Worst Dorms

[Anonymous]

Does Georgetown have bad dorms? I know two siblings admitted. Curious how they’ll deal

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What are UCLA dorms like? They didn’t show any dorms on the tour. We liked the UCLA vibe…until they mentioned housing. Triples “guaranteed” all four years.

Students are guaranteed dorm housing for freshman year only. Then they get to look for apartments in Brentwood. I know of people back in the day who lived in their cars, or rented a friend's 3x5 apartment closet as an "apartment". My spouse (native Californian) applied to UCLA, got in, and went elsewhere due to the housing situation.

Huge changes since your spouse's era. Four years are guaranteed at UCLA now. Almost all university housing is in triples, though. Very tight living quarters, but also tons of social opportunities on “the hill.” The adjacent section of Westwood is filled with students in apartments who want more room or other amenities. Pricey, but very available.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What are UCLA dorms like? They didn’t show any dorms on the tour. We liked the UCLA vibe…until they mentioned housing. Triples “guaranteed” all four years.

Part of the experience at several UC campuses, along with fighting for classes and resources. I guess people accept it as a rite of passage, but I would have trouble paying OOS tuition for it.

These schools are mot meant for OOS students. Triples help keep the costs manageable, which almost all California parents are fine with. It’s a trade off.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What are UCLA dorms like? They didn’t show any dorms on the tour. We liked the UCLA vibe…until they mentioned housing. Triples “guaranteed” all four years.

3 to a room and dank.

Have friends who went there, and now their kids go there.

Dank?? I doubt it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It must be quite a shock going from wealth and luxury to Harvard dorm rooms

The truly wealthy just happen to always luck out of being assigned to the worst dorms. I'm not joking.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Dorms have gotten too nice.

I don’t think there should be filth, pests, and vermin but a college student doesn’t need a juice bar and sushi chef in their dorm building.

Problem is, the elite schools are selling access to an elite social network. If the dorms aren’t up to snuff, the rich kids move out into housing that is. And then what is the elite school selling?

Their target market (the truly elite) don't need to go to Ivies to network. The Ivy diploma is an academic prestige service - a z list Ivy grad gets to think of themselves as smart and their social circle does as well. It's much harder for an ordinary student to get in than to graduate, hence a z lister can walk in, graduate, and reap the social benefits of the hard work of all the talented normal Harvard kids who give it the "top school" reputation. That's the product they're selling. (Not for $100k per year - that's peanuts. We're talking 7/8 figure donation.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Brown and Colby both have crappy dorms

Eh, when you're 18 yrs old dumpy dorms aren't as repulsive as when you're an onlooking 47+ yr old parent .

The 18- 25yr old age range have low thresholds for the most part - youth hostels, "backpacking across Europe", and all the other "roughing" it experiences...

Not rich kids. They’ve been raised in luxury.

Poor kids aren't the ones backpacking or "slumming it" for fun.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What are UCLA dorms like? They didn’t show any dorms on the tour. We liked the UCLA vibe…until they mentioned housing. Triples “guaranteed” all four years.

Part of the experience at several UC campuses, along with fighting for classes and resources. I guess people accept it as a rite of passage, but I would have trouble paying OOS tuition for it.

These schools are mot meant for OOS students. Triples help keep the costs manageable, which almost all California parents are fine with. It’s a trade off.

No triple do NOT keep the cost manageable. Plenty of CA parents are more than willing to pay $1-3k more a year for their kid not to be in a forced triple.

The cost of a double room with middle tier meal plan at UCSD is $18490 while a triple is $17334. So around $1100 more for double. The school makes so much more money cramming kids into a triple. But I suppose there is a benefit that there is space for more students.

Berkeley the difference between a triple and double is around 3k.

UCLA The cost of the triple only room price is $9,254, while the double is $12,498.

UCSB the cost for double with mid tier meal plan is $23,078. While a triple is $21,228, so $1850 difference.

At UC Davis a double is $13,059, while a triple is $11,308.

Wow, typing that out it is interesting how much more expensive UCSB housing is compared to UCLA.

Price for triple with mid tier or automatically included meal plan


UCLA $15,827.76 (classic dorms which are cheapest)
UC Davis $16504 (five day meal plan) $18391 (seven day meal plan)
UC San Diego $17,334 (mid tier meal plan)
UC Irvine $ $17,636
Berkeley $19,735
UCSB $21,228

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yeah I don't see an issue with gross dorms. It is a rite of passage and helps the kids bond.

Troll

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yeah I don't see an issue with gross dorms. It is a rite of passage and helps the kids bond.

don't need that kind of bonding.

My kid is at UMD and was in the newer dorm Pyon Chen their first year. The dorms, bathrooms, common rooms were so nice. Much nicer than what I had in the 80s out west.

Can you share what/how you applied for housing to get a new dorm?

[Anonymous]

What about dorms at Rice?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What are UCLA dorms like? They didn’t show any dorms on the tour. We liked the UCLA vibe…until they mentioned housing. Triples “guaranteed” all four years.

Part of the experience at several UC campuses, along with fighting for classes and resources. I guess people accept it as a rite of passage, but I would have trouble paying OOS tuition for it.

These schools are mot meant for OOS students. Triples help keep the costs manageable, which almost all California parents are fine with. It’s a trade off.

Don’t disagree, but it seems like some OOS families will pay for Cal, UCLA and possibly even UCSD.