<p>We visited Wheaton College recently and learned that their dorms mix grades. A freshman will enter a dorm with another freshman roomate, but the dorm will not be an "all-freshman dorm." Does anyone have any opinion on how important it is to have an "all-freshman dorm?"</p>
<p>My personal opinion is that all grade dorms are much better in most cases. Older students are there for advice, friendship, help with homework, insight into classes and professors, and the list goes on. Hopefully not as much "freshman year" partying. My college junior son is starting his 3rd year in such a dorm and he loves it.</p>
<p>My son is starting his second year at MIT, where all the dorms are mixed-years. It seems to me this is the best possible arrangement (although admittedly we have no first-hand experience with our kids living in anything but ;)). There are built-in mentors and experienced students who know their way around the school and are already over the homesickness and finally-out-of-high-school jitters. They can serve as guides or just slightly-older friends, can offer advice on profs and courses and the town surrounding campus, and help keep the younger students from self-isolating.</p>
<p>Anyway, I see it as a positive that there are no all-freshman dorms. Others may see it differently.</p>
<p>Our son's school also does mixed-year dorms, although sections or floors maybe be all or mostly freshmen in some cases. Avoids some of the clueless leading the completely clueless situation. I know that my son appreciated having upperclassmen around.</p>
<p>Student commenting here: Things change rapidly in college. I ended up clicking with no one in my freshman dorms, met some friends in a club, and became close friends with the group that they hung out with (all 2-6 years older, some even employees of the school). Moved off campus my sophomore year, and never been happier. Having older friends has been a great advantage because I've always been mature for my age and just fit in better with this crowd.</p>
<p>My opinion is that living situation is not everything. It's what you make of it. As long as your freshman can find a good group of friends, it doesn't matter where they live. =)</p>
<p>Freshman ghettoes means the blind leading the blind. The advantages of mixed dorms are more role models, more mentors, more people around looking at potential careers and graduate schools, more information about professors and courses, more information about health care providers, transportation, and where to find things in town, lower rates of binge drinking, greater average maturity, and continuity in community.</p>
<p>I went to the same school as ID, and my experience was similar. They provided "junior advisors" who, even when they tried hard, were mostly worthless, and whose main role seemed to be providing us with alcohol. Don't know if that's still true, but wouldn't be surprised.</p>
<p>My daughter's school has no freshman dorms. From day one, she lived in rooms next to upperclass students and became close friends with a number of seniors. </p>
<p>IMO, this is a hugely beneficial arrangment and impact the college culture in ways that you would never think about. These students gave her role models for how to be a successful college student. They provided informal mentoring about professors, majors, course selection, etc. They prevented the critical mass of "kids gone wild" energy that sometimes afflicts freshman dorms. </p>
<p>The benefits continue. For example, this summer (she's a rising junior), she stayed with friends who graduated at the end of her freshman year on a long weekend trip to Washington. So, she gets a taste of life after college.</p>
<p>She is very fond of some of the upperclass students who went out of their way to show the newbies the ropes and she and her friends go out of their way to show "their freshmen" the ropes. I think it makes for a very cohesive campus culture as styles and traditions that make the school distinctive are passed directly on from class to class to class.</p>
<p>I contrast this to my experience living in freshman dorms. I don't believe I ever talked to a senior during my freshman year. We lived in different dorms, ate in different dining halls, and took different classes.</p>
<p>My daughter does point out one exception where all freshman dorms may be better: at a very large school where dividing the student body up into more manageable chunks may have some benefits.</p>
<p>I lived in a all-freshman dorm with two upperclassmen RA's for 120 freshman last year and I really enjoyed it. I think because everyone is a freshman and (especially at smaller private schoools,) most people don't know anyone else, everyone is a bit more social and open to making friends. I knew some people who were assigned to sophomore housing as freshman and everyone on their floors already had their 'group' of friends and weren't really interested in meeting new people and participating in the residential activities, so the freshman ended up hanging out in the freshman dorms a lot. </p>
<p>At the same time, I think the way some universities like Rice, Yale and Caltech do housing is really cool - you're assigned to a House/Residential College where there are students from all years and you stick with the same group of people all four years. Becaues the house is a social unit and you're going to stick with the same people for more than one year, I think it ends up fostering more social interaction between people from different years, especially at universities with distinct house cultures. I don't know if Wheaton is like this, but I thought I'd just mention it</p>
<p>Tanman - Sounds like a great idea. My husband was worried about the "mixed" dorm and I had no clue. I feel better about it now. Thanks.</p>
<p>My son lived in an all freshman dorm and loved it. There's something to be said about all being in the same brand new, exciting boat together. As for the bonding with upper classmen, he did that when he joined a frat at the beginning of his spring term. For him it was the best of both worlds.</p>
<p>ff:</p>
<p>Or, depending on your viewpoint, the worst of both worlds!</p>
<p>On a more serious note: Mixed dorms don't mean that there is only one freshman in the upperclass dorm. The freshmen on my daughter's floor bonded from the first day, travelling to meals in a cult-like group. The friendships with upperclass students were in addition to the normal freshman bonding.</p>
<p>My D is in an all-freshman dorm this year and so far is happy. The dorm counselors are jrs or above. Back in the day both H and I were in mixed grade dorms. I liked having upperclassmen in my dorm, if nothing else than to advise who not to have as a P for a class. Being at West Point, H would've LOVED to be in an all plebe barracks but of course that doesn't happen.</p>
<p>Duke's East Campus is an all-freshman campus. The few upperclassmen who live there are the RAs. My daughter loved being with all freshman her first year and then loved mixing in with fellow sophomores, juniors, and seniors when she moved to West Campus her second year. She has close friends of all ages, but she really felt that the freshman year experience led to extremely close bonding of the Class of 2008.</p>
<p>my daughter had a great experience freshman year in a dorm.
It was mostly freshman, which was an advantage for her in a couple ways.
She was first gen college, and so the other students, while they weren't first gen, at least were not old hands at the college thing and they could learn together.
Her school requires Hum 110, for all freshman, and the dorm often studied together in their common area.
Since students were new to the college, they didn't already have groups of kids to hang with, and it may have been easier to meet people.
I don't think it should be required, any more than one kind of school fits all people, but it worked well for her.</p>
<p>I know without even asking that my son would not have traded his freshman dorm experience for anything. Of course, he doesn't know anything different.</p>
<p>Back when I was at Harvard you could choose to live in mixed class dorms at Radcliffe or all Freshmen dorms in the Yard. I asked for the mixed class dorms and have no regrets - though I'm not sure how much useful mentoring I actually got from the older classmates! The only reason Harvard now does all freshman dorms is that they think that it creates a cohesive class that is more likely to donate big bucks.</p>
<p>Another parent with a positive "all four years" House experience. It was great for my D and others to be able to pick the brains of upperclassmen regarding profs, etc. Having watched her go through it, I wouldn't have it any other way.</p>
<p>I lived two doors down from a senior when I was a freshman, and her wisdom and experience saved my sanity on more than one occasion--and that of many of my classmates. I think mixed-year residence halls are a great thing.</p>
<p>Our hall was mainly freshman, so we still had the crazy freshman year experience--but having some upperclassmen mixed in helped give us important perspective when we needed it. I can still remember Penny (the senior) telling me I needed to go see the Dean (when I was freaking out about some issue) and when I was there I might notice how her own butt was imprinted in that chair for the times over the past 3 years she'd been there. Heh.</p>
<p>Seems like the bottom line here is the student. My guess is the student who loved the freshamn dorm would have loved the mixed & vise versa because they were well adjusted and adaptded to the living situation accordingly!</p>
<p>My freshman S is in a mixed dorm, in a suite with 1 transfer student (2nd year, but starting over academically) and 2 sophomores. It seems OK, though I wonder about upperclassmen --already established with their groups of friends-- not being as open to meeting new people as the freshman. In the old days my school had all freshman dorms/quads. All freshman, all the time. It was fine, too, though I think having mixed dorms would've cut down on some of the freshman craziness.</p>