yeah, that’s pretty typical for Frosh rooms at least in my kids’ experience. The good thing is that usually as you progress through the four years you get more room (and can appreciate it!)
That dorm room looks perfectly normal to me. And I can’t think of any of those pieces of furniture that a student wouldn’t need. You have to sleep somewhere, study somewhere, and put your clothes somewhere, don’t you?
Another thing to keep in mind is that US dorms…even forced triples/quads are far more spacious/comfortable than the dorms in Mainland China in the late ‘90s or the ones my parents’ generation experienced in the ROC(Taiwan) in the '50s and early '60s. .
Imagine cramming 6-8 undergrads and all their possessions they chose to bring into a space around the size of a small American double room. Furniture provided are two rows of utilitarian bunk beds on each side of the wall, a long table with a couple of small benches on each side, and small lockers for each occupant each of which was the size of a small HS gym locker(think 1-1.5 feet square doors).
The furniture is definitely standard issue - looks exactly the same as my son’s at Harvard. I’d definitely loft the bed and put the dresser and fridge underneath.
That arrangement looks normal to me. The only weird thing is that a freshman got a single.
It seems like there’s enough room, the furniture is just very poorly arranged.
Imagine the same room only with a bunk bed, two dressers, no desks, and the same size wardrobe to share, and you have my S’s double last year.
Check these out for extra storage
https://www.dormco.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=SMBR-SUPRIMA09-BLK
My kids have lived in rooms that small. Definitely lofting the beds helps.
Looks like a jail cell but way worse than a Nordic jail cell: http://media.npr.org/assets/img/2015/05/29/halden_room_custom-bdaa6ae211e8a58d9a22e2b83c4b1b2f2914425d-s900-c85.jpg
That Nordic cell looks downright posh.
I just looked at the room. It’s fine.
Turn the bed and put it under the window. Put the desk and dresser on the wall where the bed was.
OR put the desk under the window and the dresser on the wall next to the small wardrobe closet.
That is a standard size single college dorm. The dresser is larger than what most dorms have but everything else is standard size. You simply don’t get alot space in a dorm room. My first dorm was pretty spacious because the dorm was built in 1946. My second dorm was newer and was built in a highrise style. I could reach over from my bed and touch my roomate in his bed. My senior year I moved into a old Holiday Inn that that was converted into a dorm. I lived like a king that year.
You haven’t lived until you have lived in a triple room…with a triple bunk bed…no kidding. Same sq footage as a double with only two people. There wasn’t any floor space…and you couldn’t sit on the bed…because the bunks were so close above.
We all survived!
Just curious – why do you all think a college student needs a 4 drawer dresser AND a wardrobe? Can’t one suit, if he brings one, just hang on a door frame or on a small hook or on a doorframe – it hardly requires an entire wardrobe. How much clothes do most students bring? I lived for a year at a time abroad with the contents of one backpack… so I just don’t get why they need that much space for clothes. Even now, while I have a lot of clothes, I am perfectly comfortable going away for two weeks with just carry-on luggage, including my laptop. I really am confused why people on this thread both refer to spaces that are more minimalist, yet insist that all this furniture is needed. Why do students need a large desk with a keyboard tray in this age of 13" laptops?
I never mentioned buying other furniture. I am suggesting LESS furniture. Even the floor plan for the room doesn’t include all the furniture: The floor plan as listed on the website actually did not include the dresser: https://www.cmu.edu/housing/floorplans-rooms/boss_ps-example.pdf
My point was not that the room was too small – it was that there was too much large clunky furniture. An 8x10 room is fine without a lot of furniture. For health and safety windows should be accessible. Also if room has a radiator, that needs to be exposed or heat won’t work.
@massmom It is not strange for a freshman to have a single – that dormitory is freshman only, made up of singles and doubles in suites with shared baths.
@thumpert: nice idea but I don’t see that will fit. If you look at the sample, the larger 10.5’ wall only just fits the bed width, the desk and the dresser. So that same combination will not fit across the shorter wall (8.5’)
“why do you all think a college student needs a 4 drawer dresser AND a wardrobe”
Both my kids - male and female - would have no problem putting both to use. In addition to standard clothing, they could stash all sorts of other things for activities and hobbies (skis, longboards, laundry basket, etc. in the wardrobe).
The one furniture piece that would be removed first would be the desk. Both don’t really use desks, one studies at the library a lot. They’d prefer the floor space for a comfy reading chair if given the choice.
If I was going to organize that room with the 4 pieces of furniture as given, the wardrobe and the dresser would go on either side of the entry door, against the entry wall (use that dead space behind where the door opens). The bed would go across the window (exterior) wall. The desk would go against one of the shorter walls.
Quit complaining! Definitely NOT over furnished. As others suggest furniture can be rearranged- I can see it easily. Gee whiz, your kid got his own room instead of sharing. Privacy, a large enough desk, room to store stuff and likely a long enough bed. Wow- even has a semi private bath he can reach without going into the hallway.
I grew up sharing a 10 x10 bedroom with my sister- we shared a dresser and had no desks. The closet was bigger and we had a half height bookshelf between the beds. My dorm doubles were luxurious in comparison. And no waiting to use a single bathroom with the hallway one in the dorms I was in.
You talk about only two weeks on a trip. Students LIVE in their space for months at a time. They should have space to write and do projects. Plus a place to dump stuff, use as a table… Where do you put the backpack, pizza for the friends occupying the bed as if it were a sofa??? Remember, no bedside table. btw- space on the door likely used to hang one’s wet towels (although my son was a slob and his…).
MOST colleges do not give freshmen the luxury of a single. That room had light wood- cheerful. I’ll bet your son and other students there will appreciate it. Don’t forget room is needed for winter gear- what suit? All toiletries need to be in the room as well, dirty laundry bag, laundry supplies, first aid et al kit, snack foods and beverages.
Wonder if the son is complaining???
“Remember, no bedside table”
Good reminder. That’s why placing the desk next to the head of the bed works well - dual purpose. A spot to put a reading light, the cell phone charging and doubling as an alarm clock, the book as you fall asleep reading, the water bottle…
Yeah, seems like a pretty cushy set-up for a freshman. Sure better than a forced triple!
Yes, you need to remember that the kid will LIVE there. It’s not a hotel room. He’ll need somewhere to stash his luggage and coats and boots. He will use the desk to eat at and to pile up his school work. The dresser is maybe bigger than a guy needs, but he could put games or extra school supplies in the drawers. Think of all the junk he has scattered all over your house now. It has to go somewhere.
@wis75 I talked about living a YEAR at a time out of a backpack. (That backpack, by the way, fit old but not new international carry-on standards.) I said more recently I went 2 weeks internationally with carry-on. Do make an effort to read ALL the words before responding- it will help improve thread coherence. And please don’t chastise me based on your own myopic assumptions about the world, or my family. Are you jealous my son got a single? You sure sound jealous, or irate. Well, tamp it down – he has a serious medical condition that requires that single, a condition which could debilitate or kill him. He would rather not have that condition, and have a double or triple like some of these other posters. He would rather not have to do extensive treatments (that require floor space, a microwave, and a nearby bathroom) each day to stay healthy.
Others: I tried to ask if people feel rooms today are over furnished. I pointed out the over-sized desk and the highboy + wardrobe. Perhaps some of you might have ideas to get colleges to reconsider cramming rooms with so much stuff. if you think students need all this furniture, can you try to explain why with some modicum of decorum? Can you be altruistic enough to not assume that I am some babbling, complaining helicopter Mom. @doschicos made a very helpful comment about the desk. Perhaps that is the item to remove… I would love to hear other such insights. We do have to remove something – we need more floor space as well as room for medically necessary items.
For those who keep bringing up crowded conditions: I was trying to talk about furniture. If you all lived in shared rooms as kids, if you lived in army barracks like I did with 6 people in bunks and one gym sized locker each, well that all makes a great reminiscence after too many cocktails at the next family reunion, but has little to do with the question. The question is really about dorm over-furnishing – not your childhood hardships, or the question of singles versus doubles or triples. See above for why.
And lastly – for those of you who are so dismissive – if there is a single window in a room it should NOT be occluded by furniture – that window could save a student’s life in the case of a fire or if they have to evacuate the building for another reason (and I am thinking of various circumstances where students evacuated from windows). I had a policeman reiterated this to me recently. If you don’t believe me, go ask your local law enforcement/ emergency responder what they think of a heavy dresser in front of the only window in a room…
I think the mother in most of us goes into nesting mode after the high school graduation. It’s one of the last things we can do for our kids before launching them - planning and collecting and buying what is needed to furnish their new home away from us. And now it’s such a big business with every store having a college section to tempt us into buying stuff. Just try to remember that dorm life is typically just a quick nine months and then most of the dorm items you bought end up in a heap with everyone else’s to be donated to a charity. Move out was quite a sight of nearly new, unwanted piles of stuff.
The usual reason you can’t remove any of the furnishings from the rooms is simply because the schools don’t have a place to store the items. Also, many boys appreciate lots of clothes because they seldom do laundry. I really do think you’ll appreciate all the storage once you start packing. The space isn’t just a bedroom, but a kitchen, a laundry, a living room, a pantry, an office … everything has to fit in that small space.