Rising junior daughter is primarily interested in non-religiously-affiliated women’s colleges. After a summer residential program where her cooking facilities were limited to an electric kettle, she says easy access to an oven and a stove burner would be great. Below is what I can figure out from the internet - anyone happen to have firsthand knowledge of what’s available for these schools?
Smith - As far as I can tell, houses without dining halls mostly have full kitchens, houses with dining halls have kitchenettes that are only fridge and microwave. There’s maybe a student-accessible kitchen in Campus Center?
Mount Holyoke - Some dorms (https://www.mtholyoke.edu/reslife/dining) have full kitchens; kitchenettes are limited to a microwave
Bryn Mawr - Students can reserve the SGA kitchen; dorm kitchenettes have microwave and fridge
Scripps - Every dorm has a kitchen with oven and stove per p34 of https://issuu.com/scrippsvoice/docs/the_unofficial_scripps_college_surv
Barnard - modified corridor and suite style rooms have kitchen access: http://barnard.edu/reslife/housing-options
Wellesley - Every dorm has a full kitchen: http://www.wellesley.edu/esp/entering/campuslife
Agnes Scott - Only Avery Glen apartments and theme houses have stoves. Other dorms have only microwave and fridge.
Mills - the student union has a full kitchen; it’s not clear what individual dorm kitchens include. You can’t have more than one kitchen knife in your dorm room.
(It would not surprise me if she went all four years cooking nothing more complicated than instant noodles, but the ability to cook if the fancy strikes is important to her.)
People with food allergies will need to know this as well
Smith, for example, has a kitchen available only to students with documented food allergies. So there’s not complete overlap between what’s available to students with a medical need and students with a want.
What you said about Smith is correct, but I don’t think there’s a student-accessible kitchen in the Campus Center. My DD picked a House with a kitchen in it so she could cook and bake occasionally.
I know that Wellesley requires you to be on the meal plan unless you live in one of the off-campus houses (French House, for example), so even if your D has a full kitchen in her dorm, there won’t be any cost savings, as she will still be paying for the meal plan. But she will certainly be able to do some cooking if she wants. My daughter got into bread baking during her time there.
Cost savings was not on her radar I wouldn’t be surprised if she didn’t actually bake during her college years; she just wants the ability to.
I suggested she get a dining hall job. Lots of useful life skills to be learned that way.
My daughter just finished her first year at Smith. She lived on the 4th floor in the quad. The closest kitchenette was a floor down, and it was just a microwave and sink, not even a refrigerator. There was a full kitchen on the first floor. She and friends used it maybe 4-6 times all year? The dining hall food is good and plentiful and they are busy.
Smith students with work study awards typically do work in the dining halls, but they are dishwashers, not cooks!
Not all women but a similar vibe to several your D liles and kitchens for everyone, Bard “the dinner party school.”
When I was a student at Mount Holyoke many years ago, it was possible to reserve small private dining rooms in the dorms which had kitchen facilities so it was possible to cook for a dinner party. I recall there also was such a place in the gymnasium building. However, with the advent of the new dining commons on campus in Blanchard Hall known as “Super Blanch,” those options may have changed. I would inquire when you visit the campus.