for 12 months.
@gwnorth Is it 8? or 10? I don’t have a subscription to that article so all I could see was a few lines. It would include some meal plan presumably as well, right?
@gwnorth With Northeastern’s coop system many students are around for 12 months as many coop jobs are in the Boston area. The article states that the private landlord will find replacement residents if coop takes them away from Boston. Given the tight housing market in Boston (for everyone) vacant bedrooms are not likely to happen. And for those who do not live on the coasts and are shocked by the rental rates they are not high for new construction in Boston.
If college is supposed to be the great equalizer as some critics of this new housing suggest then humanities, social sciences and fine arts graduates are in for a rude awakening when they graduate and see engineering and computer science graduates living in nicer apartments or condos.
Lol, some don’t include board costs. We’ve got one of these new buildings near me, privately owned and reportedly mostly serving the uber wealthy foreign students. (Also has underground parking, a privilege.)
At another college I worked at, the fancier (a dubious term in dorm life) apts now run almost 17k for 10 months, for your own room, incl a low level meal plan. That’s in a shared space. Worst food ever.
Count yourself lucky if your kids have reasonable choices at reasonable prices.
So what do I think of the new NE building? In a city, kids end up living all sorts of places.
TBH I assumed that all school’s had tiered housing. It’s certainly is the norm in Canada and was even when I attended 30 years ago. Now that DS19 will be starting university in September I’ve been looking at the residence options for the schools he’s applied to. Prices are stilled tiered but there are more options - quads, triples, doubles, singles - some with private bathrooms and others with shared, multi-person suites with single bedrooms and shared common spaces, or 2 person traditional apartments etc. The greater the privacy/amenities the higher the price. Price also varies depending on the meal plan chosen. It’s always been that way. The big difference I will say is that while there was tiered pricing when I attended, it was all in the same building, even on the same floor, so everyone mingled. Now the more expensive units, the town houses, apartments, and the like are separate buildings. The reality is however that after first year most students move off campus and where they end up living depends on their financial means. Students of similar socioeconomic background then self-segregate. The other way students segregate by income is that many students of lower income who live in large metropolitan centres tend to live at home and commute to school, so they aren’t living in residence anyway. Living in residence tends to be a choice for the more affluent to start with. I guess this has never really been an issue for us since our post-secondary institutions don’t profess to have a mission of creating a diverse class.
There were privately owned apartments near my college campus back in the Stone Age. And yes, likely those were for wealthier kids.
But our on campus, the on campus options were the same price for all who lived in each kind of housing. So…suites, singles, doubles and triples. But each building had a mix of room types so those on suites WERE living side by Sid with those in triples.
I think it runs counter to a residential university mission to have tiered housing, and am glad mine did not. Same price for all, luck of the draw. That seems rare these days in colleges, but boarding schools still adhere to it. We could raffle off seats selection in class next-Maybe seats near the front could be at a premium. Or charge more for smaller classes than your classmates in larger lecture classes.
My college freshman pays $400 more to live in a freshman suite (4 person - two bedroom with small common area and bathroom) vs a traditional freshman double. She is in a freshman llc but the building has more than 1 llc and has a mix of dorms and suites. I’ve only know it as tiered pricing but I also know it as seniors having first pick based on lottery and freshman getting the traditional dorms or living learning communities.
Some colleges do charge higher tuition for students with higher class standing or for certain majors, probably due to either or both higher cost of instruction and/or higher market demand.
Those housing prices are pretty in line with UCLAs more expensive offerings.
No. But some schools have started to market their schools as if they were camps. And I don’t mean the type of places some families have that are rustic places by lakes. I mean the type of camps the wealthy who live in some cities send their kids to for 6-8 weeks/summer where they get the best of the best for 1K a week. It’s the 18 year old mentality that will make decisions about which school to attend. And those from wealthy families are used to swank.
@gwnorth - I also assumed most schools had tiered housing, especially for off campus rentals. DD’s school has tiered housing even for on campus - prices range from quads with no A/C to singles with private baths and A/C. There are probably a dozen options in between. Whether or not you get your preference is something else entirely.
“I mean the type of camps the wealthy who live in some cities send their kids to for 6-8 weeks/summer where they get the best of the best for 1K a week.”
I guess there may be camps like that but probably much more expensive. My kids private camps which cost more than 1000/week and were typical of those that most kids went to in our wealthy community attend which are nothing like the high end dorms of college. They were very rustic, with tiny crowded dorms. Indeed they were so claustrophobic that I couldn’t stand to be in there on a visitor weekend. Campers were responsible for all the cleaning, including toilets and showers. The grungiest dorms I saw were way way nicer.
The majority of kids here attended these 6-8 week camps. None would be “sold” by marketing promising a “camp like” experience.
It’s surprising that colleges with a combination of nice new and crappy old dorms, doesn’t care if you are paying $75,000 or $0. As donors can buy seats in admissions, one would think dorm assignments would also have a price tag. Even though it sucks for full pay students, it prevents classism in colleges. Probably some influential parents do pull strings to get desired rooms but hopefully it’s not a common practice to prioritize room assignments.