<p>My daughter heads out next week to start college and pulled a quad room assignment. The living space is completely open, sort of elbow shaped. Faceboook remarks are flying as these 4 try to decide who will bring what. They all agree they want a rug(s) and two refrigs but are split on the television and microwavedue to space constraints. I am staying ringside as they try to figure this out but would appreciate some insight as to why today's kids seem to think they need to set up housekeeping in their rooms. This dorm has a dining facility and small "grocery take-out" on the first floor and each floor has a kitchenette. There is a lounge with cable t.v. on first floor. I assumed if they ever had time and did not want to interact with other students or participate in any of the events on campus and really could not bear the thought of missing the next installment of a favorite show the student would simply watch it on their computer. Am I missing something????</p>
<p>My daughter watches TV/movies on her laptop, with earphone. She had a single freshman year, and even then she didn’t have a TV. Next semester she will be sharing a 3 bedroom apartment with 2 other girls. They opted not to have cable, use the money to get a cleaning lady instead. </p>
<p>I don’t know how those 4 girls going to be able to watch tv in their room, unless they could all decide on the same show to watch. What’s nice about a laptop is you could watch whatever and whenever you want.</p>
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<p>I think waiting on the TV is the better idea. As OP post indicates, there is some degree of hope that watching TV isn’t a big item on a college freshman’s agenda.</p>
<p>D is in grad school and has not owned a TV or roomed in a space with a shared TV during her entire college experience. TV and cable are a waste of time and money. When you do have the urge for some media— that’s what computers, HULU, and Netflix are for.</p>
<p>My son has never had a tv in his room, but I know he’s played video games on the tv’s of other people. At least in his crowd, I think they get used more for gaming than watching!</p>
<p>I have 3, none have had TV, even after finishing school. They all get Netflix and they can usually download the TV shows they are interested in. A couple of them miss watching sports but neither were such die hard fans that it was much of an issue.</p>
<p>No TV in a dorm room? How am I so ‘behind’ the times…we ALL had TVs in our dorm rooms back in the 80’s at Montclair State!</p>
<p>I would say no on the microwave! If the dorm has a common area, use that one instead of stinking up your own room! My gosh, the smells…I’m horrified even thinking about it ;). A dorm room is just TOO SMALL to be cooking like that in it.</p>
<p>Now, I had a TV in my dorm room and probably wouldn’t do it again, but there were upsides. Basically, it was nice to gather all of my friends into the room and watch a movie, sporting event we were interested in, etc. When there are 60+ people on the floor, do you really think if you decide impromptu to have a movie night that there won’t be a bunch of guys hogging the TV in the common room watching football or playing video games on it? Because there probably will be. So in that sense it was really nice to be able to rent a movie and watch one whenever you wanted, without having to pray to God that there wasn’t some Halo tournament occurring. And we once tried to cram 15 people into the room watching a laptop screen, and that’s always less fun. I was also friends with my roommate - if your D isn’t friends with all 4 of hers, might be hard to have a movie night, anyway.</p>
<p>But I wouldn’t do it again simply for the fact that TV is addicting. If it’s not addicitng to your D, chances are it will be to one of her other 3 roomies. My ONE roommate was watching it ALL the time, and she was watching programs I found extremely annoying. I now can’t stand being around a TV. Ugh! Roommates are loud enough without having to have an extra thing you need to ask to be turned down/turned off when you are studying or just want some quiet time in your room.</p>
<p>Then again even before I went to college I hated TV with a passion, so maybe if your D isn’t one of those, she doesn’t mind having it in the room and can handle the background noise of the cooking channel for a couple hours a day.</p>
<p>My kids in college have had tvs, and some of the kids in their dorms have even brought big flat-screens. They have had tv parties, in which kids bring/share favorite tv shows and movies from home (they’ve had House, Northern Exposure, Harry Potter and Power Ranger marathons). They use tvs for guitar hero tournaments. There are also shows that kids have been used to watching at home, which they don’t want to give up. They watch the news. Whichever room has the best tv and electronics is known by all. Their dorms offered cable tv for free in the rooms, reflecting the fact that the majority of rooms have tvs. </p>
<p>It isn’t universal though. There are kids who don’t bring tvs. This year both of my kids have decided that they’ll stick with their computers and that they don’t want to lug in the big electronics again. They’ve decided that having a TV sitting in the room is too much temptation to hook up a game system, and both are entering very intense programs this year. I’m sure they’ll continue watching Netflix, tv shows on the internet and some of their own movies on their computers, to be honest.</p>
<p>I think they should skip the TV. Instead of watching a lot of TV in the room, now’s the time to interact with each other, focus on doing HW, getting involved in other activities, etc. If any of them really want to watch TV they can either go to the lounge or watch something on their computer (DVDs, streamed programs). If one of them ‘really’ wants to watch regular TV in the room they can get a TV card for their computer, connect it to the cable, and watch it on their computer. At least this way it won’t be a distraction for the others. Not having a TV also avoids the issues of different roomies wanting to watch different things or not wanting the distraction/noise when they’re studying or socializing.</p>
<p>They definitely should not decide to get a TV up front. I don’t think they’ll miss not having one once they’re there for a little while. I’m really glad neither of my Ds had a TV in their dorm rooms.</p>
<p>I thought my d would want a tv but she did not and easily lasted the year without wanting one. The kids watch TV in lounges (big games or popular reality shows) or watch archived shows on line on their laptops. Also, my D’s college has cable TV jacks in all of the rooms, so rather than buying an actual TV, one can buy a tv tuner for the laptop, turning the laptop into a TV; we had offered that but she didn’t want one.</p>
<p>My niece is a big Minnesota Twins fan and “needed” a TV to watch baseball games and a lot of boys “need” a TV for video games.</p>
<p>I had a black and white TV with rabbit ears tuned into Good Morning America in my 1980 dorm room. No computers then, though, of course.</p>
<p>Nice to save on the footprint of the TV. There is so little surface space in a dorm room.</p>
<p>My daughter has a laptop so she got a TV that doubles as a monitor, or a monitor that doubled as a tv. It worked out very well. TV’s these days are really small and don’t take up much space.</p>
<p>D was indifferent about a television- roomie is bringing one but I suspect it won’t be on very frequently. Believe it or not, D is interested in the nightly news so it will be nice to have that available.</p>
<p>My son is rooming with 5 guys this year and each one of them has a t.v. Their big fight right now is who puts their t.v. in the living room. Last year, in the dorms, they rented a micro/fridge(microwave on top of a small refrigerator) through the university. Actually, there are many universities that won’t let you bring in your own microwave. The t.v. ended up on top of my son’s chest of drawers.</p>
<p>Personally, I think you could get by without any of it.</p>
<p>Both S’s had TV’s. They would not have considered going without them…for the weekend football game factor if for no other reason.<br>
In both cases, their roommates supplied the TV’s.<br>
I always had a small tv in my dorm room back in the old days. So did DH.</p>
<p>D in Portland didn’t have a TV in college, but when she moved from her latest place, no one wanted the 60" flat screen that had been donated by a roommates dad.
They eventually gave it away to some boys who couldn’t afford to buy it.</p>
<p>;)</p>
<p>I don’t watch TV- & I don’t think you need to in college- ( noise drives me bats) although I do admit that when reading the " things I am not ashamed of that I like" thread, I didn’t realize that * wife swap*, was a television show.</p>
<p>I would–and did–want a TV in my dorm. While I watch little TV (very little during the semester), there are one or two shows that I’m pretty “into” and like to watch first run if I can. Plus sometimes it’s nice just to chill in front of the TV!</p>
<p>I have a single, though, so no roomates to worry about.</p>
<p>My school supplies a microwave, and I don’t think I’ve used it more than once in three years,</p>
<p>D will be attending a conservatory, so all the kids are music majors and there are only about 100 in the 4 floor dorm. She will be in a triple, which is two double rooms put together with a small dividing wall partitioning off an area. The 3 of them have decided to put the beds on one side and have the “living” area on the other. They will each be bringing one “large” item and she is taking the flat-screen TV with built-in DVD player. After discussion, all 3 of them learned that they share a love of languages and foreign films and they also all love Disney movies!! Since hours are odd, with rehearsals and ensembles, they figure that this will be their way of “decompressing” and getting some “quiet time”, although they will also spend time in the first floor lounge when the film for “movie night” appeals to them. They also want to be sure to be able to see the “Live from Lincoln Center” or “Live from the Met” programs and the school supplies free cable TV to the rooms. This situation is a bit different because these kids are a bit more “specialized” and know exactly what they want, and this has been a middle ground where the three of them can come together. If all else fails, she can use it as a monitor for her laptop!</p>
<p>S’s dorm has a large lounge which becomes the de facto living room for many students. They tend to watch TV there as a social activity. IIRC, there’s a DVD player attached to the TV, and S and many friends all shared their various collections of foreign language films, Buffy, Firefly, Star Trek, Disney movies, etc.</p>
<p>He was able to offer suggestions for additional DVDs as holiday gifts – my mom is always appreciative of good ideas for gifts that will be used!</p>
<p>His dorm does not permit microwaves in the rooms. He does not have a TV. He did take a 4 cu ft fridge, however.</p>
<p>DD keeps mentioning a TV. She has an old, small one in her room at home that rarely is used. I’m not rushing out to buy one though. She has a laptop and knows she can use that. She did explain some show she likes isn’t available online. </p>
<p>I do recall all of us in my dorm had our TVs on in the very early 80’s when Reagan was shot.</p>