<p>I have noticed a number of students who are in honors programs or other situations receiving "single" rooms in college. These rooms are often connected with other rooms and a living area. I was wondering if parents have seen this as a positive or negative for their students.</p>
<p>Both of my children were in singles housing freshman year - no special honors program though, just entire dorms of singles. It was the best thing for them - privacy when they wanted it, no roommate thing to do deal with first year, they both socialized easily with other students.</p>
<p>Suite style living is a huge plus.</p>
<p>Colleges that put some significant effort into roommate match will tell you that they are trying to match the roommates based on student-filled surveys in a way that they are compatible in their life style preferences, and exposed to diversity.</p>
<p>It happens sometimes that students paired as freshmen in college become best friends. it must be a wonderful experience. Unfortunately, none of my 3 kids had that. One was a disaster, the other two were ok to live through for one schhol year.</p>
<p>Looking back, I think a single in a suite is an ideal living arrangement. It allows for privacy, but prevents isolation.</p>
<p>My daughter had a single in an all-singles dorm. It was a great set-up: privacy and quiet when she wanted it, but if she and the girl across the hall had their doors open, they were effectively roommates, and the two of them spent lots of time together. (The other girl moved into that room when its original occupant left because she and my daughter were already friends.) My son had a large double in a more traditional dorm, and was barely speaking to his roommate by the end of the first quarter. No terrible hostility, just very little in common and no chemistry. </p>
<p>As between the two kids, the one with the single had the much better experience. I was skeptical when she was assigned to that dorm, because the camaraderie of having roommates had been important to my own college experience. (I spent my first two years in three-room quads – suites of two small bedrooms for two students apiece and a nice common room.)</p>
<p>I should note that my daughter is very social; there was no risk she would sit in her room doing nothing for want of roommates. For a shy, retiring kid, the single set-up could work less well.</p>
<p>It seems like it would be ideal, esp. with so many students coming to college without having shared rooms at home. I was just wondering if students found it someowhat loney and harder to make a real connection?</p>
<p>My freshmen lived in a suite with common living area and single rooms. She found it to be a great combination of togetherness and, at the same time, privacy. She highly recommends it - if an option.</p>
<p>A friend of mine is trying to help her child through a nightmare match up, her daughter is loosing sleep because of the roommates social priorities.</p>
<p>My daughter likes her roommate but is already fed up with the mess she leaves in the room. Roommate wants to do laundry once a month so the dorm room smells like a laundry hamper and roomie’s half of the room is strewn with everything she owns. My daughter can’t have anyone else come to the room because it is always embarrassingly dirty, nowhere to sit etc. My daughter lofted her bed and put a curtain around it to have private study space due to incompatible schedules - so she is working in her “Harry Potter study cupboard”.</p>
<p>I would love for my child to have a bedroom of her own with clean air to breath - given the cost of dorms, this really doesn’t seem like too much to ask. I’m glad she and the roommate are friends, but they aren’t really on the same page with lifestyle.</p>
<p>I agree with ignatius. That seems like the ideal combination.
Students can sleep on their own schedule, but they are not isolated.</p>
<p>Singles can be great. My daughter lived in one as a freshman, and my son did as a sophomore. Both loved their rooms.</p>
<p>But the suite-style arrangement may not be ideal for freshmen. There may be a tendency to meet only the 4 to 6 people in your suite, rather than the 20 to 50 you might meet in a corridor-style arrangement.</p>
<p>If I ruled the world, freshmen would live in corridor dorms with plenty of singles for those who prefer them. Suite-style dorms would be reserved for upperclassmen.</p>
<p>There’s no need to worry about isolation in singles in corridor dorms. Just leave your door open. The only people at risk of being isolated are those at the ends of the corridors, and there’s nothing you can do to control whether you’re placed in such a location.</p>
<p>snowspud: My college offered mostly suite style housing. It allowed for suitemates to bond easily IMHO. My frosh year, I was in a suite of six (4 sgls, 1 dbl, 1 common room). Four of us became fast friends and decided to live together the following years. The other two were fine but just didn’t bond with us. One moved to another dorm while the last stayed in our dorm but just w/other folks.</p>
<p>Like others said, it’s a great combination of community and privacy.</p>
<p>My D got a single as a freshman this year, by choice, picked a dorm with mostly singles as her first choice dorm. The School is intense, so she definitely needs a place to call her own. She says the hall is very social, so she has no regrets. My S, now a Sr, did not click with roommates either freshman or sophomore year. He is very happy now in a town house suite style dorm with six singles sharing common space.</p>
<p>Can we start a list of colleges that offer single rooms for at least some freshman? Most of the college’s we visited did not have this option, but I can see how it would be a very good thing for D2. Suites with single rooms as part of them would be considered singles for purposes of this list.</p>
<p>Cornell. Columbia.</p>
<p>But you will have a much harder time getting a single as a sophomore at either school.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I would have to say that my daughter would disagree with this assessment. The suite provided the base from which to start out. Then three girls in the suite each made friends individually through classes and activities. The suite mates met each others friends and the number of friends grew from day one. Also the suite did not have a kitchen so everyone had a chance to meet in the dining hall. </p>
<p>Yet the students in the suites - while still having the privacy of a bedroom - learned to negotiate living with other by way of the suite common areas: level of neatness, volume, temperature all had to be worked out :). </p>
<p>Again, the best of both worlds.</p>
<p>My D grew up going to sleepaway camp - bunks with 12-15 girls. She was looking forward to having a roommate at college, but got a single! Turns out there are two huge residence complexes at her school for freshmen (combined about 1500 students) that are mostly singles (NOT honors housing). I was disappointed at first, but now I see how great it is working out. Since nearly all the girls on her floor have singles, it is very social and she is friends with everyone! (Note - her dorm is co-ed by floor.) Plus, she can go to sleep when she wants, stay up when she wants, study when she wants. I think it is turning out well. (She also has air conditioning!). </p>
<p>Whether you have a roommate or not, it’s really what you make of it.</p>
<p>FYI - This is University of Delaware.</p>
<p>WUSTL has some singles for freshmen (though I don’t think they guarantee it)</p>
<p>I’m sure it depends on the kid. D (current freshman) has a double and is fine with it. She and roommate share some interests, but also have separate friends and activities. They seem to get along fine. S, however, will want a single when he is a freshman (currently still in HS) just because he has OCD/Aspergers issues. A roommate would drive him crazy and vice versa. We are actively looking for schools that offer both his intended major (musical theatre) and singles for freshmen. Not as easy as it sounds.</p>
<p>McGill in Montreal</p>
<p>All “halls” as they are known in the UK are single rooms. Sometimes due to overcrowding people have to share in the first year - and in my experience the vast majority in this situation move out into private rented accommodation (ie a house share where everyone has their own private bedroom) extremely quickly. It is very much part of the US cultural experience to share a room at college but in the UK people are HORRIFIED when they find this out. They cannot understand why you would pay so much (or in fact pay at all) for such an experience. </p>
<p>I am quiet and shy and I was so so so glad to have a single room because I think I would have died of stress if I had to share (not ever having shared at home)! I think in a situation where everyone is in singles it’s quite easy. We left our doors open if we wanted company, chatted in the corridor, kitchen and social areas. It was a great relief to me to be able to keep the door closed when I DIDN’T want company. The situation where everyone else is sharing and very few students are in singles could potentially be more isolating though.</p>
<p>So one solution if sharing is an issue is to apply to UK universities.</p>