Most (all?) of William & Mary’s freshman dorms do not have air conditioning. It’s in what we lovingly call “the armpit of Virginia” because of the hot, humid summer days, now extending well into late September. 
I can’t imagine how smelly and hot the dorms get in late summer. At least Va Tech is in the mountains, so on average is 5+ degrees cooler.
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The vast majority of the Univ of California’s freshman dorms are 3 to a room now. It is one of D25’s biggest concerns with the UCs.
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I went to W&M and lived in one of the non-air conditioned dorms my freshman year. I think I took three showers a day during August and the first part of September. I was so miserably hot, even with us running multiple fans in the room.
My older son goes to college in central MA and most of their dorms do not have AC. It’s not as bad as it is down in VA, but the upper floors have a lot of heat rising. They run fans non-stop. (Ironically, in his freshman dorm they also kept the windows open all winter because the choices for the radiators were either off or fires if a thousand suns hot).
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A bunch of beautiful new dorms have gone up or will be going up at W&M - all w a/c. My daughter is a sophomore there from the west coast. We have a/c. She was in a non A/c dorm her freshman year and says it created a more close knit feel, w the kids hanging out together in the dorm common spaces that had a/c. She felt the newer dorms w a/c didn’t have that same camaraderie. She has a/c this year but wouldn’t trade her freshman year experience for anything.
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Yeah, there are definitely some areas where AC is a necessity- especially in the south and southwest. If it’s only necessary for the first month though I don’t think it’s a dealbreaker. It would be great if all schools could budget that in though. My kid is looking at mainly cold weather schools and many don’t have AC. We’ve heard the line- it’s only bad the first month too, which makes sense.
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Yep- it’s awful! Cal is the worst from what I hear. They really have a big housing issue
I feel like radiator heat in the winter is even worse, especially if you can’t control it. With my hot flashes and night sweats, I’m getting hot just thinking about it 
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The radiators were the worst. The other quirk with them was that they would only be quiet for the first 30 minutes they were on. I don’t know what happened at the 30 minute mark, but that was when it sounded like “angry dwarves mining for jewels” inside the radiators. So if you needed the heat on at night you better fall asleep in that initial quiet 30 minutes or the banging was awful.
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I’m so glad to hear that there is more A/C available! You could install your own window unit if you had a doctors note saying that you needed it for medical reasons… after my freshman year my roommate got a note from her uncle the doctor… I mean, he was a podiatrist, but that counted. 
. I’m TOTALLY SURE she had some kind of horrific allergies or whatever he said. 
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There’s a big difference in the need for aircon at say W&M and UCLA. 90 degrees in a low humidity climate like CA is infinitely more manageable than in VA, especially for kids who grew up elsewhere.
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S23 survived on the 14th floor with no ac at Cuse last year. I told him it was a good idea to spend time in class and in the library studying. 
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Don’t kids just bring portable air conditioners? Or are they not allowed in the dorms? That’s what most people I know in San Francisco do. They are as easy to install as those plush headboards that I see on dorm tours on YouTube. The schools could rent them like fridges and make a mint.
I know–this is climate change and the people with means will use their resources to avoid the effects.
Obviously this is very school dependent.
Cuse’s info: Air Conditioning, Refrigerators, and Other Appliances . No air conditioning or other heating or cooling equipment or apparatus shall be added to or utilized in the housing unit. However, students requiring air conditioning for medical reasons may request special permission.
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Good point! Humidity is a whole other level of misery!
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Luckily this is no longer true. Starting next year, there will be very few non AC dorms at W&M.
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For what it’s worth, apparently having non-AC dorms makes it a lot harder for universities to monetize their residential spaces in the off-season (read this about Brandeis, which is struggling financially).
(insert discussion about heat pumps and how they can help us address climate change AND provide A/C…)
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Hopefully you’re right. I went back and looked at the housing website. As of now 8 out of 20 first year dorms have no a/c or are only air conditioned in lounges or top floor bedrooms. 
A couple of those non AC are coming down! But it can also be misleading if you just look at the total buildings (and I should have phrased it differently) . For instance, one old dorm with no AC on the second floor houses only 35 students total, but the brand new full AC building houses 270. More info here - William & Mary begins construction on new housing and dining facilities – W&M News (the new dorms, etc. open this fall)
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It’s almost 2025. The year our babies take a big step on their journey to adulthood. Who else is torn between wishing that this period of application uncertainty would just end already and hoping it never does because that means that the train has really left the station? I get teary just thinking about it and I’m not a teary person.
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Yes!!! So so so much this. I just want to know, but at the same time, I don’t want to rush through one minute of this year.
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