<p>vandygrad87–same here–there were a lot of reports about pulled fire alarms, and worse, in the male dorms, not so much in our dorm and then it was usually people that didn’t live in the dorm that caused problems.</p>
<p>When I was in college, our school did not have any all-freshmen dorms. Their reasoning was that freshmen can learn from upperclassmen, so they mixed us all in. Worked well for me, the 2 girls next door were juniors in my major and had great advice about professors, etc.</p>
<p>However, my son also graduated from the same college 2 years ago, and now they have choices of all-freshmen or mixed grade dorms. The one he chose was mostly freshman, with 1 floor of sophomores. By the time he graduated he told me the most likely place for the ambulance to come to pick up too-drunk students was the all-freshmen dorms. NOT the frats or upperclassmen dorms, but the freshman dorms - overwhelmingly.</p>
<p>My daughter lived in a co-ed freshman dorm at a different college her freshman year and loved it though, and had a great bonding experience with both guys and girls. However I think I would avoid an all-male all-freshman dorm if possible. Her college has one of those and over the years it has consistantly been a problem. They are thinking of making it co-ed next year (although it will require a good bit of repair over the summer!)</p>
<p>I have a friend who refused to even consider colleges with “ugly” sounding names. Think Muhlenburg, Bryn Mawr, Harvey Mudd, and the like.</p>
<p>I walked on to the Harvard Yard in 8th grade, and it was a cloudy, grey day, so I wrote it off for life. They and 3 other ivies offered me a spot on their football team, but I declined to go to Notre Dame as a student. Go Irish!!</p>
<p>vandygrad –</p>
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<p>Sorry, I know this is off topic, but I wanted to respond to this statement. The freshmen shouldn’t be drinking in the dorms since they’re underage. Is this a common occurrence at Vanderbilt? At D’s college, which has about 3,000 more undergrads compared to Vanderbilt, there have only been six alcohol violations since the beginning of the fall semester. None occurred in freshmen dorms. She has never seen anyone drinking in her dorm.</p>
<p>S1’s school has two new dorms exclusively for freshmen. They get a lot of first-gen students from impoverished areas where families don’t really value a college education, and they’ve found that a lot of support and hand-holding increases their retention and graduation rate. They’re both coed. S1 lived there his freshman year, had a single in the oldest dorm on campus last year and is a happy apartment-dweller this year.</p>
<p>@Aquamarinesea- Mind you, this was more than two decades ago but yes, there was drinking in the dorms. In the dorm rooms, in the frat houses, on the campus in cups. Some light drinkers, some passing-out drinkers. Quite honestly, I’ve always assumed that was the typical college experience. Some did that, some didn’t. There were plenty in both camps, I’m sure!</p>
<p>I can’t speak to your daughter’s school, but I’d be surprised if there aren’t people drinking in the freshman dorms. They are probably doing so in their rooms. We were not crazy-blatant about doing it… the door would be shut!</p>
<p>Aquamarinesea and vandygrad87 - This is one of the main reasons college presidents hate the 21 drinking age and would love to see it go back down to 18. It is such a headache for them and makes the college more parent like than they want to be. As a parent we have no access to any of our kids information once they turn 18 but the college still has to babysit when it comes to drinking. It is a really difficult situation for colleges.</p>
<p>“GIVEN THAT THIS IS A GENERALIZATION, do you agree with it?”</p>
<p>As a descriptive statement, I 100% agree that an all female dorm is less likely to experience the same amount of stupid vandalism, body fluid puddles, etc. than a coed dorm on the same campus.</p>
<p>That said, we had plenty of fire alarm pulls at my dorm at Bryn Mawr. That seems to be an ungendered behavior.</p>
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<p>Drinking wasn’t the popular vice at my undergrad(Oberlin) at the time I attended in the mid-late '90s. Instead, it’s far more likely you’d find/notice folks smoking weed or using psychedelics…and they didn’t always make an effort to hide it. The neo-hippie campus culture and perception of alcohol as “what the establishment/parents did” were two key factors.</p>
<p>Another decades-ago college experience here, but there was plenty of drinking among freshmen. Both men and women. Most were under control and didn’t let it interfere with their work, but there was regular drinking. But I agree that the guys’ dorms were much sloppier, and had more vandalism and damage.</p>
<p>Anyone who thinks their precious underage pumpkin isn’t drinking in the dorms or somewhere else, or perhaps imbibing in other illegal substances, has their head in the sand, since something like 95% of all kids surveyed admit to doing one or both of these activities. </p>
<p>I’m grateful my kid’s college doesn’t make a big deal about either of these things and I don’t have to worry he’ll get caught and kicked out of school.</p>
<p>There is also a lot more drinking in the dorms now because most kids are not old enough to drink in bars and clubs.</p>
<p>SO right emilybee…</p>
<p>even the kids who didn’t drink in hs will be exposed to that by the time they hit campus.
Kids from all over converge into dorms…there is “fresh meat” on campuses…</p>
<p>Some U’s are very strict…and it can mean expolsion…
others while strict use teaching opportunities and educate</p>
<p>When we were on a campus of a huge state U…the forced triples of the girls dorm just smelled bad…and there was tons of stuff everywhere.</p>
<p>On a tour of a small private–a tour of the guys dorms (which are really nice)…
the guys had thrown packages of unused condoms onto the hallway floors…
“as a joke”… I think to “shock” the parents/highschoolers.</p>
<p>:rolleyes:</p>
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<p>What about Tufts? Sounds like a competitor to Charmin. :)</p>
<p>My son refused to look at any college with colonial architecture. That eliminated a good number of east coast LACs and universities, along with others in the midwest.</p>
<p>I want to quickly follow along with what emilybee and fog have stated. I’ll give you an example.</p>
<p>If you go by the number of actual “alcohol violations” issued at two of the large universities in our state there is a LARGE discrepancy. You might be led to believe that kids are drinking like fish at one university and are finding other more “wholesome” activities at the other. You would be very, very wrong in this assumption. The overall philosophies at the two are completely different. At one school it is a legal issue and you are going to get slapped with a violation. The other it is a heath issue and first offense you are going to be talking to your RA about making smarter choices, and informed what will happen if there is a second offense. I’m not about to get into a discussion about which is right, more effective, etc. I’m just here to point out that a low number of alcohol violations does not in any way shape or form indicate a lack of underage drinking.</p>
<p>Didn’t apply to Yale because the coach came across a ******bag.</p>
<p>My S marked off UC Riverside and CSU Northridge because they reminded him too much of home and wants a change of scenery, smaller town, coastal, and green.</p>
<p>My S hated American because there was a sign in the dorm we toured about STRESS MANAGEMENT. He felt it meant that the school was too stressful.</p>
<p>hahaha yes</p>
<p>My D refused to even think about George Washington after going to a camp there and seeing “scary black squirrels” only brown ones here in NC!</p>