<p>Some colleges/university dorms have suites shared by 2-6 persons with a common room that must be furnished by the occupants. A student on the Princeton 2009 thread has posted seeking advice about where to find less expensive items.</p>
<p>A Princeton alum wrote about this in an article in the Jan/Feb 2005 Atlantic Monthly:</p>
<p>The humiliations mounted. One afternoon a van from Bloomingdale's pulled up in front of our dormitory, and a crew of men began unloading furniture that appeared to belong on the set of a TV show about single young socialites. The men placed armchairs, lamps, tables, and a sofa in one corner of the living room and then unrolled an Oriental rug so vast that its edges curled up against the walls, blocking the electrical sockets. After directing the placement of each piece, Jennifer and her boyfriend sought me out in my tiny bedroom, whose only furnishings were a desk, a bed, and a bookcase fashioned from plastic milk crates. ...</p>
<p>"We figured out everyone's share of the new living room," the boyfriend said. "Yours is five hundred and ten."</p>
<p>I laughed out loud. "But I didn't order any of it."</p>
<p>"Well, you'll benefit from it, won't you?" Jennifer said. This was my first encounter with a line of reasoning that would echo through my years at Princeton: even unbidden privileges must be paid for. ...</p>
<p>After I told my roommates to stop bothering me, they convened a meeting in the common room and voted to ban me from touching any item, including the rug, that I had not bought stock in. This put the entire suiteexcept for the bathroom, my bedroom, and the hallway leading to the front dooroff limits to me. I raged inside.</p>
<p>I wonder what experiences people have with this unpleasant issue. How much do students spend on furnishing common dorm spaces? What other colleges/universities have dorm spaces that require students to buy furnishings? This should be factored into the USNWR ratings! :rolleyes:</p>
<p>My S moved into a 5-person suite with a common room. The suitemates will meet later to discuss whether they want to furnish it with a couch and buy a fridge. 1. This discussion will take place before any purchase is made. 2. I'm sure that the decision will take into account the willingness/ability of each and everyone to pay. 3. It sounds as if they're going to investigate the used furniture (mostly left behind by graduated students) first.</p>
<p>That Princeton anecdote is outrageous. I hope it is rare.</p>
<p>Since the student in question paid for the living quarters I fail to see how her suite mates could ban her from using the room. I would have just plunked down a comfy beanbag chair in the middle of the room to get a rise out of those dear suite mates!!! Maybe a tacky pole lamp too.</p>
<p>The story may even be apocryphal, or partially so. It is hard to imagine an RA or anyone in the position of "grown-up" allowing that sort of Lord of the Flies attitude and atmosphere to continue (and the circumstance sounds bad enough to justify calling in a grownup to mediate). When my son was a first-year, he and his roommate shared a very spacious common room with the classmate who had a single next door to them (both rooms opened onto the commmon room). My son and his roommate bought a used sofa from a senior who no longer needed it, a very inexpensive lamp at Wal-mart, and a few other equally unexciting items. There was never any question that the third student would have the same access to and use of the common room as they did, even though he had not shared the expenses and had, in fact, a better room to start with than they did. Of course, it wasn't Princeton, but still...</p>
<p>So, if we all pitch in $500, who gets to keep which pieces at the end. Having shared the expenses at Ikea, not Bloomingdales, for their first off-campus rental, the site was not pretty when it was time to divy up at the end of the tenancy. From now on my D always has agreements, you buy the microwavem, I'll get the frig, none of that sharing the cost! I'd bet you that Bloomingdals sweetie wanted to keep it all and considered ther $500 rent! Too bad there wasn't some sensitivity on the part of that girl.</p>
<p>My D attends an excellent state school in an affluent area and is blown away by how many kids have carte blanche to use daddy's credit card for whatever they want, want, not need! Even if I had unlimited funds, I would limit my D!</p>
<p>My daughter has mentioned seeing a pretty sweet set-up in a single room. The school furniture was removed and put in storage to make room for the occupant's upscale furnishings. She has never mentioned anything like the Atlantic Monthly anecdote. Wow. She has a couple of friends who can do anything they want when it comes to spending and they would NEVER embarrass their other friends by behaving in an over-the-top way.</p>
<p>Hey, the H and I upped our daughter's living standard this year and sprang for a new rug from Bed, Bath and Beyond. We also replaced some plastic bins, her comforter and a few items that have been put through the ringer during her first two years at school. She spent between $150 and $200. Her room looks great. Her common space has hand me down furniture in it.</p>
<p>Even if I were Mrs. Bill Gates, my daughter would not be shopping at Bloomingdales to furnish a dorm space.</p>
<p>IMO, there's something a little screwy about the article. I agree with Mattmom. No offense intended to Ramblin. I know lots of rich kids, and this reads like parody.</p>
<p>This piece was written by Walter Kirn who is famous for mingling fantasy and memoir....
I thought if that stuff was bought at Bloomingdales the rug itself would cost $2000...right? furnishing the common room would cost much more than $2500. The piece is a confection to make a point....and a little narcissistic to draw out the "aaawwwwhhhhh...you poor guy, stuck at Princeton" response in the reader....didn't work , did it....</p>
<p>yeah-- sounds like fiction to me. Besides, someone with the acumen to get into Princeton would have come up with an idea like creating a pathway down the rug by getting a cheap plastic carpet runner protector or something.</p>
<p>Someone on my S's freshman floor last year bought a huge-screen TV for the lounge (the only shared space for about 40 students). He intended it to be used by everyone. Most other people he knows are on pretty fixed budgets.</p>
<p>At my D's school, the seniors mostly live in unfurnished wood-frame houses. D and friends scavenged the used furniture market the year before. It's a really screwy system where the same furniture gets sold for about ten bucks , then moved from house to house. Don't know why they can't just decide to leave it all in one place.</p>
<p>Some kids bought new Ikea-ish for their own rooms, but most had used. Somehow, D and friends ended up with five hideous sofas, and spent the first month finding other homes for most of them.</p>
<p>I am glad it was a fictional account, I was about to get pretty worked up. </p>
<p>We live in a college town where the custodial folks go through the dorms at the end of the year and gather up an amazing amount of stuff which is then donated to the local thrift store. The thrift store then has a "Bag" sale where you get all you can get in the bag for four bucks. That was my D's favorite way to shop for years. Amazing stuff, some with the tags still on, or in perfect shape. In fact, I got son's extra long comforter (the same kind you order from the companies the colleges send info about) from that store. It was $2 and in great shape. Just needed a little washing machine attention. It is not brand new, but it looks the same now as it would have in a couple of months anyway. :)</p>
<p>I wonder about how fictionalized this account is, although I wouldn't be surprised if the author employed some exaggeration and embellishment. The author writes non-fiction, book reviews, and fiction. It was not presented in the Atlantic Monthly as a piece of fiction. The >8000 word article is not primarily about dormitory life. It's titled: "Lost in the Meritocracy, how I traded an education for a ticket to the ruling class." I am happier if it is fiction, however.</p>
<p>The more common humiliation was to have someone you've just met spring for the furnishings on his or her own without consulting you, and then expect you to thank them profusely for their beneficence. (as I remember, being on the other end of this "transaction", a much more common occurrence. I then spent the next three years rooming together with folks of my own socio-economic class, which was much more comfortable, kind of like eating together in the cafeteria.)</p>
<p>I would hope less common today. Maybe it's the difference between "old" and "new" money. ;)</p>
<p>Whether the article is fact or fiction, many of us know people who like to flaunt their affluence and control the show. </p>
<p>I would have had Goodwill or the Salvation Army deliver a Married With Children style musty, beat-up armchair and place it right in the middle of that precious Oriental rug, would have sat down and clipped my toenails all over the rug.</p>
<p>And then would charge the others $500 each for me and my toenail clippings to move!</p>
<p>My D has a great suite as a freshman and everyone has just bought bits and pieces, one a TV,some chairs, some coffee maker and toaster, bathroom rug for shared bath etc. They may not room together next semester so figure ownership should be seperate. If someone can't contribute it is fine, they are all welcome to use everything. What a horrible experience at Princeton. It is difficult to imagine anyone behaving like that and I don't think it is the norm, just bad luck to get put in that suite! my D and her roomate are each buying matching chairs for their room but each will buy their own.</p>
<p>i just thought the dollar amount was a tip off and why didnt he just say s*** you, and walk out....except the story was better if he was timid? ....still....the story works whether it.s fact or fiction...it has the kind of style and immediacy that would be a grabber in a college essay...uses dialogue, makes the overarching point.....etc...</p>
<p>Spiker, I've discovered that Kirn graduated in 1983. This means he probably entered in 1979. $510 in 1979 is approximately $1440 if adjusted for 2005 buying power. With five roommates, this means that Jennifer and her cronies spent more than $7000 in current dollars to furnish a common room. I don't know if this makes it more or less believable.</p>
<p>At my sons LAC where students from upper income families are not in short supply, the kids are hypersensitive about sharing common room costs and gear the expense to the lowest common denominator. Kids contribute what theyre comfortable with in the form of furniture or services or cash and the result is shared by all. The common room philosophy is mostly common sense and common courtesy and although there are occasional lapses in both traits, the group dynamic is generally cooperative. A situation like the one described in the Atlantic article would be roundly discounted as provocative fantasy or ancient history.</p>
<p>Interaction of socio-economic classes is a topic that comes up a lot on this board. I think this story may have been plausible at Princeton or several other so-called elite schools in the late 70s but I doubt very much that it could be written today. In this PC world, keeping a low profile is much more the norm than is conspicuously flaunting purchasing prowess, even among the fabulously wealthy. I think that selective schools that used to be magnets for the children of the rich and famous are aggressively seeking to redefine their student body. Sure, the Kennedys, Bushes, and Hollywood offspring are still welcome but so are the new elite which I define loosely as smart and accomplished kids across a wide spectrum of social, economic, religious, ethnic, racial, sexual (what else is there?) diversity. They are elite because they overcame the highly selective process and as one of the benefits of winning the selective jackpot is that their futures are exceptionally promising. They are not elite because of their socio-economic backgrounds. </p>
<p>Like Henry Vs happy few, getting into a selective college automatically confers a sense of belonging that transcends traditional barriers like income or race. Of course it isnt 100% effective and certainly some kids still feel left behind either literally or emotionally, but for many the fellowship opportunities are like an open highway. </p>
<p>(I hope everyone appreciates that Im twisting words here for effect. I fully understand the negative connotations of elite and elitism, but at the same time I appreciate the world-opening benefit of being one of the few.)</p>