It would really tick me off if I was paying the same price for an old dorm with no A/C as someone in a fancy modern dorm. Especially if the crappy dorm was a triple or quad! The tiered structure helps less affluent kids who can’t afford the higher standard price that no tiers would bring.
I think it’s important that the colleges try to give consistent quality dorms for Freshman at least.
@suzyQ7 Yes - We pay the exact same amount for the unrenovated dorm room that is literally the same footprint of a dorm that was renovated over the summer. During parent’s weekend I was welcomed to my son’s dorm by protest signs asking parents to save them from the mold and bad air in their dorm. Coincidentally we got an email regarding all the steps they were taking to remedy the problem Saturday evening of parent’s weekend. Pretty much they don’t care about the conditions of the dorm because it is slated for renovations over this summer. So, I pay $10,000 (that’s room only) a year for my kid to live in a mold and rat infested dorm that is connected by a walkway to the beautifully renovated dorm where the students pay the exact same amount. You can imagine this makes me irritated, especially as we did not have a choice in the dorm assignment because of the invite only scholars program my son was asked to join – had we realized how bad the dorm was, we may have turned the program down.
I think it is inexcusable for any student to be subjected to mold, rodents, bugs etc. However, I think it would be highly unfair if you could pay your way out of it.
It should not be unreasonable to expect clean and healthy accommodations for all, especially considering the price tag.
100% agree. That’s simply unsafe and unhealthy and IMO if it’s that bad the health department should be involved.
Not the same thing as paying - or not paying in a lottery/seniority system - for the dorm with large suites, the one closer to the dining hall, the one with the high ceilings or whatever. If the housing system is fair (IMO seniority/lottery is fair in most of its forms), then everyone accepts that sometimes you win and sometimes you lose and it all works out and that’s just college life.
@OHMomof2 100% agree. That’s simply unsafe and unhealthy and IMO if it’s that bad the health department should be involved.
If I hadn’t received the email regarding the steps they were taking to remedy theses issues (including hiring an outside contractor for the air quality study and mold remediation), I would have called the health department. It’s a huge disappointment to me that the administration would not listen to the students until they went to their parents. So even though they are addressing the health issues, my son’s dorm has barely any furniture in the commons room and everything is worn and, in some cases, unusable. There is a tier system in this school in regards to the fact you can get a triple or a double – so even if the dorms are all the same price new or old, students are still somewhat “segregated’ by income. The room size is the same regardless of the occupancy.
At my older D’s school, it’s the same price for the largest single as it is for the smallest triple. She was in a small triple her freshmen year. The school said it wasn’t forced but there were only two closets and the furniture barely fit in the room. They couldn’t open their window blinds all year because bugs from the outside courtyard would come in. It was an old dorm and the window frame on the outside was cracked so bugs got it. It never got fixed all year despite parents getting involved. And this is a college that is frequently at the top of ‘best dorm’ lists.
I believe Duke had a more tiered pricing approach in the 90s/00s and then realized many students of color were clustered in the low-end housing – NOT a good look and they changed direction. My D has two friends who are first-years there now – one got this brand new amazing dorm (with a movie theater room and a water feature in the lobby – ugh!!) and the other one is in a dorm that has window units for A/C and is the worst on campus, but I’m pretty sure there’s no price difference. I see no problem with that – luck of the draw and life’s not always fair. It’s nine months and college is much more than where you live.
At my D’s LAC where almost everyone lives on campus there are some slightly more expensive apartments that mostly seniors live in. Otherwise it’s all the same even though some dorms are better than others, though I’d say overall the disparity is not that great. My D’s dorm is ‘historic’ (read: old!) but the rooms are bigger than in the newer dorms, and it’s got a great location, for example.
At my dd17 school there is tiered pricing in the housing. It does seem driven by Greek life more than by socioeconomic factors. Those that desire (and can afford) the steep price of sorority life ($8-10K+++/year) flock to the cheapest high rise dorms (mold, dirty, small) because of their proximity to the sorority and fraternity houses and parties. The honors students and most students who are on merit scholarships (so tuition is covered leaving only room and board) are in the newer suites with small private bedrooms, small living rooms and kitchens in hotel like buildings. They are very good for getting sleep, studying, and eating healthy.
The school also recently built more moderately priced doubles with in room baths but not the full suite style. We appreciated the options and took advantage of the private bedroom of the honors suites to give some study space. I really hadn’t thought about the segregation issue. My dd found people of different backgrounds in her building (most expensive housing costs) because it was the honors dorms and many of the NMF had full room and board included with their scholarships. The sorority was where she found the most segregation by wealth, not her top tier dorm.
There is a ton of diversity in my dd’s honors dorm as well because all honors students are required to live there.
@bamamom2021 DS is also in the suite style dorm. We could only afford to bring him home for Xmas and spring break, when the dorms closed, so he could have his own space to get away from. Often it is remarked that the traditional style is more social, but he never had any problems making friends. Due to the full tuition plus engineering scholarships and high Pell grant,
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DD is at our state school and had to live in the traditional style as it saved us $4K a year. She wasn’t happy about it and it didn’t help she got the dorm that the kids bad mouth it something terrible, but it is very conveniently located, quite roomy for a double, and she is lucky to have AC. She said there is not any of the socializing that people talk about here w/ traditional style dorms.
I recently picked up the school paper and it had a interesting article about the dorms. Apparently, as the state schools received less and less funding, they had to rely on private investors to build student housing and they were the more expensive style; the school tries to allocate the traditional style to those students with the most need based aid. Most of the students at this school are probably there because it is far cheaper than many other options, so the higher end suite style housing can still be a financial burden to many families.
DS’s school probably has a lot of full pay wealthier families, and DD’s does not. Yet, I would say both of my kids are making friends that are very close to their SES background. DD’s because there probably aren’t any wealthy kids and DS’s because of the high number of students there due to scholarships. The wealthier students probably gravitate to Greek life and as @bamamom2021 posted above, it is very expensive.
I honestly think the best thing for first yr students is to live in the hall style, two to a cramped room, community bathroom style dorm. It creates such a strong bond with hall mates. College is about growing and learning how to deal with lots of stuff. I also wish colleges would abolish the practice of letting kids choose their roommates. So many select kids from their high school to stay in their comfort zone. The whole point of growth is going beyond your comfort zone and getting comfortable with that.
Learning how to deal with a new living arrangement, quite different than home, is a good thing. Save those nicer dorms / apartments for upperclassmen who have already sorted things out.
I’m glad my kids’ schools didn’t offer tiered housing. It would have been very tempting to spring for the nicer options, and then my daughter, in particular, would have missed out on some of the great lessons she learned living in a crappy dorm that was so very different from the nice room she was accustomed to at home.
Actually, I think the kids should have a choice on their dorm style. So many here on CC seem to romanticize the traditional dorm but when the student does not have the opportunity to come home often to escape a bad roommate, the stress of dealing w/ problems simply is not conducive to education.
I agree @laralei - I am not sure what great lessons that people learn living in a crappy dorm. I don’t think bonding with hall mates is a given and can’t see much value in two strangers forced to share such a small space while also trying to navigate a life transition. I agree that the newer dorms can be isolating but I think the isolation so many find today comes more from technology and gadgets than from the dorm. Those that are romanticizing the great dorm experience from their past were living in a time without cell phones, individualized internet, streaming video to laptops, etc… that turn even the most social living situations into isolated islands. I am not sure all of the kids today have the social skills to make new friends, even in the close quarters of communal dorms.
I know plenty of my dd’s friends from HS and my nieces/nephews who were in traditional freshman dorms at their schools who did not get the great sleepover, bonding experience that is mentioned constantly. Most struggled with roommate issues and many were put in forced triples or quads creating more of a strain. They struggled with the transition from home and their studies (a few transferred closer to home). I am happy my dd didn’t have to worry about negotiating overnight guests,walking in or being present for uncomfortable intimate moments, drinking/drugs and the aftermath, lights, and excessive noise while she was trying to sleep or study. She had her own small space with door for sleeping/studying and they had the shared spaces for learning about living with others and boundaries. She learned bigger life lessons such as cleaning the bathroom and food/kitchen boundaries that the kids in the traditional dorms do not need to worry about. Those are great lessons that will help her in the future! I also know that my dd met tons of kids in other suites and made great friends with the 3 others in her suite.They baked in the communal kitchens, hung out in the floor lounges and studied in study areas with larger groups. They did what they needed to do to make those social connections and at least for my dd they included students from many different regions and backgrounds. This was important since she was 1,000+ from home and we wanted her to have the best possible chance for success.
I lived in both hall style dorms with bathrooms down the halls and suites with their own bathrooms. No socializing happened in the halls of suite style dorms. You might get some, if decent communal social spaces are created. In the hall style dorm we used to leave our doors open and people would all get together to go out for drinks or pizza. Or people would just wander down the hall to see if there was someone to talk to. For some reason with the suites, no one ever left their doors open.
S attends a school where ALL freshmen live in seven dorms essentially forming their own residential college. All seven are traditional hall style. 100% of roommates are selected randomly after everyone fills out a lifestyle questionnaire. So everyone is in the same boat. You get what you get. They do this for a reason as they want the freshmen class to bond before they segment themselves off into suites and apartments. It worked out great. The vast majority of kids on his floor got along, with many of them becoming great friends. We told him up front not to expect to become great friends with your roommate. If you do, wonderful, but you simply need to be compatible and respect each other. That’s the growing part. Learning to deal with each other’s schedules, habits, cleanliness. Discussing things like studying in the room, keeping lights on when someone wants to sleep, loud music, friends visiting. Essentially their whole floor left their doors open and you could always just walk in someone’s room and hang out. S did like his roommate but they had a different group of friends so they didn’t hang out together much but respected / liked each other. I think this type of living teaches you to be far more open minded and tolerant of others. That’s why they do it.
2nd yr is quite different. They’re all in suites in different dorms. Nicer facilities, but I think they miss the convenience and camaraderie of just walking down the hall to hang out vs. having to go meet at someone’s dorm. There big group is now scattered and it becomes much more of an effort to visit. There are no halls in the suites. So now they all have their own tribe and it’s less about meeting new people (through housing).
I’m not a big fan of double rooms, but maybe that’s because I went to a boarding school, and was in the military for three years, and dislike the idea of sharing a room with anybody but a spouse intensely. However, I do like the situation described by @rickle1. The crappy dorms are for freshmen as a kind of rite of passage, after which things get better.
Of course, at that age, I was sleeping in tents with 20 other guys, and double rooms with indoor showers would have been an unbelievable luxury, so I’m sure that freshmen will do just fine there…
it also solves the problem of different level dorms - rather than some kids get great dorms, and others get crappy dorms, everybody get crappy dorms during the first year, and everybody gets good dorms thereafter. So all kids really go through the same dorm experience, regardless of family income or even luck.