I really want a dorm room thats comfortable and inviting to my other friends. I am thinking about bringing a futon or couch to put under my raised bed. I’ve seen it done before and it looks cool. Have any of you ever done this? Does it work well in the room or does it make it way more crowded? I also was thinking about bringing a different office chair because the one they provide is just the standard wooden one. Am I allowed to do this? Any other suggestions to enhance my room?
Thank you 
So… at least here in NMH you have to ask for permission first. I know changing your chair is fine but you can’t bring couches
This will vary by school. Generally switching out the chair is fine (as long as you switch it back when you move out); the futon may or may not be allowed. Check first. Also many schools do not have cookie-cutter dorm rooms, so you might not know if something will fit until you actually see your room.
At my son’s school, you cam put in any furniture you want-- except that they have very strict guidelines for firecode reasons and only certain matterials for upholstered furniture are allowed. But a lot of kids have some version of more comfortable office chairs and a couch or love seat-- and those rooms with couches or love seats become the hang-out rooms for groups of friends. But make sure you know the size of your room first, what the rules are for what is allowed at your particular school, and any fire code regulations.
at my boarding school, we are not allowed to bring extra furniture into the rooms (we switch rooms every semester). It would be best to bring more and more stuff after you have seen your room setup.
New students and parents have to realize that part of the restriction on non-school-issue furniture is about liability. Say Jonny uses his non-school desk chair to stand on to get something off a shelf…and the chair rolls and he falls. And so on.
And before you buy anything…keep in mind that sometimes there are “legacy” pieces of non-standard, but somehow approved furniture that seem to get passed down from class to class.
I don’t know about you guys, but there ain’t no couches in my kids’ rooms at home…so I don’t think they were expecting couches in their dorm rooms…
Check your student handbook to determine what is allowed and what isn’t as it does vary by school. My kids’ school was fairly open about what it allowed in terms of furniture - IF the room had space. For one of my kids, their freshman room allowed zero room for extra stuff, for the other, the kid and roommate had space for extra, comfy seating by bunking their beds. I’d wait to see what kind of space you have to work with and make sure you and your roommate are on the same page about how you want to set up your room.
We’re bringing a sofa and reading chairs for our room.
I think you might be surprised how small most rooms are… AND you are sharing. best to wait on that kind of thing. Besides, what will you do when both you and your roommate bring sofas, large screen tv’s and gaming systems. You do realize that you are there to study, right? And that living without all the comforts of home is part of the experience?
What are these “comforts of home” of which you speak? Thank goodness 7D1 & 7D2 aren’t on there…they might realize what Scrooges their parents are!
At one move-in, I saw a kid carrying a gaming chair from his parents car to the dorm…wonder how much he got to use it.
OK… so I exaggerated… and it was very tongue in cheek! NO boarding school kid (especially a first year) needs any furniture AT ALL … nor should they even consider a gaming system… at least until after Fall term grades are out!
Obviously a parent perspective in my post #10! LOL 
You’ll likely find that you’ve been assigned to share a teeny tiny room with a roommate. The couch may end up assigned to the basement.
Every dorm I’ve ever seen has had common rooms in the dorm for hanging out in groups. It is more polite not to plan from the start to exclude other dorm mates. And, frankly, at most prep schools you’ll be too busy to hang out a lot in your room. You’ll either be studying there or sleeping. You’ll be too tired from a full day of classes, sports practice, & hours of homework to go without sleep.
Just remember that whatever u put in the room in the fall is going to have to come out of the room before the summer. If your school does not have storage for bulky furniture, it will be a pain in the wazoo to deal w it…
I’m in a triple with a common space that’ll fit a couch and a TV, so that’ll be okay.
But yeah, for the most part, fitting a couch in a single, or even a double, is pretty difficult… The room is going to look ridiculously small.