<p>I was talking to a guy at work who took his kid to check out Texas A&M Commerce. He said that in his younger days he had worked in social services in NYC and could honestly say that he’d been in crack houses that looked better than the A&M Commerce dorms.</p>
<p>What other schools have horrendous dorms?</p>
<p>Out of 12 campus tours, my vote goes to University of Miami. Last year, I believe they were listed under “dorms like dungeons” on a popular web site. Search using that phrase and you’ll pull up 20 of the worst from the Princeton Review web site.</p>
<p>New England Conservatory. There were some posts a few years ago that were pretty hilarious in describing them.</p>
<p>Bowles Hall at UC Berkeley is aweful!! I stood there for an admitted students overnight program. From the outside, it has the charm of a neo-Gothic building from an East Coast school, but inside it’s like an institution. Lightbulbs hanging from ceilings. Concrete floors, ceilings, and walls. And the charm on the exterior is overshadowed by the dirty facade. Ewww…when I was there, somebody put burn marks on the walls, and the whole hall smelled like smoke. </p>
<p>I’m sorry, I had really high expectations for Cal, and Bowles Hall kind of ruined it for me.</p>
<p>A&M commerce? hahahahaha I went there for UIL regionals just a couple of weeks ago… it’s too small of a school, the Dorms from the outside sort of look like rundown apartments…if those were the dorms… Also… be careful the sidewalk by the pond/ lake has duck crap all over… LOL… lots of Ducks on Campus LOL
The Campus was nice and the weather that day was awesome…
I hear SMUs dorms have a damp feeling, I don’t know myself though…
I get to go tomorrow(to SMU) for some grad ceremony of my Mom’s friend… nice Campus… each time I go to SMU its always some ceremony or something… I went there for a wedding and some other stuff…
I’ll see if I can check out the school and the dorms…
yay for SMU?</p>
<p>Some schools are really unpredictable in the quality of their residential facilities. Princeton is a perfect example of this. Its really hard to tell what you’re going to get as a new student because students are randomly assigned to one of six residential colleges. </p>
<p>The dorms in the core campus colleges (Rockefeller and Mathey) and in Whitman College are fantastic. However, if you happen to be assigned to Wilson College, like I was, then there is a good chance that you will be living in extremely outdated structures built in the 1960s that have not been maintained particularly well and do not have good heating/cooling. Luckily, with the razing of the Butler College Quad, the chance this will happen to incoming students is drastically reduced. </p>
<p>I can only hope that Wilson College Quad is the wrecking ball’s next target, these dorms really don’t reflect well considering how much we pay for room and board.</p>
<p>On another note, I visited Northwestern (used to live nearby, have a friend who goes there), and Columbia, and all I can say is no wonder so many students live off campus. At NW, I was told that it is more expensive to live in university housing than off-campus, and the dormitories are extremely spartan and claustrophobic. The latter is true for Columbia as well.</p>
<p>According to Collegeboard.com:</p>
<p>99% of first-year students live in college housing
94% of all undergraduates live in college housing </p>
<p>At Columbia.</p>
<p>So I dont see what makes you think so many students live off-campus.</p>
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<p>I was in Wilson College in the late 70’s, and lived in the (as it was then called) New New Quad my junior and senior years. I had a great suite my freshman year (in 1937 Hall) and a huge double in Wilson as a sophomore. Friends visiting from other schools were jealous. I am glad they’ve razed Butler - it was very ugly - but I do think students’ expectations of dorms have changed a lot in the past 30 years. We didn’t expect air conditioning, lots of singles, etc. And we had to walk to class in the snow, uphill both ways. ;)</p>
<p>i think tokyo was saying that at columbia the dorms are very claustrophopic. I stayed at on campus at both of them for summer programs and at nw I found that some are small, but the one i stayed in , allison, the doubles were quite huge. At columbia I stayed in hartley, which is suite style, and the singles were VERY good size, plus a huge two level common area that made it feel not claustrophopic at all.</p>
<p>Booklady - Fortunately for you, the maximum occupancy of those suites was a lot less than it is now. My suite in 1938 Hall my freshman year was designed to accommodate six: two doubles and two singles with a common room. Now they assign eight to that room. Plus, you can understand the chaos that ensued with a private bathroom that wasn’t cleaned. BTW, my mom was around in your day, class of '79.</p>
<p>dncrgrl102 - I guess Columbia has housing inconsistencies as well. Maybe they should show visiting students that dorm you stayed in.</p>
<p>How do you classify bad dorms? Small size? Poorly constructed? Dirty?</p>
<p>does stanford have bad dorms?</p>
<p>I went on 6 or 7 tours and I’d have to go with George Washington. Although I’ve heard from my friend who’s going there next year that the ones they show on the tours are the absolute worst and that most dorms are actually really, really nice. Why they do that, I do not know.</p>
<p>UCLA - they’re tiny and have no air conditioning</p>
<p>Stanford has epic dorms, by the way.</p>
<p>…Which top-tier colleges, fitting into the likes of HYPS, also have top-tier dorm options?</p>
<p>…Which ones have the worst, smallest, and oldest?</p>
<p>…Which ones offer better housing for honors students?</p>
<p>…Best/worst bathrooms?</p>
<p>If you can answer any of these questions, it’d be a help!!
My good friend who is in her senior year was discussing her past housing situations with me, and she said to specifically ask about dorm quality. Her freshman year she was stuck in a cramped room, the bathroom floor was slimy, and the stall curtains didn’t even cover the necessary width.
Hoping to seek out the best housing from this.</p>
<p>Speaking of top-tier colleges with bad dorms… I personally don’t like Swarthmore’s dorms. Some are better than others (some have air conditioning, some don’t), but the ‘better’ ones are also generally less social (Parrish). Just my take on it- I wouldn’t let that be the determining factor because it’s a great school otherwise, it’s just that I’d expect with such a large endowment, they’d be better.</p>