Why Dorms Are So Nice Now

Parents Forum
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Bowdoin’s dorms are beautiful. Most of them old on the outside but pretty new inside and so much space. All of them include a bedroom with two beds and then a common room. So, if you’re in a double, you have a living room and then a bedroom with a door with the two beds. Big and clean. Quads have an even bigger living room and then two bedrooms, one on either side. Tons of light with big windows. S19 is loving it. He or his roommate can go to bed and close the door and the other can do homework or just hang out in their living room. It’s a huge boost to their daily living experience.

Now that I’ve seen that room, I think we will be caring a little more about dorms for D21. I know she’s going to care. We were at Wisconsin and she saw a dorm room and almost cried. She said no way could she live in there and I agree. If you would have asked me before S19 moved into his room if I cared about the dorm, I would have said no. But his quality of life is so much better than his high school friends at other schools in small old dorm rooms. No lazy river there (haha) and the field house and work out areas seem dated but I’ll take the good-sized and newer dorm room over those things. And we are not sacrificing a stellar education.

22

Hm - my S has a single, which is of adequate size, in a dorm ‘undesirable’ for its location and proximity to food (15m walk). The room itself is clean, tile floors (very cold in the arctic winters!), all-gender bathrooms (?!) and dark, dank hallways. He seems happy enough, but I feel a bit ‘stiffed’!

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@momo2x2018 I think all three Maine LACs have nice living situations but it does get dark at 4:00 pm I hear in the winter so maybe they need nice living arrangements to ward off the depression in the dark days! Lol!

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@homerdog I was a Bates student in the mid 80’s and the Freshman dorm I had probably hadn’t been renovated in decades. 4 rooms per floor and 12 guys per floor (3 to a room with separate BR and Living space). The bathroom on the floor had 4 sinks and 4 toilet stalls with doors, and there was 1 shower. Next year they put in 16 guys on that floor! Things have gotten better these days. It was rumored that Bryant Gumble lived in that dorm before my time in the 60’s. This dorm is no longer Freshman and it’s been changed to doubles and I imagine it has more showers. Things are cushier at Bates than when I was a student. :wink: The food is certainly better. Pesto stations? We didn’t even know what pesto was then.

I hear Bowdoin is like a country-club, no? :wink: The endowment is huge! No old rivalries here.