They're all pretty standard. Bed, desk, dresser, closet or wardrobe. The only relevant differences are location and whether they have AC or not (and the significance of that depends on the climate)

My kid is in love with a top LAC with crappy dorms and would be thrilled to live in that disaster for 4 years.

About half the places we visited so far have dorm room tours. About half of THOSE had real dorm rooms (as opposed to "sample" ones).

I did notice that at the places where we saw real rooms, the tour guides have to go through a lot of hoops to get the tour group in and out of the building (given security requirements). And some dorms don't lend themselves to large groups if people in the hallways (let alone in the little rooms). So I can see why they don't all show them.

Bottom line: all the colleges have online video of the various housing options. The rooms that are shown are usually a standard double (no suites). They are nicer than when we were in school -- but not much. Large state schools doihave some very nice options (nicer than my first 3 apartments!) -- but they are not standard and will cost you...

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Touring dorms is so creepy and such a waste of time. It takes you 2 seconds to Google pictures of campus housing.

I don't really think seeing the inside of a dorm room is that important, but I do think seeing the general condition of the housing can say a lot. I toured one residence hall at a rather expensive university that was just plain gross and in a horrible state of disrepair. I'm not talking about messy; I'm talking about non-functioning restrooms, trash and debris in the stairwells, and no evidence of any cleaning or maintenance whatsoever. I don't know what that school was doing with the $70k per year, but it wasn't spending any of it on the residence halls.

Ironically, the better the school the worse the housing.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Touring dorms is so creepy and such a waste of time. It takes you 2 seconds to Google pictures of campus housing.

I don't really think seeing the inside of a dorm room is that important, but I do think seeing the general condition of the housing can say a lot. I toured one residence hall at a rather expensive university that was just plain gross and in a horrible state of disrepair. I'm not talking about messy; I'm talking about non-functioning restrooms, trash and debris in the stairwells, and no evidence of any cleaning or maintenance whatsoever. I don't know what that school was doing with the $70k per year, but it wasn't spending any of it on the residence halls.

After having you red at least a dozen dorm rooms, I tend to agree. They are strikingly similar - some a a little smaller and some are a little larger, but basically it is a tight space with a bed, dresser and desk for ones child.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:JMU and VT don't show dorm rooms

We did a tour of JMU last spring, and they showed us a dorm room.

At the September 30th open house, they didn't show dorm room. In fact, they don't take us inside any building at all except for the student center (can't remember the building name). It was pretty much the most worthless tour we've done yet.

If at all possible, I'd recommend NOT hitting schools on open house days. Unfortunately, you're likely to have a much better experience when it's less crowded.

I disagree. When you visit for the usual admissions presentation and tour, you are unlikely to meet any faculty or students from your college of interest, you may or may not be permitted in the dining halls, and your access to buildings will be whatever you see on the tour. When we visited on "Junior Day" or other big programs that happen once or twice each year, we toured individual colleges in addition to the general tour, we heard student panels from different majors, we talked to campus ministries, student organizations, athletics, etc. The big events were much more valuable to us than the usual tour and 30 minute powerpoint.

Agree with this 100%
Open houses give a lot more specific information than a general session and tour.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:JMU and VT don't show dorm rooms

We did a tour of JMU last spring, and they showed us a dorm room.

And we saw a mock up of one at VT when we toured.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:JMU and VT don't show dorm rooms

We did a tour of JMU last spring, and they showed us a dorm room.

At the September 30th open house, they didn't show dorm room. In fact, they don't take us inside any building at all except for the student center (can't remember the building name). It was pretty much the most worthless tour we've done yet.

If at all possible, I'd recommend NOT hitting schools on open house days. Unfortunately, you're likely to have a much better experience when it's less crowded.

I disagree. When you visit for the usual admissions presentation and tour, you are unlikely to meet any faculty or students from your college of interest, you may or may not be permitted in the dining halls, and your access to buildings will be whatever you see on the tour. When we visited on "Junior Day" or other big programs that happen once or twice each year, we toured individual colleges in addition to the general tour, we heard student panels from different majors, we talked to campus ministries, student organizations, athletics, etc. The big events were much more valuable to us than the usual tour and 30 minute powerpoint.

Anonymous wrote:Touring dorms is so creepy and such a waste of time. It takes you 2 seconds to Google pictures of campus housing.

I don't really think seeing the inside of a dorm room is that important, but I do think seeing the general condition of the housing can say a lot. I toured one residence hall at a rather expensive university that was just plain gross and in a horrible state of disrepair. I'm not talking about messy; I'm talking about non-functioning restrooms, trash and debris in the stairwells, and no evidence of any cleaning or maintenance whatsoever. I don't know what that school was doing with the $70k per year, but it wasn't spending any of it on the residence halls.

Anonymous wrote:Touring dorms is so creepy and such a waste of time. It takes you 2 seconds to Google pictures of campus housing.

I completely disagree. Looking online and in person makes a difference.

I have yet to see an actual dorm room being used except for friends we knew

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:JMU and VT don't show dorm rooms

We did a tour of JMU last spring, and they showed us a dorm room.

At the September 30th open house, they didn't show dorm room. In fact, they don't take us inside any building at all except for the student center (can't remember the building name). It was pretty much the most worthless tour we've done yet.

If at all possible, I'd recommend NOT hitting schools on open house days. Unfortunately, you're likely to have a much better experience when it's less crowded.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:JMU and VT don't show dorm rooms

We did a tour of JMU last spring, and they showed us a dorm room.

At the September 30th open house, they didn't show dorm room. In fact, they don't take us inside any building at all except for the student center (can't remember the building name). It was pretty much the most worthless tour we've done yet.

Anonymous wrote:JMU and VT don't show dorm rooms

We did a tour of JMU last spring, and they showed us a dorm room.

Touring dorms is so creepy and such a waste of time. It takes you 2 seconds to Google pictures of campus housing.

Anonymous wrote:JMU and VT don't show dorm rooms

We saw a dorm room at JMU when we toured. We toured over FCPS Spring Break so JMU was in session but they had a suite set up to show all of the tour groups.