How safe are dorms?

<p>I was wondering how safe freshman dorms are.
How do most students keep their valuables in the room?
Thanks!</p>

<p>They’re as safe as you make them. </p>

<p>Dorms require student ID’s for entry, and because of the number of people usually active, you won’t see homeless people walking the halls and looking into rooms. That means that there aren’t too many premeditated crimes; instead what you usually see are crimes of opportunity. For example, you leave your door open and walk to the men’s room with $40 on your desk, and someone walks by and sees it. Usually someone won’t go through your drawers to find valuables. </p>

<p>The best way to prevent crime is to keep your door locked when you’re not in the room. However, that has the obvious issue of relying on your roommate to do the same (and assumes your roommate isn’t the thief). Baring that, keep anything you don’t want stolen in a drawer, don’t bring expensive things to college that you don’t need, and for anything that is expensive but not heavy (like a laptop), you might want to consider buying a lock.</p>

<p>I second BanjoHitter’s post, especially the part about “crimes of opportunity.” My neighbor in my freshman year was lazy to a near-unbelievable extent. He lived literally right next door to the lounge, but he was so lazy that he couldn’t pick up his wallet and take it from the lounge to his room. I’m serious: he preferred to leave his wallet in the lounge rather than take it with him to his room because it require additional effort. Needless to say, it didn’t take long before someone decided to make his wallet a bit lighter.</p>

<p>Curiously, I have never seen anyone who wasn’t either a student or part of Housing staff on the halls, even though I have seen menus for take-out restaurants shoved underneath my doors.</p>

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<p>I mean, really, that’s common sense no matter where you are in life. I wouldn’t leave my wallet alone in a public place at any college, office, grocery store, or even church. Doing so is just asking for trouble.</p>

<p>they require id to enter? I thought it was just a key</p>

<p>All dorms can be entered via a key, but some also allow entrance via your ID card (buzzcard). </p>

<p>The previous posters sum up dorm safety. Lock your dorm room while you are out (even if it is just for a trip down the hall to the bathroom), and do not have valuables out in the open. Dorms here are relatively safe, so theft only happens if you let it.</p>