<p>Anyone else's daughter crammed into a Wellesley dorm room that was most certainly, in the past, a single? It's so tiny that I doubt anyone was shown it on a tour. It looks like a furniture storage closet. Anyone else's daughter in one of these crazy-tiny rooms? </p>
<p>Only because it's so extreme do I even write about it. After all, we don't lead a fancy life. So I'm not expecting the Ritz. But it's like a little cell.....</p>
<p>PS: She shares it with her rooommate – they have bunk beds, with the person on top probably unable to sit upright. You couldn’t unbunk the beds – there isn’t even room to put two beds in that room. What am I paying for this closet?</p>
<p>Anyone have thoughts on whether I should even bother talking to someone at the school about this, or should I just give up now and take some comfort in the fact that if she ever wants to work on a submarine, she’ll be ready for the accomodations!</p>
<p>For what it’s worth, when my daughter toured Wellesley, we were shown a very tiny double (smaller than singles at the school she ended up attending), so while this isn’t necessarily typical, it’s not unheard of. It seems unlikely that anything can be done now, but many schools have more space in the spring because more juniors go abroad then, so it’s possible one of them could move at that point. Of course, if they hit it off, they won’t want to split up.</p>
<p>My daughter is in a crammed double that was a single. They cannot fit the furniture that is supposed to be in the room in. A bookcase is still in the hall and the other bookcase is in the one small closet. I was shocked at the size and neither girl brought anything other than clothes. I was most upset that the RA said this was a typical room size and after seeing the beautiful large rooms the other first years have, I felt deceived. My daughter cannot open the bottom two drawers as the desk is there. The disparity between room sizes is disappointing. With all the emphasis on reducing stress, this will turn out to be a stressful situation! And she and her roommate get along great, but classes and work has not started! We heard at a dinner that more than 50% of juniors are going away for a year, so I’m hopeful something will turn up!</p>
<p>Wow. My daughter and her roommate can’t open their door wholly because of the bookcase, but the fact that your daughter can’t even put the bookcase in the room and can’t open the desk drawers? That is shocking. I really don’t think we’re being helicoptery or picky to find these things over the top. After all, our money is going toward these accommodations and it’s absurd that they are crammed into these singles. No one is asking for luxury at all, but this is so substandard. Have you contacted anyone? </p>
<p>Housing at Wellesley is really mixed. My daughter’s res hall (Dower) is kind of hideous and run-down, but the rooms are a good size. Her first year room was a quad, with two doubles on either side of a study room equipped with 4 desks and an extra closet. All three of the rooms were small, but the arrangement worked so well that she decided to stay in Dower again this year. She moves back in tomorrow. A lot of people don’t like Dower because it’s the farthest from the academic quad and it’s the smallest dorm on campus, but having a little more room is the trade-off. Some of the nicer res halls have beautiful common rooms with pianos, nice bathrooms and hallways that don’t look like they belong in a barracks, but the bedrooms themselves are tiny.</p>
<p>One thing I love about Wellesley is its democratic approach to housing. Full pay students get the same luck of the draw as students on financial aid, unlike some schools (BU, for example), where you can pay more for nicer housing.</p>
<p>One benefit to having a room too small for the desk is that it forces students to study somewhere other than their room, not a bad thing for first years who need to get out and meet people.</p>
<p>@LMAlcott and @Eieiaye @Massmomm</p>
<p>I sympathize with your concerns. One of the things that I as a parent felt good about Wellesley was the size of the dorm room that was shown to me on my tour. Compared to other schools [of similar age and reputation] the rooms were bigger, nicer and cleaner. </p>
<p>But when I looked at the map of the rooms in Claflin [where my D is staying], I knew the rooms were going to be way smaller. But my D, knew what she was getting in to, [because she stayed in Claflin when she went for her overnight stay; the room she stayed was much bigger, that is another story] when she was applying to W and prefered Claflin. </p>
<p>My D’s room is not as atrociously small as your Ds,[I am sorry to hear that but I have seen another posting on CC, about how there are bunk beds in some dorms] still fairly small for my taste. They also have the same issue with placing the beds along the wall because of radiators jutting out and bench seats for the windows, so they are all over the place, still not as bad as what you describe.</p>
<p>When we walked in to our D’s room we started sneezing because of dust coming from the carpets. I am sure they have not been vacuumed in perhaps 30 to 40 years. If there is any one with dust allergy they are going to have a tough time.</p>
<p>I agree with Massmomm that W does not favor or discriminate full pay students VS students on financial aid for room allotment, they all get what ever room they get for the first year.</p>
<p>It is very likely that the dorms were not meant to accommodate so many students. Over the years the intake has increased but the number of rooms have remained the same, so there is the problem.</p>
<p>But, none of these seems to bother my D. She is happy with W so far. </p>
<p>What BU is doing is a whole other problem, and I’m not sure Wellesley gets extra points for not being elitist in its housing. The real issue is that Wellesley clearly has a facilities problem.</p>
<p>Not one of my daughter’s friends in dozens and dozens of other great colleges in the NE reports living in a sardine can where you can’t open the door all the way, where you can’t sit up in your bed, where you can’t get into bed if your roommate has her chair pulled out. </p>
<p>And now, @tamtiger, you’re finding your daughter’s dorm filthy? That is just so crazy. But I get it. I may buy a little rug scrap for my daughter’s room to cover up the terrible carpet stains.</p>
<p>This is crazy. How hasn’t this been dealt with by now? Has no one spoken up? Are Wellesley parents so rich that they don’t understand the value of money any more? I hard work for that money and I am concerned about the quality of housing.</p>
<p>As for everything else – so far, it’s great. It’s orientation and she is making friends – which is key, of course.</p>
<p>But housing is a huge cost and, in truth, a huge part of the health of our children. The ability to sleep well and live in a basically clean environment is important -and we certainly pay a lot for it. An awful lot. Frankly, let me be blunt: I am being ripped off.</p>
<p>Maybe the BU system is a good idea. After all, think of the money I’d save if they charged me the true value of this tiny, rundown room ……</p>
<p>I think most parents don’t really care and think this is part of being a college student. I also lived in a tiny room my freshman year. I just accepted it. It never occurred to me to get upset about it. But if this really bothers your daughter, she should complain and ask to be moved to another room. Since most people don’t seem to mind, there won’t be much demand to change rooms, and the school will probably accommodate her.</p>
<p>@LMAlcott </p>
<p>I understand your frustration, I will be equally mad as you, if my D was in such a tiny room. W is an old college, unfortunately they have not updated their dorms. For my D, this was an attraction rather than detraction. She said the college looks like Hogwarts, I guess they expect the rooms to belong to the same era as well…:)</p>
<p>W is in the process of updating the dorms [Major renovations, I think they closing one building next summer for a year to completely update it from top to bottom, I don’t remember the name of the dorm], which will not help a lot of our children.</p>
<p>My D’s room was not filthy but the carpets had invisible dust which floated in the air when disturbed as in moving the furniture. </p>
<p>I can tell you one thing for sure, W is great in taking care of student’s and parent’s concerns. And they do act very quickly to correct problems if any. </p>
<p>I will strongly recommend to you, that you or your D contact the college and voice your concerns. As Massmomm was saying after a 3 week freeze they allow people to move rooms. I am sure they will find better accommodation for your D.</p>
<p>Apart from the issue of smaller dorm rooms [which happens in a lot of older colleges], so far my D has been extremely happy with her choice. I just got off, skyping [Facetiming] for an hour with her. She is very happy, yes the room is hot and the ventilation is not great [again in most older schools/buildings] but everything else is great so far.</p>
<p>She says everyone is super friendly and very willing to help.</p>
<p>I agree with Massmomm, talk to the RA or to the college about the small size of the rooms, perhaps they can find alternative accommodation in the next 2 weeks once all the seniors have settled in.</p>
<p>Good Luck.</p>
<p>Do not talk to the RA about room complaints. That’s not what she’s there for! Have your daughter talk to the housing office after the freeze is up.</p>
<p>My daughter’s room is not big either. It is a double, however, one set of drawer and book shelf was inside a closet. Power outlet was not located in the right place, we had to move a desk so that we needed not to put long extension cord on the floor. </p>
<p>It is an irregular shaped room, my D’s bed was slanted along the wall. </p>
<p>The bookshelf on one desk was not attached to the desk, I already created one incident where I pushed the desk, and the bookshelf fell. I talked to a staff, and my D said it had been fixed later.</p>
<p>I’m sitting here in my D’s single in Severance. It’s a very good size room. </p>
<p>My D had the smallest double in Tower last year (they measured). She and her roommate decided they did not want to bunk the beds. So, along one wall – window seat used as desk chair, desk perpendicular to wall, bed, dresser against wall. Door opened with a fraction of an inch to spare. Along other wall (from outside again) dresser, chair, desk (could not open dresser doors without putting desk chair in), bed (meeting closet wall) bookshelves were along the sides of the desks. There was maybe 12 inches between bookshelves and possibly as much as 1.5 feet between the beds. I thought it was terrible, and they joked about sharing a cell, but they got along well and are rooming together this year in a much larger double elsewhere on campus. </p>
<p>She tells me that several first years on her hall ended up with singles when their roommates left mid semester and they weren’t replaced, so it does sound like there is some flexibility in space in a month or so. She also says that those who bunk their beds are able to sit up on them (unless, in her words, they are freakishly tall). So not so good for the volleyball and basketball team.</p>
<p>I’m sorry you guys have such small rooms. My D lucked out w a big double in Tower (one of the rooms where the windows are angled) and had a good size double in Sev then good size singles in Sev. But I agree it’s very variable. I don’t know how you solve that without massive costly restorations. </p>
<p>If it makes you feel better (and it won’t), yesterday as we were moving in, D was putting some suitcases under her bed and crawled underneath. There were 30 pieces of gun wadded up and stuck to the metal of the bed. Bless her that she removed it - I seriously would have gagged and thrown up. </p>
<p>W dorms look gorgeous from the outside, but they could use some work. </p>
<p>My D was in a freshman triple in Sev and it was really cramped. But she also made two good friends and she had a built-in incentive to get out and not hide in the room. She also had to pare down her stuff, and that was a good thing. Look on the bright side.</p>
<p>Sophomore year she was in a tiny double in Sev, but she chose location over room size. The good thing is that juniors and seniors get singles (not true at most colleges). If my D were at W this year (she is abroad), she would have gotten a single in Lake House. The dorms also have a 6 year renovation cycle (new carpet, paint, renovated bathrooms etc.) and they are all on a different place in the cycle. The older Gothic dorms are not the most comfortable to live in, although they are the most desired. There are tradeoffs. The largest, most comfortable double rooms are on the East side (Bates/McAfee etc.) But many students don’t want to live there because those dorms look like sixties brutalist cubes and they lack the Hogwarts mystique. </p>
<p>We looked at a lot of older, East Coast colleges. I guess I didn’t think the Wellesley dorms were exceptionally terrible. Living in older buildings has its downsides.</p>
<p>PS re dust, dirt: that’s inevitable. There is no housekeeping service, only a summer shakedown and cursory check after last year’s students have moved out. It’s that way at every college. The inhabitants are responsible for the cleanliness, or lack thereof, of a room. It’s too bad when previous occupants were pigs (i.e. gum on the bed) but what can you do. I always clean the room when my D moves in, much to her embarrassment:)</p>
<p>My daughter was in a very small double her first year (and her second year as well - just as small and next to the bathroom, to boot!)</p>
<p>I was dismayed, but I tried my best not to show it, because my daughter herself didn’t mind (and she was stuck on the top bunk too).</p>
<p>Note also that not all dorm rooms have carpeting - some have wooden floors only.</p>
<p>The pay off comes in the third year, when pretty much all the students can get a single if that is what they prefer.</p>
<p>My daughter is now in her senior year, and liked her room so well last year that she chose it again this year.</p>
<p>Thank you all for your thoughtful ideas, input, and experience. I have decided that I can not be passive when so much money is being spent for a room in which my average-sized daughter can’t sit up in bed at night because they have turned a single into a double, with double the amount of furniture etc. These girls live in a shoebox with floorspace not much bigger than a long bathmat. This is not about character building, this is about a school not tending to its infrastructure – and I would hope that a school dedicated to female leadership would not make that argument: that we let ourselves get taken advantage of in the name of character building. Wellesley has a very healthy endowment – much bigger than many of the schools where they have made it a priority to abide by the fire code and other norms.</p>
<p>My D had a postage stamp single to share with a room mate first-year. The closet they shared was pretty ridiculous and they struggled with space all year. They bunked the beds (only choice) and had desks side by side end to end against the other wall with about 3 feet in between the beds and the desks - chais hit the beds when pulled out, The bookshelf went on the wall behind the door so the door also didn’t fully open and the dressers were crammed in somewhere. They made it work - this is not uncommon @ W, it seems - maybe especially for first years because the lottery happens for everyone else end of previous term.</p>
<p>I guess you could complain - to what end, I am not sure - might make her stand out in the eyes of many others who also have tiny shared rooms but they just make it work… my 2 cents fwiw.</p>
<p>Thank you all again. I did want to say one last thing, which is that I don’t feel that the housing situation means anything more than just that: the housing situation. </p>
<p>In other words, the other things that this school offers are still exceptional, still unique, still inspiring. I don’t let my feelings about this slouch-to-read room impact any of my other thoughts on this extraordinary institution. I still think that Wellesley offers something so unique and I am so glad that my daughter decided to apply and attend. Wellelsey students have great pride in their school, and it seems – from what I can tell so far – very well deserved.</p>