<p>if people study...they go to the lounge or library...the dorms are for socializing and causing ruckus</p>
<p>This story gives a whole new meaning to the phrase "Living like a College Student".</p>
<p>Back in the "old days" living like a college student meant suffering privation. Accommodations were cramped and spartan. Food was basic and limited.</p>
<p>Why? Because FA was very limited. And loans were not considered a sound way to finance an education, by students or banks. </p>
<p>Universities could control where students lived (no underclassmen living off campus) and because there was considerably more demand for a college education than supply - the universities had control in setting the conditions of getting a college education.</p>
<p>The general consensus was that the university could control the living environment and help the young adult adjust to life on his/her own. They set the rules for living and the students followed. Privation was believed to build character and made one appreciate the benefits of living well once a student moved up in class.</p>
<p>Things have definitely changed.</p>
<p>Universities no longer see their mission as developing the social skills (living away from home) of their (fully emancipated adult) students. Housing is provided as a convenience that only need be regulated to the extent that the university is not legally liable for harm. That went by the wayside quickly as student "rights" became fashionable in unversity thinking.</p>
<p>The US actually has a surplus of university instructional supply (despite the ever increasing cometitiveness at high end universities) due to a massive building boom coupled with a decline in birth rates during the '70s and '80s. So it has become a buyer's market where a student can choose a school based upon which has the more "rockin" dorm.</p>
<p>University eduction, right or wrong, has become a market driven commodity where people are buying a lifestyle with a credential, often forgetting that they are there for their personal development (educational, emotional/spiritual, and physical) to prepare them for life's undefined challenges.</p>
<p>Universities, in their struggle to keep afloat, have gradually sold out their missions of research and personal development (building human capital), chasing the almighty dollar (from corporate america and fickle students) needed to keep them afloat. Their images are no longer burnished by decades of work by distinguished scholars, but by public relations campaigns changed yearly by the slick marketing folks.</p>
<p>It is a change that has been so slow in coming that most people don't see the cumulative effect.</p>
<p>Living like a college student is no longer that romantic struggle that created the strong individual who would lead our great country.</p>
<p>And this isn't Kansas anymore, Dorothy.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Back in the "old days" living like a college student meant suffering privation. Accommodations were cramped and spartan.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I realize that many schools do have the nicer, posh dorms, but all 3 of my kids had accomodations equal to or worse than mine and H.'s were. And now those cramped quarters are even more cramped with the addition of computers, microfridges, etc. OK, yes we didn't have the microfridge, but the rooms our kids have have are certainly no improvement.</p>
<p>Also, all 3 of mine were on campuses that required students to live on campus for first 2 years. I was able to get D. moved off after one, but it practically took an act of God!</p>
<p>I guess we are slow learners and didn't consider dorm accomodations in deciding on colleges. So dorm life for mine has ended up being a rite of passage.</p>
<p>What I don't understand is why colleges insist on students living in dorms and 2 to a room. The students are there for an education---and more times than not I hear students complain that dorm life is not conducive to school--lack of sleep, lack of privacy, roommates pulling all-nighters, roommates playing on computer all night, etc. </p>
<p>The happiest students I have talked with seem to be ones that lived in dorms that were all singles---gave some privacy and still had the social aspect--people evidently just leave doors open when they want company.</p>
<p>At my school, all students under the age of 21 have to live on campus, unless they live with their parents wthin 25 miles of the school. And the only people with singles are RAs. But we do have on-campus apartments that have a few singles. And next year, our new dorm is going to be done, and it will have a fitness center and movie theatre/viewing area in the basement, and some of the rooms will have balconies (for extra money of course). I'm thinking about living there next year, but I kind of like my dorm this year. The dividers practically make it like a single.</p>
<p>At USoCal, the freshmen have a choice of living on campus in a dorm, in an apartment, or off campus wherever they can find housing. This year's freshman class is also guaranteed another year of U housing, primarily in apartments (with a few spaces in dorms). I believe the reason they mostly have doubles is due to high housing costs in LA & not enough housing to begin with, but the students seem to love living on & near campus and are willing to stick with university housing as long as there is space for them.</p>
<p>Posh dorms are certainly not the norm at UC Berkele at least.</p>
<p>limousine rides to school? that's just idiotic.</p>
<p>FerstAmmendment- No, dorms are not for socializing and causing ruckus. That is home for everyone who lives there and everyone should have a right to study in his or her own space. Going to the library to study sucks, and you shouldn't be forced to go there because the people you live with are inconsiderate.</p>
<p>quote:</p>
<p>Posh dorms are certainly not the norm at UC Berkele at least.</p>
<p>end quote:</p>
<p>I don't remember them being horrible, though. Of course that was about 25 years ago. Just before I left they took over a school for deaf (?) and had rehabbed that space. I remember visiting a friend there and was amazed at how much square footage they had.</p>
<p>I've left my d at summer camps at 2 large state universities where the dorms were about the same as I remember the 8 story Berkeley dorms. However, those were the "freshman" dorms at both places. Both universities had more posh apartment style housing that had been built more recently.</p>
<p>Where I work, they are losing students to private "luxury" student housing near campus. The university will shortly be renovating their housing to make it more competitive or much of it will remain empty.</p>
<p>Of course, the students living in the "luxury" student housing near campus drive the big SUV they got as a HS graduation present 5 blocks to class and park wherever they feel like. Then they get the big surprise when their grades and next semester registration is held at the end of the term when they don't pay their parking tickets.</p>
<p>I find it funny that many many students who went to HS where my daughter would be going now and attend the university where I work, drive their big SUVs 20 miles each way to school (spending $7 a day in gas and another $1.50 in parking while I take the express bus because it costs only $35 a term (less than $.50 per day), because I can't afford to drive in. There are about 3 students who ride the bus from my area regularly. More than 300 per year matriculate to the university.</p>
<p>I'm convinced that my school either doesn't charge enough tuition or gives too much FA if they live that well.</p>
<p>They just built some poshier dorms at Berkeley, and as you've mentioned, there is Clark Kerr. There are no palaces, but there are some nice dorms available.</p>
<p>Its pretty impossible to be in totally peace and quiet in a dorm...therefore walk 20 yds down the street to the library is what most students do...or we have a 'study floor' at the bottom floor of the dorm where many students go. Go up to where people stay/sleep...theres music, sports in the hallway, loudness</p>
<p>then, why live in a dorm? might as well live in the library :)</p>
<p>studying in the library isn't all it's cracked up to be either, unless you want to carry all your heavy books there and back</p>
<p>as far as i'm concerned, i'm not happy unless there's a nice (mostly private, I guess) place where i can just chill and be relaxed.</p>
<p>I love my 251 square-foot dorm with soundproof walls at harvey mudd. There's tons of closet space, a nice view, and air conditioning. After my roommate and I loft our beds, there's going to be so much room we won't know what to do with it.</p>
<p>I loved being able to study in my room, which I did as an undergrad & also throughout grad school. I've never been able to study well in a library--still have a hard time doing so decades later. My kids are similar--they like to study where they're comfortable & like libraries for browsing for books or research, NOT for studying.</p>
<p>Dorm life is nice when you can have socialization, studying, AND a place you can just "chill" without having to go to extremes to be able to do all of these normal activities which should be part of most students' lives.</p>
<p>this article title is extremely misleading... it should be titled:</p>
<p>A few parents buy their college kids entirely too much stuff.</p>
<p>And... if 20% of a school took a limo to school, it still wouldn't be the "norm"</p>
<p>And re: studying... you should definitely be able to study in your room. All Dorms at my school are required to have "quiet hours".</p>
<p>Honestly.. I would hate a single. Every freshman that I know who ended up with a single HATES it. I lucked out with a double, and while it's a small cinder block room- it's still bigger than my bedroom at home. And while it's on the 3rd floor (4th if you count the basement that you have to cut through on one side to get up) with no elevator and no air conditioning, I have the most amazing view of the Boston skyline. I can't wait until the leaves start falling because then my view will be even more stellar. Honestly, I couldn't ask for a better room. </p>
<p>I'm on a coed floor and it never really gets that loud. Granted, it's Brandeis, but still. Sure, on weekends it can get kind of loud, but the doors are amazingly good at keeping sound out.</p>
<p>I would really hate to be spoiled so much that I EXPECT and DEMAND a single room with a private bathroom and the full schmere. Those kids are in for a rude awakening in 4 years.</p>
<p>Quads are the best. The biggest rooms...and theres two...so we can use our backroom room for 'studying' if we need to get away from the noise.</p>
<p>This entire article was ridiculous. I lived in a closet-sized single my first year, and then had a double to myself my sophomore year, but both were in a 1960's, traditional dorm, and I think I had more fun because of it. Communal bathrooms and kitchens definitely force community in a very different way from these posh apartments.</p>
<p>I certainly don't have a problem with the communal baths and kitchens, nor the traditional dorms. However, my son's room is so small that when the boys were getting headaches and some other symptoms, enviornmental health was called in ---in addition to mold, it was found that CO2 levels were above industry standard. Now CO2 is only produced by the respiration of people in the room and after 2 people sleeping in room, the next mornings levels were this high. Now they must remember to keep window open some in order to ventilate the room. When the school is getting $1K/mo for that room, I think one shouldn't have ventilation problems nor mold issues.</p>
<p>I must say I'd love to have privacy......but I think I should go with a roommate.</p>
<p>My mom wants me to get a single.....but I'm thinkin gabout the rising divorce rate and how people dont know how to compromise anymore. Besides, it's more fun to giggle with your roommate about something only the two of you get than alone...</p>
<p>I dont mind going to the library cuz I cant concentrate in the room anyway. I just need my roommate to turn the light off when I'm there......and be clean....and hygenic.....and be somehwat similar to me. I don't want a complete opposite altough I'm open-minded.</p>
<p>Oh yeah, and I need someone who can deal with me not being around 24/7....I'll be there....to sleep........not allllllllllll the time.</p>