Hi, I am a mom of a high school junior. I am seeing all of these dorms with coed bathrooms and coed floors. I am looking for college and universities, other than all male or female ones, where this is not happening? Are there any left? Thanks in advance for any help finding them.
Most colleges have at least one dorm where only one gender student is on a floor…or a wing of a floor.
What is your concern?
Very few! Maybe some Catholic, Baptist, Mormon, etc, colleges.
However it’s not uncommon for a college to offer one all-women floor or wing, and occasionally one for men only. You’ll have to read the fine print for each school your child considers.
Coed bathrooms are a little less ubiquitous.
Why? We had co-ed dorms way back in the 80’s when I was in college and it worked out just fine, probably better than same gender dorms as far as cleanliness is concerned. All three of mine have had co-ed dorms.
My youngest son goes to a school with a co-ed bathroom and all it means at his school is anyone using the bathroom (toilet, sink, or shower) goes into a small room (locked) by themselves - pretty much just like the co-ed bathroom we have at home. It quite honestly beats the set up my kids without co-ed bathrooms have as one has absolute privacy. Check out an individual school before rejecting them all.
Co-ed dorms and bathrooms have absolutely no effect on whether or not students will opt to have sex with anyone (or drink, or whatever). That’s a personal decision. My oldest chose a very Christian school and definitely realizes that fact. Where there’s an individual will, there’s a way - for or against.
My floor was all coed in 1988.
Most of the people having sex weren’t doing it with people who lived on their floor.
My S went to a Jesuit college a number of years ago and there were co-ed floors . The floors were single sex by hall when there were hall bathrooms and were completely mixed when there were private bathrooms. So even not all Catholic schools would fit your requirement. My D’s LAC had options for single sex halls as well. And many colleges have single sex bathrooms.
One school that may fit your criteria is Notre Dame where I believe the halls are single sex.
I think there are plenty of schools that still have single sexed bathrooms even if there the floors are co-ed, or have singled sexed floors/wings of dorms. Both my kids are at schools that have them.
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Yes, bathrooms at my other two boys’ schools were single gender. There wasn’t nearly as much privacy - just a shower curtain for the showers.
Most schools will have a variety of arrangements (including substance free housing if that is also a concern). If you go to the housing or residential life section of a college website, it will usually indicate where there are gender-specific floors and/or bathrooms. If the bathrooms are co-ed, there will be private toilet and shower stalls.
A lot of colleges are also moving towards suites that have two or more double rooms that share a bathroom and small common area. In most cases, these are single-sex.
You can look for suite style dorms. They basically are like apartments so if you are leaving your suite you are definitely dressed. But I will say both of my kids lived in co-Ed halls and there were no issues. Matter of fact my daughter liked having the guys around - they were like brothers and it lessened the drama.
Hate to fuel the furor over coed bathrooms, but when I dropped D off at college this year, overnight a sign went up outside the women’s bathroom right across the hall, changing it to gender neutral. It is most definitely not a single private bathroom. It has 3 stalls and 2 showers with only a curtain for privacy and one of the showers doesn’t even have a curtained off dressing area.
I asked D if they had voted on that at their dorm meeting and she said no, it wasn’t discussed. (A number of schools let the kids vote on how to designate bathrooms.) There are other single-gender bathrooms in her dorm that she can use if she prefers. I am guessing there is a non-standard-gender student on that floor that needed to know there was a bathroom they could use without issues.
Really, OP? What is your concern?
I mean, my kids are in their early 30s, and they lived in coed dorms. As did their mom–me.
A number of public schools have single-sex dorms as well. Ole Miss, Alabama, and Arkansas (off the top of my head) have single-sex dorms. Michigan has one all-women dorm.
You could also look at the University of Washington in Seattle, where freshmen go through Greek rush at the very beginning of the year and immediately move into the houses, and of course those are single-sex. I think that is the only school left in the country where both fraternity and sorority pledges move in immediately and never have to live in the dorms.
Try an HBCU. Most of them still follow many of the old rules about the sexes mixing in dorms and accept more than just students of color. There are also single sex schools, but unless your child goes to a Brigham Young or Liberty, in my opinion, it just makes the opposite sex more of “forbidden” fruit. I had co-ed bathrooms at Yale 78-82, my kid has one now. But, you have a right to your views. But are they also your child’s? If you try to impose this on them, you may push them to seek out that which, if it was just around them normally, they would just ignore for the most part.
Those of us who work with young adults have found that many of the most sheltered students are the ones who cannot self regulate their drinking, sexual lives, or even their study lives without constant parental intervention. It can be somewhat crippling.
Also, as mentioned in a post above, many schools have alcohol free, party free, or same sex dorms. Some also have dorms for vegans, athletes, music majors, greeks, etc. With a little research you can find almost anything you want, but again all may be for naught if your child does not buy in. You will NOT be there with them during freshman year and the only way I guess to really keep them in a bubble is to make them live at home and commute.
And many schools the kids move off campus after the first year. What are you gonna do when that happens
I can understand the uneasiness about coed bathrooms but what is the problem if there are boys in the dorm next-door or across the hall
My daughter’s freshman dorm has an all-girl hall and an all-boy hall on each floor, with matching single-gender bathrooms. She’s at Susquehanna University in Pennsylvania.
Southern schools may be more likely to have single-sex wings/floors. I know that at LSU most if not all are single sex.
I agree with many who say it’s not really a big deal, however. And the room arrangements aren’t going to prevent any sexual activity.
OP, you have a right to your opinion, and you should be able to research each school to see how they handle bathrooms. It is one of the many factors you will consider as you visit colleges and narrow down your child’s list.
As mentioned before, plenty of universities have single sex bathrooms and rooms, but offer coed halls. Emory is one such example. The University of Oklahoma has single sex halls, but technically co ed floors (guys on one side, girls on the other). I’ve lived in six different dorms. I saw no less sexual action in the coed ones I lived in than the single sex ones.
Obviously, once students move off campus, they’re free to live in whatever arrangement they want. Personally, I live in a four bedroom four bath apartment with two males and a female. Since we all have our own bathrooms and don’t walk around naked, it’s not a big deal.
University of Michigan has a few all female dorms. But gonna say… as a female resident, I got more “action” the two years I lived in one of their all female dorms than the year I lived on a co-ed hall in a dorm or the year I lived in a co-ed co-op with unisex bathrooms. Not sure what you think will be gained.