Has anyone felt disappointed by the dorm?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My state non-flagship had very good freshman/ sophomore dorms. Spacious, clean, no bunk beds, sink in room. Can't say the same for upperclassman dorms, though you could get a private if you were lucky. Loved loved my school.

What a waste of taxpayer dollars. Those non-flagship kids deserve to live like they're in jail.

/s, but someone here is definitely thinking that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Most of the replies on this thread are bonkers.

Just because you lived through it, it doesn't mean it's right, especially at today's exorbitant prices, which, corrected for inflation, are STILL much more expensive than what your college experience cost.

Also, you are all laboring under the delusion that because you had to do it, everyone else has to do it. No. This is how we get generational injustices and discrimination, mostly aimed at women and minorities. To extend this line of thinking to a commercial enterprise is sheer madness.

wow ok! are you also going to cry to DCUM about how many roommates your child has to have to afford rent? the size of their first NYC studio?

PP you replied to. No. I make sure my kids are comfortable! And that means researching dorms, and adding that as a criteria when applying to college. There is no way I am paying scandalous money for a crappy dorm. If college costs were reasonable, I wouldn't care so much. But the current system is highway robbery, so I'm making sure my family is getting their money's worth.

All you mouthbreathers braying that it's a "rite of passage" are getting fleeced, that's all. And you don't like it when others point it out, so you're doubling down.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You are not middle class - middle class kids in this area aren't having large bedrooms with a private bath. You are wealthy. Time for them to live in the real world.

Oh stop. Plenty of homes in my older neighborhood have this set up for kids and they are not mansions by any stretch. Mine doesn't but lots of my neighbors do.

And, what are your homes worth. You aren't middle class. Lets be real. You aren't living pay check to pay heck and can afford an expensive college.

Middle class homes in this area are 800-1400 or so square feet. We have 1000 square feet. We have one bathroom for everyone.

Yup i live in MoCo with my daughter in a SFH. It is 900 sq ft. with 3 bedrooms and one bathroom. It is absolutely perfect. I make about 70K.

Exactly. OP and some of the other PPs are woefully out of touch. No, most MC kids do not grow up with a bathroom all to themselves. And didn't you all have roommates and communal (or at least shared) bathrooms in college? This coddling is weird. Good thing your kid isn't in the military.

[Anonymous]

Living in a so-so dorm with a roommate who is a roll of the dice is a formative life experience for all of us.

Let your child experience it with minimal input from you from your middle-aged vantage point. Of course you're underwhelmed; you've lived much of your life and live in a house!

This is your child's adventure. Let your young adult go from here. It's the stepping stone.

I have a college sophomore this year who has moved into their first off-campus apartment and we got them their first used beater car.

Savor this year. Next year you will be letting go even more. At least your kid is in a dorm.

[Anonymous]

My DD’s dorm room freshman year was smaller than her horse’s stall.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s the lack of AC that may make my snowflake melt. How many of our kids don’t have AC before they get to college?

I will buy one of those Dyson air conditioner contraptions is DS lands in a dorm without AC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My DD’s dorm room freshman year was smaller than her horse’s stall.

Thats rich.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why everyone here is so mean? OP has a very legitimate complain.
We were very disappointed a year ago when our DC was placed into a double with 2 roommates because the school was overenrolled. He had to sleep on the upper bund bed closer to the ceiling light. No air conditioning. We paid $80K for a LAC in NE.

You knew this when you choose the $80K a year fancy LAC.

What do you mean? Of course we did not know the overenrollement when we selected that LAC on May 1. We had other options. If we knew, we wouldn't have chosen it.

Didn't you do your research on the school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I didn't even have a sink in my first college dorm room. You had to walk down the hall to the communal bathroom.

We could have a fridge but no microwave. We all secretly had the forbidden little hotpots for making soup and noodles.

If you are worried about lack of sleep then sign up for the quiet floor or quiet dorm. Kinda like the quiet car on Amtrak. It was lifesaver for me because i was not a party-er. But having a hotpot was my rebellion

I had a small electric skillet and a microwave hidden in the closet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You are not middle class - middle class kids in this area aren't having large bedrooms with a private bath. You are wealthy. Time for them to live in the real world.

Oh stop. Plenty of homes in my older neighborhood have this set up for kids and they are not mansions by any stretch. Mine doesn't but lots of my neighbors do.

And, what are your homes worth. You aren't middle class. Lets be real. You aren't living pay check to pay heck and can afford an expensive college.

Middle class homes in this area are 800-1400 or so square feet. We have 1000 square feet. We have one bathroom for everyone.

Yup i live in MoCo with my daughter in a SFH. It is 900 sq ft. with 3 bedrooms and one bathroom. It is absolutely perfect. I make about 70K.

Exactly. OP and some of the other PPs are woefully out of touch. No, most MC kids do not grow up with a bathroom all to themselves. And didn't you all have roommates and communal (or at least shared) bathrooms in college? This coddling is weird. Good thing your kid isn't in the military.

Not the same thing at all. My family lives in Bethesda in a tiny house. We share a bathroom between 4 people. It is absolutely not a crappy place, despite its small size. We keep it cozy and clean, and the layout is ultra efficient. We have very good insulation, the A/C and heat work well.

The dorm room OP describes has an exceedingly poor layout and no A/C.

Stop pretending it's merely about square footage. Layout plays an outsize role, as do cleanliness in common areas and air conditioning/heat.



It's common knowledge that some older dorms are terrible. It shouldn't have to be that way! Why is this a step too far for some posters to acknowledge? Just because it's college, no one should ever put up with that sort of living situation at that price point! If it wasn't college, none of you would be defending this.

You've got to admit when you're wrong, people. This is a no-brainer.

[Anonymous]

Side note but I hate that honors students get better dorms at some schools. They usually get scholarships and first choice in class registration. Sucks for the kids just happy to get in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You are not middle class - middle class kids in this area aren't having large bedrooms with a private bath. You are wealthy. Time for them to live in the real world.

Oh stop. Plenty of homes in my older neighborhood have this set up for kids and they are not mansions by any stretch. Mine doesn't but lots of my neighbors do.

And, what are your homes worth. You aren't middle class. Lets be real. You aren't living pay check to pay heck and can afford an expensive college.

Middle class homes in this area are 800-1400 or so square feet. We have 1000 square feet. We have one bathroom for everyone.

Yup i live in MoCo with my daughter in a SFH. It is 900 sq ft. with 3 bedrooms and one bathroom. It is absolutely perfect. I make about 70K.

Exactly. OP and some of the other PPs are woefully out of touch. No, most MC kids do not grow up with a bathroom all to themselves. And didn't you all have roommates and communal (or at least shared) bathrooms in college? This coddling is weird. Good thing your kid isn't in the military.

Not the same thing at all. My family lives in Bethesda in a tiny house. We share a bathroom between 4 people. It is absolutely not a crappy place, despite its small size. We keep it cozy and clean, and the layout is ultra efficient. We have very good insulation, the A/C and heat work well.

The dorm room OP describes has an exceedingly poor layout and no A/C.

Stop pretending it's merely about square footage. Layout plays an outsize role, as do cleanliness in common areas and air conditioning/heat.



It's common knowledge that some older dorms are terrible. It shouldn't have to be that way! Why is this a step too far for some posters to acknowledge? Just because it's college, no one should ever put up with that sort of living situation at that price point! If it wasn't college, none of you would be defending this.

You've got to admit when you're wrong, people. This is a no-brainer.

Most of those dorms have been there since our parents went to school there. How is this a surprise?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You are not middle class - middle class kids in this area aren't having large bedrooms with a private bath. You are wealthy. Time for them to live in the real world.

Oh stop. Plenty of homes in my older neighborhood have this set up for kids and they are not mansions by any stretch. Mine doesn't but lots of my neighbors do.

And, what are your homes worth. You aren't middle class. Lets be real. You aren't living pay check to pay heck and can afford an expensive college.

Middle class homes in this area are 800-1400 or so square feet. We have 1000 square feet. We have one bathroom for everyone.

Yup i live in MoCo with my daughter in a SFH. It is 900 sq ft. with 3 bedrooms and one bathroom. It is absolutely perfect. I make about 70K.

Exactly. OP and some of the other PPs are woefully out of touch. No, most MC kids do not grow up with a bathroom all to themselves. And didn't you all have roommates and communal (or at least shared) bathrooms in college? This coddling is weird. Good thing your kid isn't in the military.

Not the same thing at all. My family lives in Bethesda in a tiny house. We share a bathroom between 4 people. It is absolutely not a crappy place, despite its small size. We keep it cozy and clean, and the layout is ultra efficient. We have very good insulation, the A/C and heat work well.

The dorm room OP describes has an exceedingly poor layout and no A/C.

Stop pretending it's merely about square footage. Layout plays an outsize role, as do cleanliness in common areas and air conditioning/heat.



It's common knowledge that some older dorms are terrible. It shouldn't have to be that way! Why is this a step too far for some posters to acknowledge? Just because it's college, no one should ever put up with that sort of living situation at that price point! If it wasn't college, none of you would be defending this.

You've got to admit when you're wrong, people. This is a no-brainer.

And, living in bethesda is a wealthy area by choice so not comparable to how some of us live.

[Anonymous]

Um you just described every freshman dorm every college everywhere.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid is no snowflake, and we are just an ordinary MC family. For the past 18 years they have had their own room and bathroom, a full-sized bed, and air conditioning. Now they are at a supposed to be "elite" college, sharing a tiny room that barely fits two twin beds and two small desks, using crappy drawers that were literally tucked in the tiny closet, having no A/C in the 90 degrees weather with a useless window that doesn't open (maybe because it's on the first floor), and trekking down to the communal bathrooms 100 ft down the hallway at night. The noise from the laundry room next door doesn't make it easy to get a good sleep. The tiny beds are awkwardly placed in the middle of the room, and I can definitely see DC rolling down the bed at night, but it's impossible to make both beds against a wall due to the size of the room. Overall, it's worse than a motel.

My kid is tired and excited right now and it hasn't hit them yet that they are going to need to fit in a fridge, a microwave, and storage for various supplies. I am sure they will figure it out by themselves later (or happily living in a chaos), but as a parent I am disappointed. Those Youtube dorm tours are so deceiving! I can only hope the education they are getting there will be worth it.

They could be like people my age and not have a fridge or microwave. I mean, really, this is such first world BS.