<p>garland saved you, but I had googled it and it did pop up.
I'd like to ask here, is freshman only dorm that bad of an idea?</p>
<p>one offspring when to a school with the Dorm-from-heck. It's a conservatory so it is the only dorm there is. I hated it once I saw it. The most poorly designed place imho. Suites are on these oddly designed halls. When you come out of the suite you don't see anyone else until you get to the elevators. It's as if you are alone on the floor. My dorm memories are from the dark ages - doubles with shared bathrooms, doors open, girls everywhere, rock music playing all the time. Now it's co-ed by shared bathroom rooms, and everything else the same. Great way to have fun back then.</p>
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But on the dorm experience -- DS visited five colleges last week, and not one offered a tour of the dorms.
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<p>Our experience was that the larger and more prestigious the school, the less likely they were to show you the dorms. Some may argue that it was due to privacy concerns, or just having too many visitors, but I don't think so. My impression was you shouldn't be concerned about such mundane things - this is Ivy X! Williams does let you see the dorms, just as an aside.</p>
<p>Cornell let students see its dorms during its accepted students' days this month, but the tour group's chances of seeing actual rooms depended on whether anyone was home at the time and willing to let people in; it wasn't preplanned.</p>
<p>mkm,
Both my kids will go up to their rooms to sleep during a sleepover. They both have friends who won't sleep over for the same reason, though they'll stay til 1-2 am hanging out.</p>
<p>So -- those of you with kids at college, does a private room help with maintaining a sense of balance and ability to re-charge? Is it <em>too</em> isolating?</p>
<p>Marian -- DH and DS were at Cornell last Wed. No dorm visit since he's a prospie, but I have to tell you he liked the place!</p>
<p>My daughter had a single as a freshman last year. It was very social -- one of her best friends was directly across the hall, and if they both opened their doors they were roommates. It was an entire dorm of singles, with lots of decently nice common spaces (including a kitchen). Kids hung out in the corridors and common areas (especially the ones with TVs) all the time.</p>
<p>She didn't have any trouble making friends (although she had the common freshman experience of having to un-make some friends from the early days) or finding people to live with the next year. But she is very social -- I didn't worry about the single being isolating at all. For some kids, I suppose it could be.</p>
<p>Same for my S. All singles, very friendly hall. The RA organized a lot of events, and overall the hall seemed to really bond. He loved being able to shut the door when he needed some down time, too.</p>
<p>My freshman D has a single this year and LOVES it. Lots of other kids on her floor have singles too. They're wonderful friends but she loves being able to work in her room and to crash when she needs to. She knows many kids who have horrible roomates and are having a not so good first year because of it. Next year, a single will be tough to get, but that's OK because she can pick her own roomate. I think singles for freshmen are great. A bad roomate situation can overshadow everything else. Some situations are really that bad.</p>
<p>The school I'm going to next year (an Ivy, incidentally, though not HYP) doesn't allow freshmen to request specific dorms, but apparently those who request a single in the "comments" section on the roommate form are likely to be assigned to one, so I think I'll give it a try. Even though I love to spend time with people, I sometimes need a quiet place to think, write, or just relax without having to be "fun" or "social" -- I enjoy that, too, but it requires more energy. I don't think I'd have much trouble getting along with a roommate, and I won't rule out having one sophomore year, but the transition from high school to college will definitely be easier if I'm allowed some privacy and personal space.</p>
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This kid, who is an extremely visible (for better or worse-often "for worse") young man, agonized over getting recs for his transfer applications because, even with his strong grades, there were no professors or TAs who knew him well enough to give a rec!
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<p>MOWC, That statement really took my breath away. I was definitely in that position decades ago (though admittedly due as much to my own shyness as my professors' disinterest) but for my son at his nurturing LAC the choice of professors to ask for recommendations has been overwhelming. The question was more how to choose just two out of the many who encouraged him, guided him and would say all kinds of kind, perceptive and personal things about him. They continue to be there for him as he enters the uncharted territory of the Real Job. I'm just eternally grateful that he was fortunate enough to land in an environment that was right for him. (He was an ED admit, by the way, so yes, gut reaction can be reliable.) </p>
<p>I do appreciate however that transfers can work out well in the other way direction as well, that is from small LAC to big University. One girl whom we know transferred from Holyoke to the University of Texas -- how's that for an extreme miscalculation on the initial pick? And my roommate at the same "uncaring" BigU was so close to her professors that they regularly came to our house parties and decades later she's still in touch with them.</p>
<p>My son has had a single room all four years. For him it's been the best of both worlds: he can join the group in the common room, he can go back to his own room and close the door. I believe that his school paid a lot of attention in assigning roommates and suitemates. He was such a good match with his assigned suitemates with that it couldn't have just been random chance. Four years later they're still together.</p>
<p>We really liked it when the dorm was part of the tour. It helped so much to visualize both as a prospective student and a parent. Williams is very proud of its firstyear entry system and devoted a good amount of tour time to explaining and physically walking the tour members through the physical layout. As it turned out my son ended up living in a room just like the one on the tour, so the visualization became a happy reality. At one Ivy we visited the group was "allowed" to peer into a dorm window from the outside. It was a ground level room with bars on the window which made it an especially grim experience.</p>
<p>To parents of the dissatisfied: Though it may take a little longer for your kids to find and get what they need, there are many, many transfer success stories on this board. Take heart and come back and let us know how they do.:)</p>