S17 is starting his freshman year, and he was just assigned to 79 sq. ft. single. Now that is small, but not ridiculous, except for the policy by the University that all rooms must have “standard furnishings” which include an XL single bed, a desk with a bookshelf on top, a large (highboy) dresser, and a wardrobe. In the sample room of the same size, the furniture is so crammed in that there is literally no room to walk, no room to customize, and the only window is covered by the dresser.
The general rule is that students are not allowed to take out/reject/trade the supplied furniture.
For clarity – I am not seeking solutions – I am hopeful to resolve the issue for my kid because of special circumstances – but I still think it is a poor arrangement for everyone else. Perhaps they should let their architecture students review the dorm plans?
No, we were thankful for the provided bed, dresser, and desk. We didn’t have to bring furniture. And there usually is either a closet or wardrobe, or where else would they hang up their clothes?
Maybe the bed can be lofted so there is more room, but that might have safety concerns.
They are encouraged to go out and mingle, not be in their rooms that much, at least as freshmen. Hang out in the student lounge, etc.to meet other students.
Yes, for our frosh at Pomona, the single was very small, and we wanted to eliminate one bookcase and one desk chair and replace the desk chair with an easy chair. Unfortunately rules are rules. In the end, the second bookcase came in handy, albeit cramped quarters. The chair was loaned to the social double where the kids tended to gather, and student got it back at the end of the year and avoided any penalty ($25 charge for missing desk chair). But yes, it happens. My advice would be resist the urge to customize too much. Matress topper, fridge and some bed pillows, some photos are all you really need to make it your own. Less to move at end of the year.
That’s the standard amount of furniture allocated to a kid living in a dorm – single bed, desk, dresser, closet. It is actually a pretty minimal set up. Your problem is your kid is in a single rather than the more standard double set up.
You could loft the bed to pick up some space. Or go for a double.
But I bet your kid (if he’s like most male college freshmen) is thinking about all the advantages/possibilities a single will provide him. : )
I think it is the dresser that is extra and taking up all the room. My daughter had a (built in) wardrobe that had the hanging space on the top and the drawers on the bottom. They were very deep and I’m sure anything in the back was never used.
She didn’t have much more room than that, but it was a double with two of everything, and the double desk built into the window space, so couldn’t be moved… They lofted the beds and put the fridge under it.
It is tight…the bedroom my oldest claimed so he didn’t have to share with a brother was 8x10…twin bed, desk and dresser left him just enough room to turn around. He loved that room. Loft the bed and put the desk or dresser under is my advice if more floor space is needed.
One of my kids moved into a dorm built in the late 1800’s and we met a parent who was livid that the building couldn’t accommodate the window A/C they had brought, and the room didn’t have space for the fridge, microwave, easy chair, floor lamp, Keurig coffee maker, and TV.
This was not my first kid in college so I knew to tear up the list from Bed Bath of “What to bring to college” and just show up with sheets, towels, and the clothing that would be needed until parents weekend.
In some dorms the kids end up moving the bookcases into the common area to make a little library,which makes for a little more space in the dorm room. Everyone drags the bookcase back in time for move out. Or they loft.
But don’t bother buying the cute stuff the stores want you to buy- there simply is no room for it.
Typical dorm setup. Standard equipment everywhere.
What your real issue is the size of the single. I just looked up my D’s former college, and a standard single was 96 sq.ft., with a double at 192. Of course, the latter has 2x of everything on your list. But the rooms still had space to rent/bring a micro fridge.
Welcome to life as a Frosh. Some colleges, like UCLA, have forced triples for Frosh, i.e., three students in a 2-person, or 192/3 = 64 sq.ft.per person. Somehow, UCLA still receives 100,000 applications each year.
That CMU single you posted looks about the size of the UCLA triple my D stayed in Freshman year :))
Anyway, I’m not sure what you could reasonably remove. You need a bed and a desk, somewhere to hang your clothes, and some drawers for clothes and sundries.
My freshman year at CMU in a triple, we “lofted” my bed on top of two dressers and put some bean bags underneath as a seating space. It’s hilarious looking back on it, thinking of how I vaulted in and out of bed 2x per day without a care in the world. Oh, and that triple I was in was definitely not 3x bigger than the single in the video!
At Berkeley, they turned doubles into triples and in many rooms there were only 2 desks to share. You may call this under-furnished, though the room was still overly cramped with a single, bunks, and enough dressers.
That CMU single doesn’t look THAT bad. One friend’s single in a Boston area private U was likely 3/4ths the size of that room at best.
And some Boston area apartments I’ve seen renting for $1000/month back in the early '00s were so much smaller that it barely had room for a small bed/cot…and not much else. It gave new meaning to the phrase “walk-in closet”.
Heh!
Talk about changing priorities compared with when I was attending college nearly 2 decades ago. Unless one attended school in year-round hot weather areas like parts of the South/SW, most dorms banned window A/Cs unless one had a doctor’s note and that was mainly for those taking summer classes.
Most dorms also banned microwaves and other kitchen appliances as “fire hazards”. IMO…it was mainly about saving on the electric bill and to discourage undergrads from cooking too much and leaving messes to clean up at the end of the semester/year.
No one in the dorms I lived in/visited substituted store bought furniture for what the school’s dorm provided. Most of us students and our parents didn’t feel it was worth the bother. Especially those of us who felt the furniture/dorm accommodations were far better than what we were used to growing up*.
Incidentally, some well-off undergrad classmates who felt our dorms were too spartan had serious adjustment issues after college as most found their first post-college urban apartments to be even more spartan than our dorms. And those apartments were far better than the first post-college apartment I rented in JP which even several relatives who were used to harsh living conditions from childhood considered "a dump". Hey....it was cheap and available without a need for a co-signer so it worked.
When I went off to college in the late 70s, all I brought was one suitcase, a bulletin board and a mug. Times have changed but not the dorm furniture: bed, desk, bookcase, armoire/closet and dresser. The biggest concern for women back then was whether or not to coordinate bedding and who would buy the curtains.