Another example: Amherst has amazing dorms and has recently renovated quite a few facilities. The athletic facilities are mostly new and they just built a bunch of new dorms that have many suites.
@binky17 I toured Northeastern but the dorm was closed that day. Iâve heard they are nice. We went to Bates and they took us into this old dorm and went down into the basement level and it was crusty old cinder blocks and it smelled bad. Obviously they showed us the worst one I guess, lol. My son really dd not like that place. Oh well.
Back in my day, there was a dorm infamous for the mushrooms growing out of the basement carpet. That dorm has been thoroughly renovated.
The Grad Center does not appear to be on the renovation list for this summer. It needed work back when I was a student â they should rethink the whole building. The last time I was in there â maybe 2009? â it didnât seem that bad.
Many seniors live off campus, where the housing can be just as problematic. If he stays in Brown housing he should have pick of whatâs best, since seniors chose first.
I think there is a lot of luck of the draw in housing as the college renovates the dorms. I had two students there who both had absolutely large, beautiful, clean rooms first year (one in Andrews, the other in Keeney Quad). Sophomore year housing for each was also larger style rooms but not as new. I will say that my daughter got crazed for junior year housing lottery that she might get stuck with Grad Center. I think thatâs the worst of the lot. Fortunately she got a different dorm. It was a good suite set-up- four singles off of a comon living room, but it was definitely not new. The students are pretty hard (and careless) with their living situations and any materials, such as carpeting, gets tired very quickly. Fortunately, the students donât seem to care nearly as much as the parents do.
I make sure that both of them have cleaning products (lysol wipes, swifter, etc). Both have had plenty of space to store their (way too much) stuff that they brought.
I would say the best part of Brown housing is that there are lots of different options, and there is readily available off campus housing that is as close to campus as any of the dorms.
Appreciate all the responses! @fireandrain it is great to hear that seniors will have first choice. I had hoped that would be the case but had not heard that from anyone. I am looking forward to spring to see where he lands his last year. As I said before, we have been very happy with Brown, and it was the perfect fit for my son of all his options. I am hopeful the dorm conditions will improve, but I suppose in the grand scheme of things the tradeoff is probably not all that bad. My son never mentioned the conditions to me, so maybe youâre right, @stemmmm that the parents focus on it more than the kids do. I think my son is so VERY busy it is not high on his priority list.
I laughed at the title of this thread because the dorms at Brown really are terrible. Ironically, it sounds like we did a better job at keeping the rooms in shape in our âfrat houseâ on Wriston but maybe when you live in the same building for 3 years instead of 1 and know youâre going to have to interact with the people living in the room after you you naturally treat it better.
New Dorm, Young O, and Barbour were always on the nicer side if I recall (and Wriston I guess). Sophomores traditionally have the worst dorms because the housing lottery is by seniority (I think itâs better now because there are more and/or better âsophomore onlyâ buildings than in 05-09). Also a shame that they no longer do the first pick contest. Still remember parts of âTrapped in a Tripleâ a R. Kelly âTrapped in the Closetâ parody that won first pick my freshman year.
My D graduated from Brown a few years back, and with one notable exception, all of her dorms were perfectly fine. She was in Keeney freshman year and on the Main Green (in a dorm whose name escapes me) for sophomore year. Both were clean enough and adequate at the time, and both I believe were completely renovated about 5 years ago. Her junior year dorm was the Grad Center, which I thought was a pit. Not surprisingly though, it did not really phase my daughter or her roommates. Senior year she lived off campus in a pretty nice apartment. She kept a close group of friends who she lived with through all 4 years, and that mattered more in the long run than whether her dorms were plush or up to her parentâs standards!
I canât recommend Brown enough for quality of life for its students during college and after. My daughter had a great experience as did her friends, and all are thriving post graduation. So, I wouldnât let the âdorm issueâ deter one from attending the University. I understand the feeling though, as my daughterâs tour through a grungy dorm at Columbia was one factor in her declining her admission there!
Brown was one of the worst visits we did. They didnât even show us a dorm (we did ask) but there was nothing appealing at all about the campus IMHO.
I love the Brown campus. Itâs integrated seamlessly with the surrounding neighborhood and a hodgepodge of architecture from pre-colonial to current day, which is fascinating. Lots of ancient shade trees, with nice pathways and sidewalks. To me, itâs the perfect representation of what a college campus should look like.
College Hill is beautiful. Its a great location for a great college. Some schools donât show dorm rooms for security concerns. It sounds like Brown could use some interior work on its dorms though.
Iâve visited a lot of colleges, and the Brown campus is one of the nicest Iâve seen, if not the nicest, both the campus itself, and the surrounding College Hill area. Sounds like some of the dorms badly need updating.
With three children, Iâve been on a lot of college tours, and most donât show dorm rooms because itâs a big hassle security-wise. My S attends Harvard, and his dorm is in shocking condition - peeling paint, windows that donât close properly, moldy steam radiators from the 1940âs, sagging floors. Itâs in major need of a renovation, but itâs in a fantastic location and the rooms are very large. He loves it. Harvard has the residential house system, so heâs been in the same dorm for three years. My D was in grad center for two years and loved it. Most kids could care less - this is definitely a parent issue.
The campus? Oh the campus is fantastic.
Many of the Penn dorms are gross too. I guess the Ivy League doesnât compete with beautiful dorms like many other colleges do.
DD is currently a junior at Brown living in her sorority house dorm on Wristin. Freshman year she was in Wayland and not with most of the other first years in either Keeney or Pembroke areas. She had a huge room and the group of freshmen there loved it. There were also sophomores and transfer students in the dorm but her group of friends was all freshman. Wayland was renovated the summer after she was there which hopefully helped the condition of the bathrooms, kitchen and lounges. But the room she had there was huge by freshman standards!
Sophomore year she was an RPL in a dorm on the main green and many of her freshman friends were there with her. She had a decent sized single and the doubles there were large also. Not quite as big as her Wayland room though. But great central location.
This year her single (RPL again) is a bit larger than last yearâs. I think for most students, the size of the rooms is more important than whether there is peeling paint on the ceilings of the bathrooms (which was the case in Wayland). Next year sheâll again be an RPL in an apartment style building and has the ability to pull her friends in as roommates. For her, thatâs the best situation. Sheâll have a single in a 4 bedroom apartment with 3 other friends and a kitchen so she can cook her own meals. Sheâs trying to do that this semester in the sorority kitchen which is a little difficult. But after spending first semester abroad and cooking for herself, she didnât want to go back to being on the meal plan.
The ability to live on Brownâs campus and in some of the historical buildings has been great for her!
The Brown campus is lovely. It is the quintessential New England college campus. I fell in love with it and was so glad that my daughter could experience it and that I could visit it!
I really think the Ivies should step up their dorm game. A lot of universities are coming up with suite-style dorms that are maintained well and are reasonably priced too.
@Gourmetmom Everyone says Harvard dorms are bad. But then why do 95% students choose to live on-campus? (I read this number somewhere, and didnât just come up with it)
@mundanewarrior I believe a major reason for many students choosing to live on-campus is the high rent in the Boston/Cambridge area, especially near where Harvard and MIT are located
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The majority of Harvard students live on campus because of the residential house system where students live in the same house for three years. Each house has their own advising, tutoring, social events, dining, etc., which creates an environment that is integral to campus life. During commencement, diplomas are given out by house, not by concentration.
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Thatâs not the sense I get - otherwise the Final Clubs wouldnât yield the power and thus ire that they do from the administration.