Oh, there’s always something to complain about. I can just hear the scandalized parents writing “I’m paying $60 grand a year, and my kid can’t even have a bookcase?”
Wardrobe - In addition to a suit, he will likely want to hang any buttoned (rather than pull over) shirts and he needs a place to hang jackets (at least 2 or 3 to cover the full range of Pittsburgh weather). And maybe pants, depending on his preferences and how he uses the dresser. A laundry bag for dirty laundry can go on the floor, along with assorted shoes, sneakers, boots, whatever he needs. He’ll probably want a hook on the back of the door for his bath towel or robe. What’s in his closet and your coat closet now?
Maybe he’s a minimalist dresser, as you obviously are, but they’re buying furniture for the average kid and most people will have enough clothes for the school year to use that much storage space. Remember, first semester weather can cover everything from height of summer hot to middle of the winter frigid. He needs to go to school prepared for everything from sweltering heat to a blizzard.
A desk needs to hold a computer. And books. If he’s studying or writing a paper he may want one or more books open and possibly a notebook if he takes notes by hand and the computer. And there’s stuff. Even in the age of computers, paper accumulates. And maybe he likes to read and needs some books for pleasure reading.
Go look in his bedroom. Does it looks like it belongs to a monk or an architect in love with minimalism? Maybe it does. Some kids are like that. Or does he have stuff? If he has stuff at home, he’ll have at least as much stuff at school.
The school won’t let you remove things because then they’d have to store them. Between the minimalists (or offspring of minimalists) who think 3 pairs of jeans, 3 t-shirts and a sweatshirt are all anyone needs and who just want less furniture and the people who will leap at the chance to replace the boring, insufficient or not perfectly suited college furniture with the stuff they’ll buy themselves, the college would end up with a need for an awful lot of furniture storage space, plus the labor involved in schlepping it all around.
If your son’s biggest problem freshman year is too much storage space and a somewhat cramped single, I would count him very lucky.
I like the light. Yes, it needs to be rearranged. What fun with people crowding the room trying to move that heavy furniture. He could store the desk hutch under the bed if he doesn’t want to use it.
And answered. The dorm in question is not overfurnished.
The furniture provided is standard issue by most college dorms to provide for the basic daily needs of their students: desk, chair, bed, dresser, bookshelf. Most colleges do not expect or sometimes even allow students to substitute their own furniture for what’s provided in the dorms.
The issue in that photo is the arrangement/layout of dorm furniture.
One possible suggestion if the measurements work out is to combine two pieces of furniture to create more floorspace such as placing the bookshelf on top of the wardrobe or desk. Wasn’t able to tell from the photo linked as there was some distortion.
You can ask if the wardrobe or dresser can be removed. The bed and other item should fit on one wall, leaving the desk and rest of space on the other side of room.
If you son “was perfectly fine navigating on his own in Brazil at age 16 as an exchange student (surviving political upheaval, high crime, zika, neglectful host parents and education in Portuguese),” I think he’ll do okay with the challenge of an “over-furnished dorm room.”
When I was a freshman in college, I lived in a dorm that was relatively new, and all the rooms were standard sizes (there was a standard-size double and a standard-size single). The furniture had obviously been bought to fit the rooms. You could tell because everything fit in the spaces perfectly. In fact, in the doubles, the furniture fit perfectly in three different arrangements, and you could also bunk the beds if you wanted to.
Sophomore year, I moved into a much older dorm with irregularly sized and shaped rooms. Some were bigger than the rooms in the new buildings, some were smaller, and some were simply bizarre (one girl in my suite had a five-sided room). Every one of those rooms had exactly the same furniture as the rooms in the new dorm did. Obviously, the college had bought a massive amount of identical furniture when the new dorms were built and had put that furniture in the older buildings, too.
I suspect that Carnegie Mellon bought a lot of identical furniture, too, and that it fits better in some rooms than others.
Once more. I don’t think there is too much furniture for that room. It is the place your kid will be living. It’s his living room, dining room, bedroom, family room…all of it. Believe it or not, he may actually need more things than you fit into your backpack when you went on your year long trip.
Does your kid have a dresser and desk at home? And a closet? Or does he just pile everything on the floor?
In my opinion, the furniture in this room is fine…and by the way is standard issue for a dorm room. If I got to a dorm room, and any of those pieces was missing…I would not be happy.
If you are not happy with the size of the room and it’s contents…see if your kid can get a double…maybe inna different dorm.
Is your kid complaining about this? What about your spouse?
I would suggest that you just wait and see what’s what when you get there. It is very possible that the furniture can be arranged very well…to maximize the living space.
Then…start the hunt for an unfurnished studio apartment for your kid to live in for his subsequent years. At least you won’t need to think about furniture…just get an inflatable bed, and a couple of Rubbermaid bins 
It sounds as though this is the key issue.
And since many colleges do not allow furniture to be removed from the rooms (because there’s nowhere to put it), you need to be talking to the special accommodations people.
If this is the case…talk to the disabilities office. Perhaps they can help you with an accommodation. Unless, perhaps, some of these things can be tucked into the closet, or dresser.
For MOST kids, this would not be Overfurnished. If the kiddo has medical issues…and needs a a room to accommodate this…this is something the disability office at CMU should have known about…and advocated for.
Really…talk to the disabilities office. I’m quite sure they will be able to help you get a piece or two of furniture removed if it’s necessary for medical reasons.
Alternatively, the kid could fall out of the window – and some such kids die. There are cases like this almost every year. I suspect horseplay in the room is a factor in many of them.
http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/GWU-Student-Falls-from-Dormitory-Window-93859024.html
http://www.wistv.com/story/7173091/usc-student-falls-from-5th-floor-dorm-window?clienttype=printable
http://www.datelinecarolina.org/story/7182498/usc-student-dies-after-fall-from-dorm-window
So maybe blocked windows are better.
Putting a desk in front of a window does NOT block it…unless a student has physical mobility issues and can’t climb on top of the desk. But if that is the case, climbing to the height of the window, regardless, would be a challenge.
Putting a bed under the window does NOT block the window…and might actually help some students access that as an exit in an emergency.
But really…if this student needs floor space for medical devices…the disabilities office is THE place to be…with documentation in had on this need. They will help you if this is medically necessary…absolutely.
The flaw in the room is the highboy. My kids school has the same size drawer configuration, but instead of a highboy, it’s 2 stacks of 2 drawers that fit perfectly under the slightly lofted bed (lofted a few inches higher than what u see in the pic). I would also suggest moving the desk. Under the window and the highboys near the wardrobe. As mentioned, the desk under the window provides for a perfect nightstand. He can put the hutch over the highboy so as not to block the window or shove it up over the wardrobe if he doesn’t want/need it.
The highboy drawers are great storage for medical supplies, snacks, school supplies, etc… not just clothes. He could even use the bottom one as a hamper if he wanted.
Also, really…this thread is mostly about the furniture being too much for YOUR kid for a specific reason. That’s a little different than implying that the room is overfurnished for all college students.
I think you would have gotten better suggestions about what to do up front for your kid if you had mentioned that HE needed more floor space for medical reasons.
Anyway…head over to the disabilities office. For YOUR kid, this should be able to be easily resolved.
A suggestion…he can put his small microwave on top of his dresser. Just a thought.
That would have been helpful if you were more clear on that from the beginning since this would have obviously skewed the responses. For your case, you (actually your kid) need to talk to the people in residential life equipped to assist:
https://www.cmu.edu/housing/incoming-students/first-year-students/my-housing-assignment/students-with-special-needs.html
@thumper1 You say that as if they are mutually exclusive. Most kids have a dresser/desk and pile their clothes on the floor.
As mentioned by others, this is a personal choice. Do I need a desk that large? No. But it unrealistic to think that colleges are going to buy all new dorm furniture because technology has evolved to the point where one does not need a large surface are for the computer or because many students use ebooks. zDo all students need a dresser and a wardrobe? No. But plenty will balk if they did not have. Again, the furnishings listed are pretty standard.
What seems to be at issue is not that there are too many pieces but they are too large for the space. As others have mentioned, furniture is bought in mass quantities in standard sizes but dorm rooms are variable. So sometimes there’s a mismatch.
To maximize the space, I would place the bed against the wall with the window, assuming it fits, with head to right of window. I’d put the dresser next to the armoire. There would likely be overlap with the bed, but your son could put out of season items in the lower drawers. And I’d put the desk and chair to the right of the door as you enter. If that doesn’t work, then swap out the desk/dresser.
I do agree that there should be free access to the window. In rearranging, I’d make that a priority.
I also agree that consulting with disability services might provide a solution regarding the removal of one piece of furniture or substituting a smaller dresser.
It also looks like that bookcase might be removable and has some sort of hardware to attach it to something? Perhaps it could be stowed on the top of the armoire if your son does not want to use it.
The bookcase my D had was sitting on top of the desk
Is the closet large enough that the dresser could go in there, leaving room for some clothes to still hang? My kids have done that. Both brought too much stuff (favorite books etc) and clothes for the first year. They had significantly fewer items by senior year.
Yes, contact the school and see how they can accomodate his needs. Maybe they have single rooms in other buildings that are more spacious.
Bingo! The fact is that the dorm room is not over-furnished for the vast majority of kids. College standard works bcos the folks in charge of res life need thousands of beds, all the same size, thousands of dressers, all the same size, etc., etc. They need the flexibility to move them in and out constantly and not have special smaller units for the singles.
OTOH, your child has special requirements and the medical/disabilities office has the authority to over-ride ‘college standard’. That should be your first contact.