Reply to Has anyone felt disappointed by the dorm?

Forum Index » College and University Discussion

Reply to "Has anyone felt disappointed by the dorm?"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I highly suspect those who claim it is fine to pay $80K a year for an over-crowed dorm room with no AC are school administrators.  [/quote]

No, just parents who know that a smart person does NOT decide where to attend college based solely on the dorm experience.  Dorms are not meant to be luxurious.  They are meant to house kids, foster community and add to the overall college experience.  IMO the best schools are those that require at least 2 years of living on campus.  It helps keep the kids focused and building a great group of friends.  Studies show that kids who live on campus perform better academically overall.  Learning to navigate roommates/suitemates/etc is character building and gives you lifelong skill for dealing with difficult people in the workplace/life in general.

Also, your room costs at college is not just for the individual room.  It's for the people who keep it clean (you wanna clean dorm bathrooms on a Sunday/Monday?), it's for the RAs, RHC, and other student staff that are available to ensure your kid adjusts to college and integrates onto campus.   Yes, most dorms are older because it costs a ton to build new dorms, and typically you need an open space to build it first, because you cannot just tear down a dorm and not have it available for 1-2 years while new one is being built.  
Also, most parents actually care more about money being spent on academic programs and things that really matter education wise than a brand new dorm with all the bells and whistles....I want my kid to have small classes, classes taught by professors, profs that have plenty of office hours each week and who actually care about their students and are invested in having their students learn.  I want a great library, great placement resources so my kid can get internships/coops/first job.  I want my undergrad to be able to do research and have out of class activities to engage in with faculty related to their major/career path.  
I want tutoring available for freshman/sophmore classes so if my kid struggles, they have easy access to stay on track and succeed (and yes, even 4.0UW, 1500+ kids struggle at college especially in engineering/stem/writing/premed courses).  
Majority of T50 schools are not loaded with brand new dorms, in fact most of the T25 are filled with old dorms, most without any AC---and unless you live in the south, it's only hot for 2-4 weeks each year and your kid will be just fine (tell them the library and student union are AC'd if they really need it, they can go study)[/quote]

+1 
Dorms are the least of my concerns[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics