<p>I have seen parents posting before about their honors students who don't want to live with "the nerds" in honors housing.</p>
<p>I can see how parents might prefer their kids to live with the harder-working honors cohort.</p>
<p>How does this work out in the end? Does it really make any difference where the kids live? Is it indeed the case that living with the general populace is more fun? And does this fun sometimes translate into an unwanted distraction from studies?</p>
<p>D decided not to live in honors housing because in high school, it was the same people, all the time in all her classes. She wanted to spread out a bit, and did not want to duplicate her high school experience in college. </p>
<p>It worked out great for her. Her dorm group is very tight, and those girls are her best friends. It took a bit longer to bond with the honors kids, but it did happen around November. She goes to the honors hall to hang out and for study groups.</p>
<p>She now has the best of both worlds, and ended up with a 3.4 GPA taking very difficult classes, so I don't think it was a distraction.</p>
<p>Probably depends on the size of the school in part. My son lived in honors housing his freshman year. The quality of the housing was too good to pass up and was much better than other freshman housing.
The school is large so he roomed with kids who weren't in his major and who he never saw during the day. Plus the students take a mixture of honors and "regular" classes.
There was no noticeable difference in the amount of "fun" if by fun you mean partying in the honors dorm and the other dorms.</p>
<p>Worked fine for my son. His roommate really struggled in school and barely passed. Son often helped him in math. They get along great and he went to thanksgiving at their house last year.</p>
<p>Friends and good people are not only found in the smart people dorms, classes, and Universities.</p>
<p>The situation I am thinking of does not involve an honors student, but rather a nonhonors student who has little interest in applying to one of those learning community type dorms.</p>
<p>It is a large state university, so my view is that the quality of living would be better in a dorm that requires students to apply, but maybe it doesn't really make that much difference.</p>
<p>For UMDCP, if you are accepted in Honors, Scholars or Gemstone and send in your deposit you will live in the designated dorm for freshman yr..mandated if you live on campus. Their decision to do this is that for a large university it already creates a bond between the kids, plus they have weekly colloqium seminars that are held in the dorm...no excuse for missing it! It also works great b/c many of the kids are in the same classes. There are kids that are not in the program scattered about, but they are there to fill in the spaces that were left available... the later you send in the deposit the higher the chance of being scattered in there. Gathering from DS, they really try to keep non-scholars in rooms with other non-scholars. </p>
<p>AS far as Honors having better dorms at the large university, it is not necessarily true, DS's dorm has no AC, but according to him "the dummies dorm with the hot chicks" (he calls it that I don't) does.</p>
<p>Making the assumption that Honors dorms are filled with people with taped horn rim glass, pocket protectors and play D & D all day is why the word ASSUME has a cliche made about it. In the case of UMDCP...there are honors dorms for Liberal Arts (such as PoliSci, International Studies, Govt and Politics) dorms for engineering, math and sci and dorms for the theatre arts. Each dorm has a common educational background, but not necessarily as how you see it.</p>
<p>At my son's large private U, the dorms designated for the students with major scholarships are fairly unpopular. S chose to apply instead for a special interest community and he loves it there. Lots of great kids, a few of whom he sees in his honors classes, but many with talents that are more creative/artistic than academic. From a parent's perspective, one of the nice things about a dorm that requires an application process or honors status is that it seems to keep the kids from being assigned to dorms that are known are the heavy party dorms.</p>
<p>DD decided against honors dorms. Too nerdy for her. However, she ended at a floor that has mostly students who are receiving scholarships so it's sort of honors dorms without the stigma.</p>
<p>S1 is a senior at a big state u. on full merit scholarship. He turned down both honors classes and housing. His scholarships do not require going the honors route but do require a minimum gpa to renew. He is in ROTC (in addition to working a PT job) which requires lots of extra hours so it was a no brainer to him to just go "regular". </p>
<p>He lived in an all freshman dorm the first year and had a blast. He would have stayed there another yr. if he could have. Since he could not, he decided to move to a nearby off campus apt. with 3 friends. They are now on their third yr. living together and it has worked out well. He has consistently made the Dean's List, kept his scholarships intact and has had a great four yrs. He would not choose differently if he had it to do over.</p>
<p>I opted out of Honors housing at my private college, and I haven't regretted it one bit. I definitely wouldn't call the honors kids debilitatingly nerdy or anything of the sort. In fact, they're a really fun bunch of people. However, I really love living in the dorm that I do because I have a really diversified group of friends with all sorts of academic interests (or lack thereof). I just think being around the same people in honors seminar and then living with them would just be a bit too much for me.</p>
<p>The downside is that I haven't really bonded with the other people in honors so much. I definitely am friendly with a few but we really don't hang out.</p>
<p>fendrock - I don't think it makes a bit of difference what dorm a student chooses. Yes the Honors dorms may be quieter, and yes the inhabitants more studious. But if that's not what the student wants then where's the harm in domiciling some other place?</p>
<p>NewHope33 - perhaps a partying dorm would lead the marginal student to fail whereas a more levelheaded dorm would enable the student to succeed?</p>
<p>Or maybe there is no such thing as a levelheaded dorm, only levelheaded people??</p>
<p>I lived in the "honors dorm" as a freshman and trust me it was NOT nerdy. OK, maybe a little since we did brew our own alcohol, but still lots of fun. I was also in the university's marching band, which was decidedly not nerdy, so I met tons of people from outside my dorm.</p>
<p>At the time, it was the nicest housing. I will never regret it as I'm still friends with the people I met there to this day.</p>
<p>My daughter wouldn't even consider an honors dorm if she had attended Indiana University- her first acceptance. She just wasn't interested and was afraid it would be full of geeks. She wound up in a residential college at Rice. I think many of the honors housing options are probably wonderful. I also think housing is a crapshoot in general.</p>
<p>fendrock - A marginal student in the Honors program? What am I missing here?</p>
<p>I do think it's true that the prevailing behavior in a dorm does have an effect on those living within. And no, I don't think levelheaded is an attribute I'd apply to college dorms -- Honors or otherwise.</p>
<p>Good one Newhope!</p>
<p>sorry NewHope -- see my post #5 -- I probably should have worded my original post differently -- I am trying to determine whether housing choice significantly influences student behavior -- but I do note that no one has reported any Honors student being brought down by living among the hoi polloi..</p>
<p>My s seems to be happy with his choice not to live in the Honors dorm. He wanted what he called the "true freshman experience" and he is in the big freshman dorm. Thre are some non-honors students in the honors dorm, as they can select to do so if there is room. I wish my s had chosen the honors dorm as I think there are activities for the honors kids that he doesnt participate in, but he doesn't seem to mind.</p>