It's interesting. I am paying 80k+ for my kids' school but I don't really care how nice or not nice the living situation is. It is just not what I am paying for. I am paying for the education, experience, connections, etc. I actually care more about the food quality than the dorm quality. I think it is ok for the kids to be humbled some. |
What's the house like you live in? Would you be ok sharing a bedroom with a stranger? |
I thought this was about crappy dorms, not having a roommate. Nice dorms have roommates too - sometimes 2. If your kid doesn't want a roommate then there are other options and that is a different conversation altogether. |
DP. It’s a college dorm!! When my kid spends a good decade increasing their earning potential like I did they can then get their own place. |
I never said "with their own bathroom." Most kids don't have that at home. But you know what they do have? Their own mf'ing bedrooms. |
Not living in a crappy dorm room would be "part of the experience", at $80K/year. Small dorm room is one thing. Old, no a/c, gross bathrooms, totally different. Why on earth would you think paying $80k for that experience is fine? It's amazing how some rich people have such low standards. And I grew up lower income. |
I wonder if this has something to do with it. I grew up with lots of money and have lots of money and I appreciate the crappy dorm experience for me and my kids. Maybe it is like fake slumming it. It is not real life yet so who cares. |
| Wait to you see where they live when they get their first apartment on a starting salary. |
Or when they move off campus soph/junior years and see the housing they choose...much of that is worse than the on campus dorm experience---except for the having your own bedroom. Oh and the bathroom they share with only 1-2 roommates will NEVER be cleaned all year, so it will be much more disgusting than the communal bathroom that is cleaned daily |
I think some people don't understand the value of money. |
I grew up very low income. Like, living in the projects and then when we moved out of the projects, our first apartment was a one bedroom apartment for my mom, sister and me. I know crappy living conditions. Fast forward to today - living the UMC experience. My kids don't know crappy living conditions. Their crappy living conditions consist of sharing a bathroom with each other. The horrors. If living in a crappy dorm is their way of slumming it for a few years, then good. Especially at this age, living in a "crappy" dorm is character building. |
At least they'll have their own bedroom. |
| I don't mind paying for a dorm with a shared bedroom. But paying for no a/c, mold, things falling apart...that's ridiculous. |
FAKE slumming is exactly it. If you really want your kid to face a challenge that will toughen them up, do what my wife's parents did. Kick her out of the house at 18 and tell her she had to pay for college on her own. While continuing to tithe 10% of your earnings to the church and keeping your wife at home jobless, because all women are supposed to be sahm's. Eventually, she graduated after about 10 years. Does she now thank her parents for creating a hardship situation to "help her grow?" No, she doesn't. She thinks her parents were a-holes. And she wants her kid to have nice things and not have to be purposely placed in crappy conditions to "help her grow." |
This is what we have heard repeatedly since our kid decided to go there. Moved kid in a few days ago and could not have been more pleasantly surprised. Clean, very large room with way more storage than we expected or than kid actually needs. Room has a/c, which we did not expect at all. This is the third kid we have moved in and is the best room that any of have had for freshman year. |