bowdoin - college houses

[Anonymous]

DC loves the idea of "houses" within a college (what can I say, he grew up on Harry Potter). We have heard they are very robust at say Rice, but were interested to discover that Bowdoin has these, too. It appears the College House system was started in the late 1990's at Bowdoin in conjunction with disbanding of the greek system.

Are the College Houses a strong part of a Bowdoin student's experience? I went to a different SLAC with residential houses and very few of the student body participated, so I am a little skeptical of how much of an impact these would have on one's college experience.

[Anonymous]

What is it with supposedly elite colleges trying to model their campus life after a children's book series? I can't imagine most college kids, at least the cool ones, thinking that such a system is anything other than lame. If you're picturing a bunch of kids running around campus repping their "house," then unless it's a total geek school, your perception is likely way off. Things were so much simpler in my day when the freshmen all got thrown into random dorms with random roommates and then the cool ones joined frats. The attempt by college administrators to reclaim control over the social climate is just another symptom (or perhaps a cause) of the never-ending adolescence being manifested by this generation.

[Anonymous]

Um, I think Op was making a joke. The system is more likely based off of Oxford and Cambridge’s.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Um, I think Op was making a joke. The system is more likely based off of Oxford and Cambridge’s.

Why would OP be making a joke? I can see this appealing to a lot of kids. 15:49 is an old crumudgeon.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What is it with supposedly elite colleges trying to model their campus life after a children's book series?

You know J.K. Rowling didn't come up with the idea of different houses in a school, right?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What is it with supposedly elite colleges trying to model their campus life after a children's book series? I can't imagine most college kids, at least the cool ones, thinking that such a system is anything other than lame. If you're picturing a bunch of kids running around campus repping their "house," then unless it's a total geek school, your perception is likely way off. Things were so much simpler in my day when the freshmen all got thrown into random dorms with random roommates and then the cool ones joined frats. The attempt by college administrators to reclaim control over the social climate is just another symptom (or perhaps a cause) of the never-ending adolescence being manifested by this generation.

Tons of colleges have houses that predate Harry Potter by decades. Even my school's half assed version has hoses going back to the 80s as an alternative to the greek system

[Anonymous]

Anecdotally, I have friends and family who attended Bowdoin, and a decade + out of school, their best friends are still the ones from their college houses. They seem to create a very tight community.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is it with supposedly elite colleges trying to model their campus life after a children's book series? I can't imagine most college kids, at least the cool ones, thinking that such a system is anything other than lame. If you're picturing a bunch of kids running around campus repping their "house," then unless it's a total geek school, your perception is likely way off. Things were so much simpler in my day when the freshmen all got thrown into random dorms with random roommates and then the cool ones joined frats. The attempt by college administrators to reclaim control over the social climate is just another symptom (or perhaps a cause) of the never-ending adolescence being manifested by this generation.

Tons of colleges have houses that predate Harry Potter by decades. Even my school's half assed version has hoses going back to the 80s as an alternative to the greek system

I didn't realize that. My school's alternative to the greek system was just called "being a nerd" (or, alternatively, "not getting laid"). I also don't remember campus tour guides doing the thing they all do now where they try to downplay the percentage of students in frats and sororities so as not to scare away all the helicopter parents who are afraid of greek life. Like I said, this generation is a different animal - one that takes way too long to wean off its mommy.

[Anonymous]

I would assume they did it for the extra housing since they owned the houses anyway.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What is it with supposedly elite colleges trying to model their campus life after a children's book series? I can't imagine most college kids, at least the cool ones, thinking that such a system is anything other than lame. If you're picturing a bunch of kids running around campus repping their "house," then unless it's a total geek school, your perception is likely way off. Things were so much simpler in my day when the freshmen all got thrown into random dorms with random roommates and then the cool ones joined frats. The attempt by college administrators to reclaim control over the social climate is just another symptom (or perhaps a cause) of the never-ending adolescence being manifested by this generation.

I think placing college/university students in "houses" predates the Harry Potter series. For example, at Harvard, the system was created in the 1930s, see

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvard_College#House_system

[Anonymous]

Alright, I get it. The college house system predates Harry Potter. But U.S. colleges didn't start emulating it en masse until after the books and movies became popular. It just smacks to me of, "Don't worry, overprotected kids who are afraid to leave home, we're going to give you a ready-made family on campus, just like those 12-year-olds you grew up reading about had." When, to me, college should be about growing up and learning to navigate the big, scary world.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Alright, I get it. The college house system predates Harry Potter. But U.S. colleges didn't start emulating it en masse until after the books and movies became popular. It just smacks to me of, "Don't worry, overprotected kids who are afraid to leave home, we're going to give you a ready-made family on campus, just like those 12-year-olds you grew up reading about had." When, to me, college should be about growing up and learning to navigate the big, scary world.

Unless Bodwoin moves faster than any other university in the country, they launched their houses in 1998, the year after Harry Potter was released. Mabye it's a copy, but 1 year to go from nothing to a house system is a hell of a fast turn around. I wonder if you can point to any other schools with house systems that post date Harry Potter

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Alright, I get it. The college house system predates Harry Potter. But U.S. colleges didn't start emulating it en masse until after the books and movies became popular.

No, not really, as has been pointed out to you.

It just smacks to me of, "Don't worry, overprotected kids who are afraid to leave home, we're going to give you a ready-made family on campus, just like those 12-year-olds you grew up reading about had." When, to me, college should be about growing up and learning to navigate the big, scary world.

You sound like a real Ace there, tough guy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Um, I think Op was making a joke. The system is more likely based off of Oxford and Cambridge’s.

Why would OP be making a joke? I can see this appealing to a lot of kids. 15:49 is an old crumudgeon.

I meant OP was likely making a joke about her kid liking the college house system because of Harry Potter ... My goodness everyone seems cranky today.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is it with supposedly elite colleges trying to model their campus life after a children's book series? I can't imagine most college kids, at least the cool ones, thinking that such a system is anything other than lame. If you're picturing a bunch of kids running around campus repping their "house," then unless it's a total geek school, your perception is likely way off. Things were so much simpler in my day when the freshmen all got thrown into random dorms with random roommates and then the cool ones joined frats. The attempt by college administrators to reclaim control over the social climate is just another symptom (or perhaps a cause) of the never-ending adolescence being manifested by this generation.

Tons of colleges have houses that predate Harry Potter by decades. Even my school's half assed version has hoses going back to the 80s as an alternative to the greek system

I didn't realize that. My school's alternative to the greek system was just called "being a nerd" (or, alternatively, "not getting laid"). I also don't remember campus tour guides doing the thing they all do now where they try to downplay the percentage of students in frats and sororities so as not to scare away all the helicopter parents who are afraid of greek life. Like I said, this generation is a different animal - one that takes way too long to wean off its mommy.

LOL, good stuff, you are going to trigger a lot of these day drinking hens with this post...