<p>My son chose to join the honors program (he qualified based on ACT score and will have to continue to qualify with his GPA) partially because these dorms are the only options for freshmen that have AC. They are suite-style too, and only honors students live in them, which we both thought might mean a somewhat mellower atmosphere (we’ll see…)</p>
<p>His school has the nicest options for older students, then honors students, but within those, there are options for singles and triples that cost more or less than a standard double.</p>
<p>Only frosh and soph are required to live on campus but some of the junior-senior apartments are really nice, I can see many choosing to live in them rather than off campus.</p>
Same thing at Yale. Everybody eats in the dining hall. Opportunities for rich kids to flaunt their wealth on campus are somewhat limited. But Harvard and Yale have, in my opinion, systems that are particularly well crafted for creating more equality of this kind.</p>
<p>My daughter was in a triple last year and they worked out ahead of time that the other two would take the bunk and DD would take the single- we were there first, and were able to set up without feeling awkward.</p>
<p>When I went to college, I was in a triple. One girl had already set up the single bed before the other girl and I ever got there, without ever discussing who was going to get the single and who got the bunk beds.</p>
<p>S1’s freshman dorm was a mirror image. We arrived first so he picked a side, unpacked and then we ran errands. When we returned to the dorm, roomie had brought in a futon, large TV, etc. In order to fit this stuff he made S’s desk and dresser unaccessible. Grrrrr S could see that I was ready to erupt, so he wisely ushered us out of the room before I could open my big mouth.</p>
<p>and as far as I could tell most of them ate nearly all their meals there</p>
<p>Well, I highly doubt that observers can tell if nearly all students ate all their meals there…especially on weekends. I imagine that the better-heeled ones can afford to participate in activities on weekends that take them elsewhere…and they eat elsewhere, too. Besides, students often quickly tire of meal plan offerings and will head off campus when they can. Maybe when WE went to school and there were fewer tempting places within walking distance, many of us mostly/only ate on campus. But, today, kids are used to having lots of choices, and off-campus retail food is readily available by crossing the street.</p>
<p>And, I find it hard to believe that since most colleges have off-campus hangouts, fast food joints, etc, very close by, that these places of businesses just sit there empty all day because all the students are eating all meals on campus. </p>
<p>My older son does attend an elite school for his PhD, and the off-campus food businesses are booming. Who’s eating there? Only profs? lol</p>
<p>I’ll agree that the residential college system is wonderful. Having everyone on full, unlimited board plans does make the dining halls the default place for hanging out and socializing. I’m sorry my daughter’s school won’t be like that. They do offer an unlimited option, but what’s the point in having it if everyone else does not? </p>
<p>And I do get the objection to creating a housing system based on ability to pay. But, on the other hand, at my daughter’s school, as I’ve mentioned, quite a few incoming freshmen are placed into rooms designed as doubles (180 square feet), into which an extra bed and desk were squished. Should these unlucky folks have no compensation at all for their inconvenience? Everyone acknowledges the triples are pretty awful.</p>
<p>The kids I know who were in triples, did get a bit of a housing break. Likewise, my,daughter paid a bit more to ave the single room in a two-bedroom on-campus apartment. At my daughter’s school, there are several different prices for housing and it has a lottery each year.</p>
<p>The row of primo dorm buildings at Dartmouth is called “The Gold Coast.” They are newer/better and used to cost more. But some years ago the school went to the same flat rate price for all dorms simply to make it more equal and remove the option that rich kids could buy their way into better housing. (This uniform pricing applies only to housing. They have a complicated, multi-tiered dining plan system that practically takes a complex flow chart for me to make sense of it.)</p>
<p>Today students get assigned assigned a housing draw number (sorta like the old selective service lottery numbers) that is based partly on seniority and partly on a lottery. Kids with lower numbers get to pick their housing first.</p>
<p>*I’ll agree that the residential college system is wonderful. Having everyone on full, unlimited board plans does make the dining halls the default place for hanging out and socializing. I’m sorry my daughter’s school won’t be like that. They do offer an unlimited option, but what’s the point in having it if everyone else does not? *</p>
<p>I think this is more true at schools in more rural, out of the way places. I really do not believe that schools set in cities, where students have Unlimited Plans, that the kids aren’t wandering off-campus to nearby dining venues on some nights and weekends.</p>
I’m not talking about being an observer. I’m talking about spending four years at the college. Talking to my son’s friend at Yale, my impression is that Yale, at least, is the same and my nephew at Rice had a similar experience. It’s not that students never go out, but it’s part of the culture to eat in your house/college most of the time. Yale and Harvard and Houston are all smack in the middle of cities with lots of good food.</p>
<p>At Yale, you might go to a restaurant or local hangout for your fourth meal of the day.</p>
<p>It may be hard to believe, but most kids at Yale really do eat almost all of their meals in the dining halls in the residential colleges. The food is good, with pretty good variety, and it really is the center of the social scene. Most people live on campus all four years. They will go out to a restaurant for a special occasion, but not on a regular basis (except for late-night pizza). This was true 30 years ago, and it’s the same way now. When I was an undergrad, I knew two people who “didn’t like” the dining hall food and routinely ate off campus–at Burger King. Go figure.</p>
<p>Mathmom…since you’re a mathmom, I’m sure you realize that it is unlikely that 100% of kids are eating 100% of their meals with their meal plans. </p>
<p>These schools would probably readily admit that 10-25% of kids are not eating at any given BLD during the school week (and the % could be higher on weekends)…and I’m not just talking about kids who only eat 2 meals a day. </p>
<p>Even if only 5-10% of students are eating elsewhere for any given meal, that can and probably does suggest that those kids have the funds to have that choice. I’m not talking about 50% of the kids eating elsewhere …all it takes is a few % of kids to have the funds to eat elsewhere when they want to for there to be some sort of inequality.</p>
<p>And if you’re referring to when you spent 4 years at the college, then I would offer that times do change and kids today have more more money and have more choices, expect more choices, and often avail themselves of more choices.</p>
<p>At Yale, you might go to a restaurant or local hangout for your fourth meal of the day.</p>
<p>I can see that happening as well…and the full FA kids probably can’t do that much, while those with pocket money can.</p>
No way are this many students who are in residential colleges eating off campus for lunch and dinner at any given meal at Yale. I’d be very surprised if more than 5 or 10% ate lunch or dinner off campus more than once a week. It’s just not part of the campus culture there.</p>
<p>It’s certainly true that richer kids can eat out in the evening more often that poorer kids, and they probably do.</p>
<p>I know we’ve strayed from the move-in day topic, but…</p>
<p>My idea of heaven, quite literally, is my college dining hall.
Perhaps some people chose not to eat their meals there, and perhaps those people had more discretionary income than others. I don’t know; I had plenty of discretionary income and chose to eat there almost always. Because the food was perfectly acceptable, the variety was good (if you didn’t like the hot entrees you could always make yourself a sandwich or a salad; at my dining hall you could even ask for a burger any time), and the company and conversation were exceptional. </p>
<p>I could get a better meal elsewhere (and sometimes I did–it’s not like I never ate in a restaurant), but the hours I spent schmoozing with friends (the smartest, most articulate, wittiest people I have ever met and will ever meet) in the college dining hall are my fondest memories of college.</p>
<p>I will allow that many things have changed in 30 years, but I like to think that the company has not. </p>
<p>When I visited schools where the “meal plan” was a pre-paid amount on a card good at what amounted to an on-campus food court, I wondered if that system was suitable for fostering the kind of camaraderie and conversation that the full-board plan did.</p>
<p>It took my husband and me a while, visiting schools, to adjust to how different things were from our experience. (My family’s collective experience was also very narrow, as my siblings and I all attended schools with residential college systems and my mother’s time at Bryn Mawr in the late 50’s featured essentially the same concept, with each dorm having its own dining hall and full board.)</p>
<p>I am with the unpack, but offer to move things around if the accomodations are not equivalent. For both my kids, the roommate had arrived before them and unpacked. Not a big deal. My oldest was in a triple and the first arrival took the single bed, so my son took the top bunk. They were lucky as the third boy never came and they ended up with a double that was supposed to be a triple. </p>
<p>I can’t imagine waiting for hours with my kid (who really wanted us to unpack and leave already!) for the roomate to arrive. We had a long drive with one school and did not want to have to stay over night. While we could have just dumped the stuff and let my son deal with it, we wanted to help him settle in.</p>
<p>That being said, if my kid moved in first I would certainly expect him to offer to move things around if the roommate so desired. The late arrival should also be willing to ask for a change, even if its not offered and if things are completely inequitable (roommate takes up both closets or block access). If things are that unequal, (bunk bed, low ceiling, single vs double room), planning to switch at the holidays seems like the best approach. In most dorm rooms, it is much easier for one kid to unpack at a time.</p>
<p>My s’s communicated with their roommates in advance of move-in to determine who was bringing what (tv, fridge, video game stuff, etc.) Choice of bed/desk/closet can be addressed during those conversations, if there is likely to be much difference in the room (schematics of the room layouts are commonly available on college websites or sent with the orientation information). To make someone sit there and wait 'til the roommate(s) arrive to unpack is ridiculous. There are many things to be done on move-in day. Worst case scenario they can rearrange or swap mid year.</p>
<p>As for Residential colleges, yes they are wonderful. And even for those in major cities, eating with friends in the dining hall/servery for most meals is commonplace, expecially when the student lives on campus. This doesn’t mean they dont eat elsewhere at times after hours and especially with limited weekend food service hours, but most of the students eat ON CAMPUS. There are also limited food service options for those who live off campus. For those of us who have actually had children attend schools with a residentail college system (in a major city), we know of what we speak.</p>