Colby Dorms

Current Colby students/parents or recent grads, what can you tell us about Colby dorms and dorm life? I have read recently that the dorms are pretty overcrowded, with lots of forced triples and common rooms turned into residential rooms. And what is is like living with upper classmen as a first year? Pros and cons? What else can you tell us? Thanks!

Overcrowding…Not sure who told you that.
But always at capacity. I think that with the opening of the apartments downtown, this is not the case any more. That added 200 beds, I think. (Those look beautiful in pics btw!) But there has not been a lot of empty space and it was the practice for the last few years to hold off assigning rooms to the (usually) sophomores with lowest draw numbers until summer when they knew exactly who would be on campus in September. But they tended to be happy with their assignments.

And there are tiny triples (2 rooms for 3 people ) that have been triples since the 70s, so not “forced” (which means double housing 3 people.) But definitely small are not luxurious! The apartments for upperclassmen are pretty nice. Room sizes vary by dorm, aND you can find maps with dimensions for every dorm on their website. Dorm quality seems a common beef among parents (Colby and elsewhere ) – small tooms, cinder block walls, etc. and there is definitely variation in aesthetics and size across campus. Freshmen are likely to be assigned to rooms that are on the low end of both (although most of the grumbling seems to come from parents, not students.)

For freshmen, it’s a nice way to meet upperclassmen, and this is a school where there is a lot of mixing between classes. I have the sense that there is more “dorm life” at some of the smaller dorms. It’s not unusual for (non-frosh) friends to try to get;suite style rooms together, and there are dorms where this is the major option so there are dorms on campus without freshmen.

My sense, as a parent, is that this is a place where kids spend a lot of time put of their rooms. At some schools, the core of your friends and your life is determined by where you live. Here, less so. Your kid will have a chance to stay overnight during admitted student weekend and check it out if this is a contender for you at that point.

I have a freshman who is in a triple right now. Although he was quite disappointed when he learned he was placed in a triple, he was pleasantly surprised by how large the room is. Each student has their own bed (no bunks), wardrobe, dresser and desk, with plenty of floor space. They do not feel like they are on top of each other. There are some sophs, but the dorm is mostly freshmen. Have not heard any negatives about his living situation except that the bathroom is one floor down from his room.

My son has been in very roomy doubles in 2 different dorms. He actually said this year that there were more singles available because many has requested shared rooms. No complaints about the dorms.

Thanks for sharing all of your experiences. I actually got the sense that dorm crowding was an issue for some from this article, written by Colby students last year. http://colbyechonews.com/overcrowding-limited-space-colby-dorms/. We toured Colby twice this fall with two children, and didn’t tour the dorms either time, which raised a bit of a red flag, compared to our experience on other campus tours. Admitted student weekends are definitely a great option for those who can make the trip, and for those who don’t apply ED. One child is considering ED2 and so I am trying to gather as much information as possible so as not to be surprised by issues we were not aware of. Thanks again for sharing all of your thoughts, and I would love to hear from any and all, student or parent, about the dorm experience!

You can find other rants about housing in the Echo if you look, especially last year!. (In the one cited, the quote about Tufts is inaccurate - most upperclassmen live off campus because they have to - not enough on campus housing- and crappy dorms abound there as well. So it does raise some questions about “selective accuracy” on other issues.) Echo rants include everything from the xyz team having too many parties in one dorm to not enough rooms allocated for groups in the draw to too much housing dedicated to substance free housing.

I confess, my dh was one of the grumblers during move in day freshman year (only to find out his cousin had lived in the same room, one floor up, as a triple, in the 70s!) DC was fine with it and with his options since. As mentioned above, I think the addition of the downtown housing really helped.

Realistically, a triple is always a possibility at Colby - lots of room are configured that way-, so if that’s a show-stopper, don’t ED. (The only roommates on DC’s hall who had issues - ultimately resolved- were in a double.) It is my sense is that while there is housing that isn’t fabulous, especially for freshmen, this is one of the few things kids have to gripe about.

Is that to say that getting accepted ED means you are likely to get a freshman triple…?

My son was ED and did not get a triple. He did spend the summer on campus, and they chose to live in a huge triple. The kids have lots of ways to reconfigure the rooms – his current double has a sofa in it that they bought!

@parentgeorgia , any kid MAY end up in a triple freshman year but most will be in doubles. RD and ED don’t matter. When you matriculate, all that matters is that you’re there!

And fwiw, although I have not heard tons of “my roommate and I were soul mates” stories, it seems that housing does a decent job in assigning rooms in that roommates fundamentally get along.

Echoing some other replies, the downtown dorms have meant more space and we’ve actually had some more common rooms open up this year. Similarly, while forced triples aren’t unheard of, they seem to be pretty rare.

I think the mixing of grades within dorms is actually pretty great! It meant that campus isn’t really fragmented by grade, and there are plenty of opportunities to get to know people in other grades than your own.

Thank you both for the insight. Very positive as we continually read fine and v acceptable things regarding Colby…