For the Modern Dorms, are the floors coed? Like is a girls room next to a boys room or is it two separate sides of the hall. Is there a female RA and a male RA or only one RA (either gender)
Yes, there floors are co-ed, but your suite will be only your gender (assuming you didn’t choose gender inclusive housing). There is one female and one male RA.
Everything that @thebunny said. I had guys on one side of my suite, girls on the other. In traditional freshman dorms, I believe there are two bathrooms on each floor.
I was a big fan of it. I had more guy friends in college because I was an engineering major and that just kind of naturally happens when you’re one of two girls in a 50 person class. It made it a lot easier to find people in my classes I could study with.
(All of my roommates were still girls though when I moved out of ResLife into an apartment).
@Johnson181 do you recommend traditional or modern dorms for a freshman? My daughter is having difficulty deciding. Also, is it first come, first serve? Does she get a better chance of what she wants if she submits her application ASAP? She’s procrastinating because she doesn’t know what she wants
It is a personal choice. Biggest difference is suite versus hall bathrooms. The “modern” dorms are generally newer and therefore nicer in that way. My son was in a modern dorm, Umrath, which was awesome. I have heard that traditional dorms might be more friendly, but my son’s floor was very friendly. Modern dorms are more expensive if that matters to you. You daughter will probably have a great floor regardless of what she chooses.
@momworried I agree with 2135ar - it’s completely personal choice. I was in a modern & I loved it. My floor was super social (I never understood the “modern dorms aren’t social” thing - it’s not remotely true in my experience).
But as I said, personal preference. Even the people I knew who didn’t get their preference (either way) ended up loving their freshman floor. I wouldn’t stress too much over it.
Also, I’m 99% certain it is NOT first come first serve. They wait for all the apps to come in before assigning dorms, which is part of why it takes so long to hear back (around July 1).
Here is a situation you may want to consider: My DD is in a traditional dorm. Her floor has two hall bathrooms, one female and one male. But there are no locks on the doors. Well actually there are keypad locks, but they have been deactivated all year. My daughter has twice encountered a male using the female bathroom.
She is uncomfortable and I certainly don’t like it. I’m especially uncomfortable with the thought of her taking a shower late at night. When I brought it to the attention of a residence life WUSTL employee, I was told they decided not to activate the locks because it was inconvenient for students and they have never had any incidents reported. Their solution was to offer to move my daughter to a modern dorm with in-suite bathrooms!
Did your daughter report the incidents? I am wondering if the Res Life employee was unaware of the problem rather than ignoring the problem. Interesting that they offered to move your daughter to a more expensive modern dorm. My daughter was in a tradional dorm for her freshman year, and I think it was good for her socially as she became friends with others more easily, especially people in other majors.
I’ve never heard of that happening before. Two things to consider, however:
- there’s no reason that bathrooms are gendered other than cultural biases. unless there was some sort of harassment I don’t really see the problem, though obviously there’s an aspect of a social contract and trust violation.
- someone read as “male” may also be trans, genderqueer, etc in which case they are using the appropriate bathroom. while there is widespread misinformation, these individuals are highly at risk to experience harassment and are virtually never harassers.
She did report it to her RA and we told the Res Life employee during a meeting we had scheduled. The Res Life employee was referring to sexual assault incidents never having occurred or been reported in the bathrooms. The Res Life employee also told us later that they had put the issue of locks to a vote on the floors and that overwhelmingly the students voted against it, so that was that.
My daughter loves her floormates and the friendships she has made and does not want to move. She also doesn’t want to make a lot of waves and potentially be socially ostracized, so we have dropped it and advised her to be smart and cautious. This has probably not been my best parenting moment, but we are respecting her wishes. As parents we worry about what could happen while the 18 and 19 year old’s feel invincible.
@thebunny I wouldn’t be quite so dismissive of concerns that some students–particularly incoming freshmen–might have about bathrooms. For example, your argument about bathroom expectations being grounded in nothing more than “cultural biases” could just as easily be extended to slavery, human sacrifice, and cannibalism. (After all, our aversion to these long-standing practices can be seen as a post-Enlightenment “Western thing”–a testimony to our ethnocentrism.)
If some students do indeed have a “cultural bias” against same-sex bathrooms, so what? You have a cultural bias in favor of the discourse of gender/sexuality studies and its attendant proliferation of “identities.” Again, so what? You say potato, I say potahto, etc., etc. Can’t we tolerate multiple points of view on such matters?
There’s no reason that everyone’s needs can’t be accommodated, without unneccesarily imposing anyone’s “cultural bias” on anyone else. I believe that Princeton addresses this issue by providing designated bathrooms for men and women, in addition to gender-neutral bathrooms. This seems like a humane and reasonable approach.
To add onto what @MrSamford2014 said Wash U does have “gender inclusive” restrooms. They can be found here http://wustl.edu/community/visitors/maps/
So @MrSamford2014 , I did not mean to suggest that gendered bathroom should be banned… I was simply pointing out that there’s no inherent harm in non gendered spaces. I am completely speechless re: comparisons to slavery… Um.
We do have gendered and non gendered bathrooms, as FlapEardKnave (awesome name by the way) responded. I’m very confused as to what issue you have, so if I’m missing something let me know.
I’m also troubled by your (by my perception) dismissive tone about the “bias” you assume I have to gender/sexuality studies. I did not mention WGSS or any academic studies in my post and yours sounded to me to be targeting some sort of political ideology. Ex using quotation marks around identities appears to cast doubt on the veracity or something of a person’s claimed gender. Maybe I’m misreading your intentions. I intended to inform, not dismiss… I apologize if I came off differently.
Can anybody please recommend dorms for an incoming freshman girl who is not a partier and prefers a somewhat quieter night time atmosphere?
@mojojohnson you can’t choose dorms, you just choose modern vs traditional
@mojojohnson Your daughter should request the substance-free option. My son did that freshman year, and the others in his suite were non-partiers too.