<p>My school offers a microwave in the dorm room, but like many other schools, prohibits other appliances (notoriously, The George Foreman LMFRGM). For those that like to cook on their own, are there ways to circumvent this effectively or cook covertly in your dorm? If there really is no good way, it would be sort of irritating that "has an apartment with a kitchen" would climb mighty high on my list of attractive qualities in seeking a girlfriend this year. Oh yeah, I love to cook, so I am not the sort to let this passion die easily.</p>
<p>Ask your RA to see if your dorm has any shared kitchen facilities.</p>
<p>Kitchen facilities! I wouldn’t have thought dorms would offer that. It would be great if it turns out to be the case.</p>
<p>You can try to get a hot plate :)</p>
<p>tobaccoNchocolat,</p>
<p>I believe that all of the dorms at OSU (I have seen you posting in their forums) have some sort of “Kitchen Facility” I don’t know exactly what they mean by this, but at my previous university, each floor in the dorms, or every couple floors, there was a communal kitchen area. this included an oven with a stove top for any cooking and/baking that you should want to do. Where I’m at in Jones Tower, there are only two cooking facilities in the entire building, so who knows how easy they to get ahold of for any length of time during prime dinner hours. After I scope the place out, I’d really love to put these to use as well. I think all hotplates are banned as well, so no making eggs and bacon for breakfast 
I have myself a George as well that I will sorely miss.</p>
<p>As far as attractive qualities in future girlfriends go, hopefully she can cook for you as well in her own kitchen. Double bonus there.</p>
<p>There are kitchens in a couple of the dorms at my school.</p>
<p>If you don’t have access to one though…microwave cookers (like rice/steam/pressure) are great!</p>
<p>There are shared kitchens at some dorms i have been too. Although they seem to set off the fire alarms easily from only moderate smoke.</p>
<p>theres a kitchen in my dorm and ones on each floor, although the ones on the floor are basically closets. just dont make it smell for the sake of everyone else. someone girls were making “soul food”, and i think it was in the basement, but the smell was still on my floor and i’m on the third floor</p>
<p>I don’t know about grilling or frying, but I am aware of a considerable amount of baking in certain dorms.</p>
<p>My dorm which houses a couple hundred people had one dedicated full sized kitchen and then a microwave+stove in each of the 8 wings in the building.</p>
<p>Almost no one used the kitchen ever.</p>
<p>I love to cook, but you have to be pretty dedicated to do it in a dorm, especially when the only appliances available are communal. My dorm last year had one full kitchen for 900 residents, and each floor had a room described as a “kitchenette” on the sign by the door that was really just a microwave, sink, and a trash can. We aren’t allowed any appliances in our rooms except a coffee maker, microwave, refrigerator, and hot pot. I don’t know anyone who actually cooked in the kitchen, unless it was for some kind of special event where lots of people would be eating. A couple people I know baked cupcakes or something, but always from a mix, with canned frosting, because buying the ingredients to bake from scratch and finding someplace to store all it once you had used it would’ve been next to impossible. I would imagine that would be your biggest problem, along with getting the kitchen when you want it (the one in my dorm was almost always booked, in my experience, although I don’t know who was cooking in there). This kitchen had no communal fridge or anything, so you would basically have to store raw meat and crap in your tiny dorm room minifridge with questionable temperature control. Things could get gross fast.</p>
<p>I really miss cooking when I’m at school, there’s no way around it, but I just can’t imagine how I would manage to cook on a regular basis in the dorms. If my school allowed George Foreman’s or toaster ovens (oh, how I dream of toaster ovens) or something, it might be a different story, but as is it’s just too impractical. I’ve thought about sneaking in a forbidden appliance but was warned against it by an upperclassman from another school. Apparently his friend brought a forbidden GF freshman year, set off the smoke alarms, and was eventually kicked out of the dorms because of it. I’m sure the administration was probably making an example out of him, but with my luck (and my propensity for setting off smoke detectors even when there is no visible smoke anywhere), my school would do the same with me.</p>
<p>That said, if you make it a top priority, you might be able to work with the communal kitchens. Just know that you’re probably going to have to jump through a lot of hoops.</p>
<p>Am I the only person who DIDN’T have a kitchen in their dorm? My dorm this year has a tiny one but last year I definitely did not have one and I was very sad about it.</p>
<p>Not all of my fiance’s dorms have had kitchens, but two of them did. Nobody was ever using them, I never remember having to wait. We cooked all the time.</p>
<p>Maybe I should join a fraternity. I think several dozen hungry guys would love the type of food I can whip up.</p>