<p>Curious as to what CC parents see as the pros/cons of these two systems:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Freshman-only dorms (taken to the extreme, something like what Vandy has, where all the freshmen are in one little section of the campus .. the only upperclassmen there being the RA's)</p></li>
<li><p>Dorms in which all four years are dispersed throughout</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Pro of freshman-only is sense of community; con seems to be "no one knows the ropes."</p>
<p>Thoughts, perspectives?</p>
<p>My kids are in freshman only dorms and I think you can add to the list of pros that it does make it easy to make friends, not only the fact of living together but the shared experience of being in Dorm X give roots in their new environment. I know you said that it develops a sense of community and I am probably being redundant here but I just got a little specific. For reserved kids I think it is a good thing.</p>
<p>I also see the con of “no one knowing the ropes” is not always a con. It can be a bonding thing to figure the ropes out together.</p>
<p>I know that the dorms at Scripps have all grade levels in them and the scuttlebutt is that there are fewer dorm activities and less participation because the older students are perhaps “over it” and have more of a social life outside of the residence halls.</p>
<p>I don’t think that is necessarily a bad thing though. There should be a lot to do on a campus regardless of dorm activities and I know this is true with Scripps and I am sure other schools with multi aged living as well.</p>
<p>I think I remember reading some report that said that it would be beneficial to mix freshmen and upperclassmen in residence halls. The report said that it would probably improve freshmen behavior (upperclassmen would tell them to stop bad behavior, for example). I think what often happens on US colleges is that bad dorm experiences lead upperclassmen to flee residence halls. They also want the freedom that off-campus living provides. </p>
<p>I would be interested in hearing reports from campuses that have mixed freshmen with upperclassmen, or done other things other than an entire hall filled with freshmen.</p>
<p>Some dorms at a large public U that my son visited followed the residential college model. Certain dorms are designated for freshman only and residents take some introductory classes in their dorms as well. Pros- this model helps keep class sizes small and also helps build a sense of community among incoming freshmen. Cons - we heard informally that the freshman-only dorms tend to be a bit rowdier and noisier, especially at the beginning of the first semester.</p>
<p>I attend a university with only mixed residence halls. My dorm in particular is known for its tight-knit culture and great support network. Of course, my university’s housing policy is also completely strange, but it works out well. When you’re a freshman, the upperclassmen help you with your homework and your personal problems, and when you’re an upperclassman, you help the freshmen, and it works out great.</p>
<p>My friends who went to other colleges with all-freshman dorms are jealous of the community that I get to live in when they visit :)</p>
<p>My alma mater followed a policy of mixed dorms; of course there was one large dorm on campus that housed almost exclusively freshmen and sophomores. Other dorms were more mixed. Freshmen were a pretty tight knit bunch but it was nice to have the benefit of older students on the floor as well. </p>
<p>D’s dorm is all first years- “scholars” housing in suites. Scholars group she’s a part of is relatively small but it’s nice to have folks in your suite that can help you when you’re stuck on a particular problem. </p>
<p>Son’s school was “mixed” but due to the nature of room draw he ended up in a less desireable dorm both years (at least in my opinon) because he didn’t want to pay more for better housing and it was the only place a group of friends could draw together.</p>
<p>I attended a LAC with mixed-age dorms and I loved it. I ended up with several “big brothers and sisters” who were more a support than a bad influence 
and my best friend by the end of the year was the sophomore girl who lived next door. Now my D attends a small university with freshman dorms and it feels limiting to me. But she joined a sorority and one of the unanticipated advantages is that she now has older friends who give her advice about majors, classes, professors,etc.</p>
<p>Coincidentally, sabaray and I are talking about the same alma mater ;)</p>
<p>I am not a fan of the all-freshman dorm – and I have no idea why schools are still so invested in this concept. It reminds me of the disaster my school district initiated when they started a middle school for 5th and 6th graders only – discipline problems went through the roof compared to the K-6 model they’d previously used. I think that dorms with a mix of students from different class levels creates a more civilizing environment, and also creates social networks that have more flexibility and resilience.</p>
<p>S1 lived in a freshman only co-ed hall style dorm at a big state u…girls on the top two floors and boys on the bottom two. Don’t know about the girls’ sections but from what I heard the boys’ floors were crazy 24/7. That said, S1 loved it and would have stayed there for soph. year had it not been freshman only. He moved off campus soph. year because there was “no other dorm as good as xxx”. He graduated last May and remains friends with guys he met in that dorm.</p>
<p>S2 lived in a mixed class all male suite style dorm as a freshman. It was the only all male dorm on campus so was considered an animal house but from what I heard , it didn’t seem as crazy as S1’s all fresh. dorm. The suite vs. hall set-up could have been a factor. The non-freshmen in his suite were sophs. so not that much diff. </p>
<p>At both S’s big state u’s very few upperclassmen live on campus (except the ones in the on campus apt. complex where fresh/sophs are not allowed). A huge percentage (including my kids) move off campus soph. year. So even in the dorms that are mixed classes, it’s still mostly freshmen and sophs.</p>
<p>One con of “freshman only” dorms.</p>
<p>you have a concentration of kids who are away from mommy and daddy for the first time. This can be a pain and a distraction for the other students. </p>
<p>One pro of “mixed dorms”</p>
<p>Usually, the harder partiers have moved off campus at this point (unless on campus is required for all 4 years), so usually those remaining on campus for the later years are more serious students.</p>
<p>Both kids lived in frosh only dorms.</p>
<p>For S it worked out well. The school has an entry system in which 20 kids bond and live with volunteer juniors. They got to know all the junior friends of their JA’s. The school also had wilderness trips run by sophomores, so S became friendly with a group of sophomores. He also did many EC’s and became friendly with kids of all years.</p>
<p>For D not so well. She didn’t do EC’s and didn’t really get to know kids outside of her year. Since she was at a women’s college the dorm wasn’t rowdy. She doesn’t really see this as negative (she had in residence frosh courses with her floor that she loved), but I do. I made her circle of friends limited to her year.</p>
<p>Both kids loved their schools, and I don’t think this would be a make or break issue for them. I have thought good things of mixed housing in that it creates a fluid social group.</p>
<p>When I was 18, my freshman roommate and I lived with a sophomore transfer in a dorm with students of all ages. The floor had women in the south wing and men in the north wing; there were even some law students. </p>
<p>This worked out very well for us. No one ever checked our IDs when we went to bars with the law student guys.</p>
<p>;)</p>
<p>Freshman only dorms often result in the blind leading the blind with increased problematic behavior like excessive drinking etc.</p>
<p>In some schools dorms are required only for freshman. Upper class students may not be given housing or stay elsewhere (fraternities etc or off campus housing). This may cause more freshman in dorms or freshman only dorms.</p>
<p>Not a parent, but…</p>
<p>I like(d) the idea of grade-integrated dorms. When I visited my campus, my host was really into showing me around, and it’s nice to know I’ll have her as a friend in the dorms next year. She may even end up being my student advisor, and I signed up for the big sib program for minority students. I want to get to know the older students too- not just the ones my age.</p>
<p>The big UC’s in California do not have enough housing for all 4 years (around 6000 in the Freshman class)—I am pretty sure 90% of the students in the dorms are Freshmen----with 10% (?) transfer students. Anyway–they have no choice----and it works out fine.</p>
<p>My S visited Reed college this month and the one thing he loved was that there were grade-integrated dorms. Now this is mandatory for any college he applies to. I didn’t even think about it being an issue. It makes sense, my S always has gravitated to kids older than himself. In Kindergarten he liked to hang out with the 6th graders and in High School he likes to hang with the seniors or the teachers. Does anyone have a list of colleges that do this? I know only of Reed and Colby.</p>
<p>Pizzagirl, </p>
<p>Vanderbilt’s freshman residential system, The Commons, was just opened two years ago, after my son’s freshman year, so I don’t really know much about it from personal experience, or vicarious experience for that matter. From reading about it, I gather that the goals are to make it easier to ensure that all freshmen can find an instant ‘community’, can be more easily exposed to organized programs designed to introduce students to the university (i.e. an on-going orientation), and have a live-in faculty member (along with her/his family) in each of the buildings, as a resource for both academic and personal concerns.*</p>
<p>I don’t know whether or not those goals have been attained. I have seen and heard a lot of comments about how beautiful the Commons is, but I don’t have a good sense of whether or not freshmen generally feel more ‘at home’ more quickly, or if instead the paternalistic approach (if you will) is a turn-off. </p>
<p>I suppose my feeling is that while some students would just as soon dispense with the ‘help’ and jump right into college life on their own, a significant group would benefit from extended orientation, planned programs and the oversight of a residential faculty family. The former group is not damaged by the approach, and the latter is helped.</p>
<p>*I guess I should add that many believe that an additional goal, one that is never formally mentioned, is to get all of the freshmen far away from fraternity row.</p>
<p>They have this at Rice. All grade levels are sorted randomly into a residential college system (of course, upperclassmen often live off campus). The whole residential system they have set up there sounds amazing - really supportive and fun - and the students I talked to all seemed to love that arrangement.</p>
<p>Back in the dinosaur ages, I lived in a freshman girl’s dorm in a complex which had several dorms which were all four years. In general, those of us who lived in an all-freshman dorm made much closer friends freshman year. The girls I’ve talked to who lived in all-class dorms didn’t make as much of a connection. We were unofficially paired with a freshman boy’s dorm, which worked pretty well. I don’t know if the freshman boys’ dorms were any wilder than fraternities.</p>