<p>I lived in a traditional dorm when I was in college. It wasn’t terribly old, but it wasn’t new, either. I loved it. I met everyone on my floor, and most girls on other floors. Doors were often kept open and there was a great social atmosphere. There could also be a lot of drama, and it was sometimes hard to study. I wouldn’t trade it, though.</p>
<p>My D lived in a suite-style dorm (same school as your son, OP), and it was perfect for her. She has never shared a room in her life (I always shared with 2 sisters, so sharing a larger room with only 1 person was luxury for me), and didn’t want to have to get used to that in addition to everything else that was new and different. She did not meet a lot of kids on her floor, and any time I was there and walked through the dorm, there were few kids in the hallway and no doors open. D of course knew the girls in her suite, but a lot of the kids she knew in the rest of the dorm she had met outside of the dorm. I’m not sure if D had a less social floor (there were a number of upperclassmen living there, as opposed to other dorms that had a larger percentage of freshmen) or if that’s how all the suite-style dorms are. But D wouldn’t have traded her suite for a room in a traditional dorm and didn’t regret choosing the suite for a minute. That said, my D is pretty easy going and flexible, and had she been assigned to an older, traditional dorm, she would have handled it. </p>
<p>momofthreeboys, I hope my D finds you’re right about the suites…she requested a double on a hall (as an entering freshman this August) and was put in a triple in a suite. Apparently too many people wanted as she did and there weren’t enough to go around. Someone on CC said that the rooms are small in her particular dorm and were designed to be doubles and so I know we need to set expectations lower. She just really, really doesn’t want the top bunk. Having said that, she’s thrilled about starting at her dream school and I know she’ll make friends wherever she lives…she may just have to try just a little harder to meet people.</p>
<p>My oldest was placed in the oldest dorm for her freshman year and was dreading it. Sure, it was rather delapidated and old but she ended up making great friends and her section of 34 kids continued to get together several times a year for the following 3 years. They did have a common space and used it; they also all left their doors open.</p>
<p>Both my kids had traditional dorm rooms freshman year.
We did look at a college that had suite style dorms, except for freshmen, which were traditional.
Older D had a single for three years, then shared a college owned two bedroom townhouse.
Youngest moved off campus sophomore year.</p>
<p>My daughter realllyy wanted a suite. But alas, the school she chose has only traditional dorms, and most students live in them all four years. And of course she got the one of the “worst” ones; very small, drab and old-school. Meanwhile, her friends at other schools all have beautiful, shiny new suites or fancy apartments that look like 5-star resorts. At first I felt kind of bad for my daughter. But then I realized… when she finishes school and finally gets her first place on her own, no matter how small and crappy it is, it will feel like a palace! </p>
<p>A couple other benefits of traditional dorms:</p>
<p>In a suite, when you share a bathroom with 2-3 other people, it may be occupied when you really need it. The common bathrooms in a traditional dorm will always have a shower or toilet available.</p>
<p>You have to clean your own bathroom in a suite-style dorm, whereas the common bathrooms are professionally cleaned every day.</p>
<p>If you’re a germaphobic neat freak and your roommates are slobs who leave your shared bathroom a mess (or vice versa), that can cause some discord in a suite arrangement.</p>
<p>I was always wondering about the social aspect of suite style dorms. My d lived in a “suite style” but it was really just a regular dome room with a “jack-n-Jill” bathroom between two rooms. She said they had their door open a lot and there were lots of common areas on every floor. Kind of the best of both worlds. </p>
<p>DS’s dorm room in his college years has no 90-degree angle. All dorm rooms in that dorm are like this and I heard every dorm room is different from other rooms. It is difficult to put furniture in the room properly. An upside is that there are many singles. I heard that after a massive renovation, they get rid of most singles.</p>
<p>Re: “My d lived in a “suite style” but it was really just a regular dome room with a “jack-n-Jill” bathroom between two rooms.”</p>
<p>DS’s dorm room is like that. The students are responsible for cleaning the bathroom. It is often in a mess because most of these “well-sheltered” students were not trained to clean their bathroom at home before college. I bet most of them do not do this after college either.</p>
<p>In one year, he lived in a “Ramada Inn” style apartment complex due to the renovation of the dorm building. I heard many students liked it (partly due to the AC - those old dorms do not have AC) even though it was not designed by a famous architect.</p>
<p>Harder decision when it is a matter of Honors College suites or cheaper regular dorm rooms. UW-Madison has an excellent Honors Program and no special housing for those students. Honors students are too diverse to want the same style or location for dorms. In general not having to clean a bathroom definitely trumps those situations where one has to. It is nice to meet “all walks of life” as a freshman. </p>
<p>In this situation- do many honors students choose to not live with the other honors students? Would your son be socially isolated from those students in his classes he most likely has more in common with? If significant numbers opt out of Honors housing it’s no big deal. If no others in honors will be in his dorm he may feel strange.</p>
<p>OP, my second son is at the same school as yours is going and one of the things that “sold” him on the school was the suite style dorms. He has always shared a room, but with his personality, having his own space was pretty important. His older bother lived in a traditional dorm for 3 years (little, bathroom down the hall) and this was fine for him. Comparing the two, I will say the traditional dorm is less isolating and the older one met alot more people, but I don’t know if that is because of the type of dorm or just personality. My youngest will be a freshman at the same U as your son and he has chosen a suite style room also. Because we are paying for this child (the other one had a housing scholarship) I did wonder if we should encourage him to go with a regular dorm room, for cost and social reasons but it is hard to not treat the kids “the same” so we did not bring this up. However, if he had been assigned to a traditional dorm I think my son would have been okay with it.</p>
<p>Yes, there’s no doubt those suite-style dorms definitely influenced his decision, but they weren’t the primary reason for choosing the school. When he put in his request for reassignment he had his choice of honors, suite-style or a single, and he chose honors. He’d like to live in one of those suites, but what he mainly wants is to find a nice community of like-minded kids, especially since he’s coming from out of state and won’t know anybody on campus. </p>
<p>It does seem like honors kids can be found all over (some are likely commuting as well) even though the official honors housing is located in suites. They do have overflow honors housing in a more traditional dorm, but not the one he’s been assigned to, which is also all male, so he won’t be meeting his future wife there either! ;-)</p>
<p>He’s pretty easy-going in general, so I’m not overly concerned, but he has terrible allergies so a newer dorm would be preferable. I wish now I’d asked to see one of the more traditional dorms when we visited, so he’d at least some idea of what they’re like before he has to move in.</p>
<p>Seems to be to either A) keep out random people on the weekends or B) prevent girls from being assaulted in restrooms. It’s the first I’ve heard of it.</p>
<p>I guess my kids dorms were smaller.
Oldest freshman dorm for example, had maybe 25 students.
You knew who belonged there and who didn’t.
They also had family style bathrooms, which perhaps discouraged those who might prey on young women.</p>
<p>Both of my S’s had really old dorms. S1 was in an all freshman dorm. It was hall style and had a sink in the room , hardwood floors and ten foot ceilings (built in the 1940’s). Two kids to each room that opened directly onto the hall. Communal bathroom on each floor. S1 loved it. </p>
<p>S2 lived in a very old suite style dorm. There were no niceties. There were four rooms in each suite with 2 guys in each room. There were two rooms on each side of a short hall. At the end of was a bathroom…one shower, one sink, one toilet for eight guys. The dorm was built in the early 60’s and had very few upgrades since then! It was the last all male dorm on campus. Even though it was a dump, S2 liked it.
The next year, the whole thing was torn down and new dorm was built on the site with nice co-ed suites.
S2 feels he’s part of history since he lived in the last all male dorm on campus.</p>
<p>I never saw a locked bathroom at either of my sons’ schools. </p>
<p>My point as an architect, is that while the suites look great, architecture does affect behavior. My younger son lived in various dorms with rooms off corridors, but his favorite was the one freshman year which had big lounge spaces with comfortable furniture on each floor that really got used. The worst one had hard square tables with chairs that were bolted to the table structure.</p>
<p>As a very shy introvert the set-up I prefer is single on a traditional long corridor. For me the easiest way to get to know people is in set-ups where I see a person on a regular basis and eventually strike up a conversation… so classes, clubs/teams, and traditional dorms worked best. (The suites were MUCH nicer physically but have less day-to-day interaction of students). IMO that pretty much holds for two of my kids also … the third is social enough that he probably will be fine in any set-up. To me this is a case where knowing the kid on your couch is really improvement.</p>
<p>Or just let the kids pick, they generally have an opinion on which they prefer. But for newbies - get the reservation in early if your kids have a preference as housing is generally first come, first served. We had housing deposits in at 2 schools for two of my kids in January and just asked for a refund at the school they did not chose beore the refund deadline. </p>
<p>momofthreeboys, the problem is nearly all kids will think they prefer suites, unless you’ve lived the difference, I don’t think it’s that obvious.</p>