Hi everyone! I’m hoping some of the more experienced community members can help our family. Here’s the situation:
S is currently a junior and we are planning campus visits starting this spring. We are committed to a SLAC with great programs in English and American studies. Location is flexible, although we haven’t found many schools that interest us in the south.
He’s always been a terrible sleeper. He frequently has insomnia and gets up to read for an hour or two in the night. When he does sleep, he needs a completely dark room, white noise machine, and cold temperature (63 degrees or lower).
It seems unlikely to us that any roommate will be able to make this situation work. Plus, because S is such a light sleeper, having someone else in the room will make it really difficult for him to function.
Although we have considered a sleep study to get an official diagnosis, we don’t think it rises to the level of a disability: he’s always been a lousy sleeper, and it’s just a thing that he manages. And we don’t want to claim a medical accommodation to get a single room that someone else needs far more for serious conditions. Plus, we want him to have the experience of living with roommates, which is so valuable.
So, we are wondering:
Which SLACs have divided doubles or single rooms within suites for freshmen? So far, we think Reed, Whitman, Oberlin, and Hamilton have divided doubles. Those are all high on our list anyway.
How do we ask this question when touring campus? We want to send the message that we consider this a health/wellness issue, and while it isn't the most important factor in our decision, it's a big piece of the puzzle.
My daughter is at Haverford and most freshman have singles or single rooms in a suite. The housing questionnaire is truly considered so listing the concerns would probably be enough on its own. My daughter said she wanted a single in a suite and that’s exactly what she got. Something else to consider for a very light sleeper though, is that some dorms have paper thin walls.
Trinity In Hartford has a lot of singles. They aren’t in suites but according to our tour guide, students are very social and do a lot of interaction since the whole floor is singles. They were nice big rooms, too.
I don’t think Vassar has suite style dorms but they do have singles. My D lives in a single on a wellness floor. It does sound like you need to consider his sleep problems, but if the college is a good fit in all other ways except for dorm style, it might be worth keeping some on the list and seeing if getting a single room is an option.
I would encourage you to go ahead and get the diagnosis and use a medical accomodation.
You aren’t really “taking a room” from someone with a greater disability or greater need, although it is kind and thoughtful of you to consider that. The fact is, other kids with medical necessities are highly likely to get their own room as well. The college will have planned for X percent of kids needing accomodations, and between semesters abroad, summer melt, and kids moving off campus, these things work out.
It sort of saves your son from being limited in his college choices, and completely avoids any possibility of the roommate incompatibility certain to arise from his unusual sleeping requirements. If you do want your son to have the “roommate experience” his disability accomodations may permit a suite situation, at least in one where the bedrooms don’t share a thermostat.
On the chance that your son has yet to research his tentative choices’ academic offerings deeply, note that Whitman doesn’t appear to offer a structured American studies program (i.e., no available major or minor).
Bowdoin has suites for all freshman. Two options. You either get a double that includes a room with the two beds and a “living room” with a door you can close between the bedroom and the living room. They are super spacious and one roommate can go to bed and close the door and the other can hang in the living room until he wants to go to bed. The other option is a quad with a bigger living room and a bedroom on either side of the living room with two beds in each. Both of these options are the nicest rooms we ever saw when touring schools. Updated and big. S19 has really appreciated being so comfortable.
@merc81 thanks for the tip! He is really interested in combining English with Film/Media Studies and possibly US history. We like a lot of things about Whitman, so we are hoping that the lack of an American Studies program isn’t a deal breaker.
Bates is the dream school, not sure if it’s a realistic choice. We will see when he does the SAT in late spring.
@bigprairie29 Singles are very common for first years at Williams. The First Year Entry program provides a ready-made social group and a counter to isolation.
Williams also has an excellent American Studies major.
Wesleyan has a lot of different combinations in its first year dorms: divided doubles, singles, and traditional doubles as well as the rare triple. Ironically, you have a greater chance of getting a bedroom to yourself
if you choose one of the older dorms - Foss Hill or Butterflied.
60% of Williams College freshmen, and most upperclassmen, have single dorm rooms.
Freshmen live in either the Freshman Quad or Mission Park.
In Mission Park, most years everyone has a single (in crowded years, there is one double in the entry’s largest room, and everyone else has a single), and students hang out with their entrymates in the entry’s large common room.
In Freshman Quad, two small rooms share a common room. Often one of the small rooms is a double and the other small room may be a single or a double, with the three or four students sharing the common room.
There is a space on the housing questionnaire you fill out as a pre-freshman on which you can note anything noteworthy that may affect your housing assignment.
There also is a process for medical accommodations if needed.
I would save your son’s personal info for after admission, when every college will have procedures for determining housing needs. During the tours, you can just ask about where and how first year students are housed and take a tour of a dorm. That way, you can get a sense at each college of whether it is common to have singles and what activities or traditions help unite the students in a dorm— which also may help give you a sense of how isolated or not your child might be in a single.