(continued)
DD is at our state school and had to live in the traditional style as it saved us $4K a year. She wasn’t happy about it and it didn’t help she got the dorm that the kids bad mouth it something terrible, but it is very conveniently located, quite roomy for a double, and she is lucky to have AC. She said there is not any of the socializing that people talk about here w/ traditional style dorms.
I recently picked up the school paper and it had a interesting article about the dorms. Apparently, as the state schools received less and less funding, they had to rely on private investors to build student housing and they were the more expensive style; the school tries to allocate the traditional style to those students with the most need based aid. Most of the students at this school are probably there because it is far cheaper than many other options, so the higher end suite style housing can still be a financial burden to many families.
DS’s school probably has a lot of full pay wealthier families, and DD’s does not. Yet, I would say both of my kids are making friends that are very close to their SES background. DD’s because there probably aren’t any wealthy kids and DS’s because of the high number of students there due to scholarships. The wealthier students probably gravitate to Greek life and as @bamamom2021 posted above, it is very expensive.