My D’s freshman year at Cornell she was in the all girls dorm. She didn’t choose it, but that’s where her housing placement ended up. It was fine. This year, she is in a co-ed dorm. Co-ed floor, co-ed bathroom. Like lots of other colleges, there is a sign (it looks like a “3”) that you can turn: W is for women only; M is for men only; E is for everyone; and the 3 is for me, myself and I. I asked my D if she turns the sign when she goes in and she said no, not a big deal.
My D at Carnegie Mellon: there are co-ed dorms by room and co-ed by floor, but the bathrooms are single sex (at least that’s how it was two years ago). CMU has like two or three all male dorms just by the nature of having more guys than girls.
Like others have said here, I was in a co-ed dorm in the 80s but our bathrooms were single sex.
When I was touring Berea College, a mom in our group gasped with relief when the guide said all dorms were single sex. I didn’t say anything, but I was thinking, “Mom, that doesn’t mean your daughter’s locked up…”
Back in the Stone Age, our all female dorm allowed men in the bathrooms until midnight.
One of my kids went to a Jesuit school. Dorm had 1/2 floor of men and 1/2 floor of women on each floor. But the bathrooms were single sex. My kid happened to live on the floor where the bathroom was a men’s bathroom, so she had to go either up or down a flight to get to a women’s bathroom. There was only one gang bathroom on a floor.
Just adding, 35+ years ago, at my women’s college, my mother was a little surprised to discover my dorm was co-ed, with guys on my hall (Bryn Mawr College, with Fords on the hall through room exchange). They were big brothers to us freshman, and kept an eye out for us. Bathrooms were co-ed, with plenty of privacy. As a mom of boys, I rather like the balance that mixed gender brings to a hall, keeps the drama down as the kids tend to become a big family. But I realize not everyone shares that outlook.
Co-ed dorms have been around for what? 50 years? Almost two generations? We encountered very few single-sex dorms in our travels, but I would say most if not all offered at least single-sex floors and/or hallways.
I’m a bit amused at the parents who want to protect their kids by having them in singles in single-sex dorms. IME those were exactly the arrangements where the most sex was happening. Having the opposites sex on the floor ever so slightly decreased the amount of sex being had (I think it was a bit of embarrassment factor) and having roommates who would be inconvenienced definitely made it harder to find the privacy for intimacy.
Even if you find single-sex dorms, most likely there will be no restrictions regarding those of the opposite sex. It’s not going to keep them away from the dorm completely.
But as others have mentioned you will find single sex dorms at many colleges, but it will limit your search if that is a requirement. As for single sex bathrooms, that’s probably an easier find.
Apparently, at least one is left. I did come across one school that has single sex dorms and does not allow members of the opposite sex to enter. St. Thomas Aquinas College.
The OP will likely be able to find colleges which noise only women, or only men. The OP will definitely be able to find dorms that house men on one floor and women on another in the same building. And they will also be able to,find dorms where there are men and women, but they don’t share a bathroom.
But the question is why? And what does the entering college student think about this?
We know one kid whose parents asked him to love in the substance free dorm…so that is what he chose. Two weeks into school, he moved to a different dorm.
I went to boarding school for high school many moons ago. Obviously, single sex dorms. Curfews with alarmed doors past curfew time. Students still found ways. >:)
You (or rather your child) might want to look at Providence College. There’s a tiny bit of flexibility in upperclass housing, but all traditional freshman housing is single-sex. Furthermore, they’re quite strict about guests, who need to sign in with ID and be chaperoned by their host at all times.
Someone up above mentioned HBCU’s as having single sex dorms. Many do for at least the freshman. My D is in one. She also has a curfew, though it’s rather generous-midnight M-Th and 2 a.m. Fri and Saturday. They DO check the freshman dorms for curfew violations, and men are not allowed past the lobby except for move-in. We looked at one HBCU where no freshmen can visit overnight in any other dorm, nor have visitors-even family-overnight for the first semester so that they can focus on their studies. I don’t think single-sex dorms allowed daytime visitors in the rooms there either.
We’re not puritans, but it just worked out that D ended up at her school, and has no problem with being in an all-female dorm. Since she’s an early-to-bed kind of kid, the curfew doesn’t bother her either. But it seems to be a source of contention with some of the girls.
>:)