4 ms·

I agree with the luxury portion. My university hasn't added a "cheap" dorm in decades. Now they're all suites, where 2 or 4 people share a bathroom, and are muc

I agree with the luxury portion. My university hasn't added a "cheap" dorm in decades. Now they're all suites, where 2 or 4 people share a bathroom, and are much more expensive. I think a big part is students growing up in a middle class lifestyle and wanting to change as little as possible. I lived in the cheapest dorm available (no AC in the heat and humidity of Iowa). At current rates, 4694/year versus 6415 in the super nice ones, all before the meal plan. So we have tons of people with low earning potential trying to maintain the lifestyle their parents have provided for them despite the fact that maintaining that lifestyle after college will mean they're saving little to nothing, and that their student loans will live on for many years. People waking up to the harsh reality of what starting wages will get them, how long student loans would take to pay back, etc. would go a long way toward cutting the fluff costs associated with college.

ergothus 8y ago
At the same time, "cheap" can hurt the effort at education. My freshman dorm room had me and one other roommate in a single room that I recall as being 8 ft by 15 ft. It was probably larger, but the issue wasn't the size but that he liked to come in at 3am and go to bed, falling asleep to the TV, while I had an 8am class and really had problems sleeping with noise on. Did I need to learn to deal with it? Sure. Did I learn that you can fail a class in college? Yes I did. Was that a loss of time and money? Oh yes it was.
- froindt 8y ago
  Your roommate in a suite could have just as easily been like that (unless it really was a socioeconomic class problem). GPA in the same-major across housing situations would be interesting to explore. I had neighbors who partied every Friday night with loud music and underage drinking until ~2 AM. It sucked, particularly when they did that during finals week and I had 8 AM finals. I have friends who were in the suites, and there was basically no community developed there. In the standard dorms, people knew each others names because they'd run into them on the way to the bathroom. People kept their doors open (particularly in areas without air conditioning). I say all this as a graduate of Iowa State, which I understand has one of the higher on-campus housing rates (95% of freshman, 50% of people who were on-campus last year are again this year).

ergothus 8y ago

At the same time, "cheap" can hurt the effort at education. My freshman dorm room had me and one other roommate in a single room that I recall as being 8 ft by 15 ft. It was probably larger, but the issue wasn't the size but that he liked to come in at 3am and go to bed, falling asleep to the TV, while I had an 8am class and really had problems sleeping with noise on. Did I need to learn to deal with it? Sure. Did I learn that you can fail a class in college? Yes I did. Was that a loss of time and money? Oh yes it was.

froindt 8y ago
Your roommate in a suite could have just as easily been like that (unless it really was a socioeconomic class problem). GPA in the same-major across housing situations would be interesting to explore. I had neighbors who partied every Friday night with loud music and underage drinking until ~2 AM. It sucked, particularly when they did that during finals week and I had 8 AM finals. I have friends who were in the suites, and there was basically no community developed there. In the standard dorms, people knew each others names because they'd run into them on the way to the bathroom. People kept their doors open (particularly in areas without air conditioning). I say all this as a graduate of Iowa State, which I understand has one of the higher on-campus housing rates (95% of freshman, 50% of people who were on-campus last year are again this year).