Paty doesn’t have one either:-(
Neither of my kids could afford to have cars, so they limited themselves to schools that had at least minimal public transportation and things within walking distance.
Oldests freshman dorm was built in early '60’s. One of the coolest dorms on campus ( with a sallyport and grotesques), was built in 1912.
I understand that families may be so caught up in offered majors and other criteria, that they assume that the logistics of day to day living, will work themselves out.
But our family unfortunately/fortunately had enough experience with things *not *going according to plan, that we probably paid more attention to the smaller details, than the big ones.
I never cooked / made one single meal in college all 4 years. Where would I have done so? Doesn’t compute.
As you know pizza girl, some schools have dorms with full kitchens on each floor.
Other schools allow students to have small refrigerators, microwaves and perhaps an electric kettle or crockpot in their room.
Where my daughter had been living since graduation doesn’t have a stove, but they have an electric kettle & a fridge, as well as a rice cooker/vegetable steamer & also a toaster oven.
Some people find it easier to be flexible.
I am not aware of any school allowing more than a microwave and fridge. For all the talk about pasta there are plenty of people who cannot eat pasta? Needless to say I wouldn’t say a diet consisting of primarily pasta healthy. Also, have you looked at food prices lately?
About 30 years ago a student could borrow $2500 a year today it is $5500 but the cost of education has far more than doubled. The cost of secondary education is out of control.
In terms of commuting, that is not without expense. The cost of the car, the maintenance and gasoline are not free. Commuting to college also makes it difficult to meet with professors and to partake in study groups. College is more than just taking classes where you show up and leave. Also, there are colleges that require commuter students to buy meal plans and pay mandatory fees above and beyond tuition which they don’t really use.
The problem is: the US is not creating enough living wage jobs. It used to be if you went to college you would have a fairly secure financial future, in today’s world it is quite different.
Some dorms don’t allow cooking in the room, but in a common area. My older D had such a kitchen-one for a dorm of several hundred. It had one pot. That’s it. No dishes, no silverware, no cups. So unless a low-income student (with no money to afford extra food) can buy a few used pots and pans, plates, silverware, etc. (with the money they don’t have), you’re right back where you started, with a kid who can’t afford to eat outside of meal plan allowances.
I know it must seem astonishing to believe to some people, but there really are young people who choose to go to college and go hungry in an effort to better their lives, and whose families really can’t help in any way. They don’t own cars, or pots and pans or even mom’s cast-offs, because MOM’S are cast-offs! It’s not a matter of taking the bus to a store, because even though some colleges offer reduced or free bus passes, there is NO MONEY for extra food!
But to these families, education is a ticket out and up and even if it means going home only in the summers-if the money can be scraped up for a bus ticket-and being hungry after hours, that is what the kids do. It isn’t “poor planning” or any other derogatory term, to them the reward is worth the journey. There should be a better way for kids like these.
Curious what u consider a living wage. Enough for a family of 4 to have a stay at home parent?
Also, were anthropology majors any more employable in 1950 than they are now?
As my grandma used to say." Some people find excuses, others solutions".
My daughter’s suite (freshmen only) has a full fridge, microwave, a storage cabinet for each person (4 per room). They can bring appliances with automatic shut offs only (but everyone sneaks others in). But they have to have a full meal plan! It’s ridiculous. Either let them cook or make them eat in the cafeteria, but having a full kitchenette and then saying they can’t cook is wasteful (of my money)
This isn’t a US anecdote (well, sort of), but here in London we have recently befriended a 19 yr old American student attending the School of Oriental and African Studies. He is a first generation college student, very bright. When he was in HS, he looked up the top school in African studies in the world and decided he wanted to attend. He was accepted, but not given any financial help. So he deferred for a year, worked in factory (with his mom and brother) for a year, saved enough money for 3 years of tuition and came to London. Now, although he has a room and 10 meals a week - he has absolutely no additional money. When we met him, he was skipping meals on the weekend or just eating an apple for lunch. Not only does he not have money, he doesn’t have cooking facilities either. luckily, he wandered into our church one Sunday and we have taken him under our wings. We’ve given him a small part-time job, invited him to our homes for meals, etc. Now, he can at least afford to eat. I really admire this young man for pursuing his dream, but I doubt any of my kids would be willing to sacrifice to this extent. He has no money to travel home so he may not see his family for several years! I suspect that this is the same experience for many international students in the US. They don’t complain or make a fuss - but they are really struggling.
“As you know pizza girl, some schools have dorms with full kitchens on each floor.
Other schools allow students to have small refrigerators, microwaves and perhaps an electric kettle or crockpot in their room.”
Never saw such a dorm on my campus, though my D’s campus has a dorm like that. We had refrigerators in our rooms - not microwaves. It seems to defeat the entire purpose of communal living if everyone is cooking up their own stuff. I believe strongly that the communal dining experience is part of the college experience and I prefer my kids to have meal plans where they can just sit with others and socialize during meals versus the depressing and solitary whip-up-my-own-meal. Don’t see the appeal, at all.
"My daughter’s suite (freshmen only) has a full fridge, microwave, a storage cabinet for each person (4 per room). They can bring appliances with automatic shut offs only (but everyone sneaks others in). "
This is what I mean. So if they do sit and cook, they’ll eat / socialize at most with just suitemates. If they go to a cafeteria, they can chat with the whole dorm. I fail to see why “isolating” a suite like this is desirable.
“I never cooked / made one single meal in college all 4 years. Where would I have done so? Doesn’t compute.”
-You are a great minority. Most find the way to do it and they do. Actually there are plenty of food these days that you can pick up at crocery and they are edible without cooking (the “savior” at D’s school was Walmart, bless thier hearts!). All dorms have fridge and microwave now. You can have breads, peanut butter, most are buying cereal (alhtough it is expensive in my books) and eat it all day long, milk, cheeses, cream cheese, my gosh, list can go on and on and on. Many simply do not have time to stop at their eating places and grab something, they are just way too busy…
Back in the dark ages, my dorm had kitchens in the basement. Had to get permission to use, but it allowed cooking option. I didn;t know anyone who used them for regular meals, however.
There is a huge difference between those kids who run out meal money but have a family safety net and those who are truly at school by the a hair in terms of finances. For those is such straits, if they are permitted to work, a job in university food services can help. I did that. Also, the Student Center should have info on food pantries and soup kitchens if any in the area. Both to offer volunteer activities and to provide info for those truly in dire straits.
It’s a lacking that schools do not collect info on community, state, federal resources for those who are in need, so students and others in the university community can get easy access to that info. IT’s like they are pretending that there is no one associated with the school that could use that kind of help, let alone be desperately in need of it.
In my day, health insurance was not required, and there were kids who did not have it, especially international students of which my college had in abundance. Some of them were living in very cramped, cheap housing and lving out of a rice cooker barely making it. The school had the most fantastic, world class medical facilities associated with them, including a medical school, but if a student needed care, other than a 3rd class health center, nothing available and no info that laid out options. Not a one. They would “intern” out kids to the PUblic health center but not give out what services one could get there. That’s the way a lot of colleges run, and still to this day.
When my son was injured and needed on site care at the college once the initial work ups were done, his university, replete with such resources was not at all helpful. Like no info at all other than whatever the person you talked to happpened to know off the top of the head. With a med school and school of health resources, that is ridiculous.
So it’s not just the food, but all kinds of other community info, very basic things that the schools do not tend to keep informed and care about.
I’m curious, @emeraldkity4, what your solution is for a kid whose parents paid for a full meal plan and can’t afford to send extra money, who already has a work study job that has to cover books and toiletries with little leftover, who has no transportation to get to town, and has no access to any kind of cooking facilities on campus.
@MiamiDAP, all dorms do not have a microwave, you cant make a blanket statement based on your D’s school. They were prohibited at my D’s school, something to do with old wiring and overloading the circuits. So how was she to make the pasta and eggs that you said on another thread anybody can afford to make?
Are the colleges providing these appliances for every student, @MiamiDAP? I don’t believe they are. Where do you think low income kids are going to get the money to buy appliances when they don’t have enough to buy food?
I volunteer at a local food bank. There are rules about who they can provide assistance to, and even then there are frequently times where there’s not really enough for families who live in their service area. Asking them to take on the student body of local colleges is a good thought, but impractical and probably not permissible.
“what your solution is for a kid **whose parents paid for a full meal plan **and can’t afford to send extra money, who already has a work study job that has to cover books and toiletries with little leftover, who has no transportation to get to town, and has no access to any kind of cooking facilities on campus.”
Um … the kid then eats on the full meal plan that his parents paid for? I fail to see the issue here.
And yeah, yeah, I get you’re not supposed to tuck an entire cereal box under your coat and run, but I find it hard to believe someone couldn’t figure out how to take a banana or apple or yogurt for later on.
No, Miami, “all dorms” do not have fridges / microwaves. Sorry. That was a silly blanket statement to make.