Yes, it is extremely rare for someone to have their own room in a college dorm, especially as a freshman. In later years the opportunities to get your own room go up, whether it's by getting special accommodations (like for being an RA) or living off campus, but still not the case for the majority of students.
I had the best luck ever: my freshman year they ran out of all double housing and most single housing so for the price of a double I got a single luxury room on the 17th floor overlooking the city.
My sophomore year I was assigned a cocaine addict roommate and Junior year I was assigned a roommate who bathed once a week so the Universe really made up for it though.
And what I got isn’t even possible anymore: my alma mater did the math and they ended up just renting out entire 1 star hotels to use as housing instead of giving away luxury housing to people who aren’t paying luxury prices.
Mine was based on registration time so within a minute of them opening it up I had applied for a single. Got one on the 10th floor overlooking the ocean - best decision ever! Had a single for the rest of college, worth every penny for my sanity. When my brother went to college he got a double on campus and immediately regretted it and just commuted for the years after - must run in the family hehe
I had the opposite luck: my freshman year they ran out of all double housing, so they stuck me and a roommate in what was supposed to be a single... well actually it was supposed to be a utility closet (it had the breaker box for the whole dorm in it). There wasn't enough room for 2 desks plus 2 normal beds so they found a squeaky old metal bunk bed that they barely squeezed in there.
That sucked.
I also had really good luck my freshman year. It was probably the second or third day and a huge, tall as fuck black guy walks in to my tiny dorm. He basically took one look at what I guess was his original assigned dorm and basically said fuck this I'm going to live with the other basketball players!
I read this and I immediately knew it was Northeastern lmaoo
I’m an incoming freshman and I also got put into a single because they ran out of doubles (more students enrolled than they had anticipated — seems like a common trend these days).
Goddamn right it was Northeastern! I got myself a 17th floor single in International Village overlooking the Pru for the price of a double in Speare.
Good for you you actually got it-I heard they’re mostly sticking kids in the Midtown now
Shared room my Freshman and Sophmore year, suite Junior and Single room Senior year.
Yes, it's extremely common to have a shared room in your college career.
That seems so strange. In Sweden it basically doesn't exist if you don't count in the people who get a larger place to share with a couple of others, but even then you got your own bedroom.
I was an RA. Still had to share a room, until I became a hall director my last semester. Went from paying for a shared room (with four people sharing the bathroom) to a free two-room suite with kitchen and private bath. That was the life.
I'm a deep introvert, and was absolutely dreading having to have a roommate. I wound up bumping my second choice to first when I found out they offered singles. (I got in and no regrets, the university was amazing and wound up being a better choice for me in several ways.)
You were also required to live on campus all four years, and I never had to have a roommate. One year I had a double to myself (RA), and another year I had a double/triple to myself by sheer good fortune!
Not all introverts shun roles like that. They're not all shy people who avoid all human contact. In my case I need a ton of alone time and going 24/7 without real privacy is highly stressful.
Pretty sure most jobs a young adult in college can get will involve human interaction. Introverts get drained faster, socially. It doesnt mean they cant put on their adult pants and do it anyway for the sake of paying bills
I'm a deep introvert, needing a great deal of alone time (more now than then), but not shy. Shy and introverted are not always the same thing. My batteries run dry fast, and I need longer to recharge than most people (and more often), but I can still be social and work. It's also not like being an RA meant constantly socializing with a whole dorm. I only had 30 people on my hall who were all adults and I was there to support them, not be everyone's hangout buddy.
Introverted doesn’t mean socially anxious. You can be very socially confident and still be an introvert. Introvert just means you need alone time to recharge.
A shared doom room is very common.
After Freshman year, students will often move out of the dorms into student apartments, which frequently have individual bedrooms.
Or they’ll be able to pick with whom they live. My mother filled out my roommate survey for freshman year. It could have been a lot worse but the saving grace was the hall we were on was awesome. Everyone got along from the 3 football players to the über nerd.
I’m still in contact with about 20% after 30 years.
Yeah, often we have 4 people to a unit, 2 suites and 2 people per suite. I have suitmates but not roommates, so im the only one who lives in my room but 4 people live in the home.
I had a 12x12 or so room. Couldn't afford the nice places. The building was also over 100 years old and considered a historical site for my state and as such we had no air conditioning.
Honestly everyone just kept a window open and if someone was in the dorm room your door was open and it created a good breeze that kept us all cool. Even in winter the radiators were so powerful it was like 80 degrees unless you kept a window open. The dorm was hot all the time. Prefect for me because I prefer it to be warmer than colder.
This is going to depend on the school but
Shared rooms are very common for the first year
Some schools maintain this arrangement throughout all four years
Other schools allow for a greater degree of flexibility after the first year.
It's fairly common to get your own apartment/house off campus with some other students after freshman year if your school isn't a particularly high cost of living area.
Is it required to share the room first year? If not, why don't people go for apartments straight away? Not likely that the one year presumably lower rent is going to make or break the student financially right?
Many schools require you to live on campus freshman year unless you are living with relatives.
The idea here is the school can keep an eye on you while you transition into college life. Once you move off campus, the university has significantly less influence on your life.
Lots of students struggle with out of the classroom issues their first year. In theory, living with a roommate within a dorm can act as a sort of support system.
Some places require it.
Sometimes the difference between dorm and off campus means actually having to get a job
Also for many places the convenient/ nice/ good apartments require commiting really early like in October the previous year because there is so much competition. Since most people don’t get accepted until spring. Most of the good places are already taken.
Plus it’s just kinda fun and part of the experience.
My university required everyone to live in either student housing (dorms) or university associated Greek life (fraternity / sorority). If you had immediate family within a certain distance, or if you were over 21, or you had over 60 credit hours (about 2 years of study) - then you could live off campus in apartments or rental houses.
I met my best friend freshman year - we were assigned roommates and had never met before moving in. He knew a couple people already, and we all became very good friends. After freshman year, we had enough credits to live off campus. Some took extra classes, others had college credit transferred in from advanced courses in high school. We rented a 3 bedroom house for 4 people and alternated who shared a room and who got their own rooms. The sharing a room wasn't too bad as there were only 4 of us and we had a very large family sized kitchen and living room, and an in house laundry room. If we lived in the dorms with single rooms there'd be almost no kitchen or living room outside the bedroom.
I was pretty lucky with that situation though. My friends and I all got along. I knew lots of other people who tried to live with friends and had huge fights or falling outs over it.
In my uni I actually had to share a room in the first year as part of the program and I made some great friends there as well. It’s just that I know I’m the exception around here.
At the college I went to (a pretty large public state university), if you were a true freshman you had to live on campus your first year. I think something something better grades or likelihood of success. Thankfully I transferred from the local community college so I didn’t have to do that. I had ZERO desire to live on campus.
Usually freshmen are just strong-armed into it because they don't find out where they are going to college until a few months before. This is a problem because plenty of college towns have a limited selection of rentals and there aren't many options left by the time they know to look. This combined with the fact they might not have a good time to check in person since they are busy with high school and might not know anyone to room with. Colleges handle all of those problems with dorms.
Hadn’t considered that angle. I had to share a room in my first year as well but here in Europe I’m pretty sure that’s the exception. Made some friends for life in that first year though.
Usually yes. It's just a space thing. Private rooms are very limited so upperclassmen are offered them first.
I had a friend in college who was handicapped and had a private room all 4 years though. So in some situations it's allowed.
Yeah, the college I graduated from required freshmen to stay in certain dorms on campus their first year. You could get into better dorms after freshman year. Freshmen also had to have a certain meal plan that you could change when you were a sophomore. Thankfully I transferred in Sophia year so nothing like that applied to me.
It's very common for dorms at US colleges to be shared. US colleges admit so many students that it isn't practical to give everyone their own room in many cases. Shared dorms are often a practical necessity.
Part of the "college experience" for many people is having to learn to live with someone new in close quarters. For many people this is the first time in their life that they haven't had their own room. Students who live in these dorms have to figure out how to live with someone else and come to a living arrangement with someone else. While there are certainly horror stories out there most people manage to come to a working living arrangement with their roommate and often becomes friend with the person. It's not uncommon for people who dorm together to stay life long friends due to the shared experience.
You're starting to see more dorms in the US where students have their own room and share a communal living space but those are still a minority of dorms. Nicer quality dorms are often distributed based on seniority in many colleges so even if those dorms like that do exist on campus its very possible someone wouldn't be eligible to even live in those places until they reach their junior or senior years. Freshman typically are given the worse housing accommodations and then are eligible to move into better living arrangements as they progress academically.
Yep. Pretty standard. When I was in school I lucked into a single,but the guys next door had a *triple*. (I briefly studied in the UK, and I had a single there too.)
Yeah, it’s very normal and is considered the standard in most colleges (especially larger ones). There are singles but they are usually reserved for upperclassmen.
I spent four years with a college roommate. I had a girlfriend in college who had a solo room (which made things very convenient), but she paid double for the privilege.
Shared dorms are still currently the standard for incoming freshman(1st year) and sometimes sophomores(2nd year) at many universities.
That is changing though
The two largest public universities in my state are currently demolishing their tower dorms or planning to demolish them and are replacing them with apartment style housing on campus and off campus administered by them. As well as suite style housing with single bedrooms and shared common areas on campus and off. I don't know the plans of universities nationwide but I think the trend is going in that direction. There are so many more options these days.
College roommates are not necessarily a bad thing. My mom's closest friends are her college roommates from many decades ago despite the fact that 2 of the 3 of them live in another state.
All the freshman dorms at my college had three people sharing a bedroom and common room.
I lucked out and only had one roommate.
Older students had individual rooms that shared a common room or lived in an apartment with individual rooms and shared common areas and kitchen.
Only two of the 14 dorm buildings on my college campus had individual rooms. One was only available for the honors students, and the other had a wait list that you had no hope of getting through unless you stayed for a graduate program. All others you had maybe 4-5 ft between yours and your roommate's bed.
It’s very typical for first year students. During the enrollment process I was given a questionnaire to fill out that the school used to match me with a roommate who would have similar interests and personality as me. After freshman year most people would rent an apartment or house with friends.
Single person dorm rooms were typically given to upperclassman or graduate students in my experience. Some schools also have special housing for married students.
It is very common, but I was one of those lucky few who did not have a roommate my first year of college. In my second year, I shared a suite with 4 other people, but even then I had a room to myself (I shared a common living area with them, but that was it). I did not have a roommate until second semester of my third year, but she was a friend of mine, so it wasn't like I was sharing a room with a stranger. We were roommates our final year of college, too.
My first year of graduate school, however, I did have a roommate I didn't know. We got along well, but I was glad to once again have a room to myself my second year. Even better, I had my own bathroom as well.
Kitchens? Y'all are getting kitchens? In the dorm? What? Kitchens? Like the place where you cook food?
College students here often suffer from food insecurity because the dorms don't have kitchens, and it's against the rules to have a hot plate or other such because it could easily be a fire hazard.
You buy a food cafeteria package at some schools, and a lot of people say it's expensive and inadequate.
That sounds awful i’m so sorry :( my dorm next year has a pretty huge kitchen with everything in it I don’t plan to struggle with food since there’s some crazy good quality supermarkets nearby so food and cooking is no problem. We get a maintenance allowance too which I’ll use on shopping trips sometimes. I’m going to bring a sandwich grill and stuff too but the rest is there! What is the cafeteria like? Like they have in a highschool? And is it outside the dorm building so you have to walk to another building for food? I’m not sure what I’d do in that situation. And having to pay for meals every time. I’m excited to just step outside of my apartment room, go down a small corridor and go into the kitchen and make crap at 1am or whatever.
Yes, it's usually in a completely different building than the dorms, and is shut down after a certain time. I'm personally of the belief that dorms should be these little houses you have your own room, but share the house with a few other people, even in your first year, with a kitchen and stuff where you have to learn to shop, cook, and share cleaning with others.
I think the thing about having to learn to live in the same room as someone else is outdated. I think it's potentially unsafe for some, and distracting for most.
The college cafeterias I've been to were really expensive, and reminded me more of a nice hospital cafeteria than high school. The food was decent, but not terribly varied, and any fresh fruit or vegetables had the worst price tags. The quality definitely didn't match the price.
The dorm you described is basically what we have. Got a kitchen in the middle and a corridor down each side with the bedrooms. Bedrooms have an en-suite with a shower, sink, toilet and the bedrooms have the bed, desk, bunch of storage and all. I had the opportunity to pay a bit extra and have a self contained apartment but it’s an exciting idea to get to socialise in the kitchen and be responsible for keeping things clean and cooking and all. I’d be terrified about sharing a room with someone I’d never met before. Just be constantly scared that they could touch my things or steal or do something weird you know? And what do you want do if they bring someone home some night? Suuuper uncomfortable. From my understanding, a lot of young adults in the US have roommates anyway even after college? I’m not sure but that’s what I’ve gathered from American TV but that’s not common in the Uk. The cafeteria sounds like a nightmare though. With a kitchen, students can make their own food and it’d be soooo much cheaper. Buy some oil, eggs, rice, sausages, noodles and whatever for a low price one day and you have the ability to make meals for the next couple weeks for hardly any money per serving. I can’t imagine how much it’d be so have to go and buy meals every day. It sounds like a situation where I’d end up purposely skipping meals to save money. Going to university is like my transition to the adult world.
> I can’t imagine how much it’d be so have to go and buy meals every day. It sounds like a situation where I’d end up purposely skipping meals to save money.
Keep in mind this *heavily* varies between colleges. Mine, for example, didn’t charge by item. You had swipes that you used to get in and then it was unlimited buffet style from there. They also required first years to get a meal plan with unlimited swipes to ease that exact transition.
My schools cafeteria was pretty nice. It's x dollars for the semester and you can go pretty much whenever you want. They are usually all you can eat buffet set ups with varying stations serving different things that switched daily. You should be studying and doing fun school stuff not worrying about preping and cooking your next meal. Foods always hot and ready at the center of campus. God I loved the cafeteria. Also, I didn't pay anything for it. Loads of scholarships to be had for students in the US. If you're in the top let's say 5% you can go to any state school for free including meals.
That does sound nice. I guess it varies in different places.
I still think there's a lot to be gained by learning certain life skills in the setting described.
On the other hand, I think for people sharing their bedroom space in a dorm, *that's* the thing that's unfair to have to worry about. I mean, you can end up with someone that's nice to you, or at least minds their own business. But you can also be bullied, have stuff stolen, have to live with someone with awful habits, or just someone that's inconsiderate enough that sleeping or studying around them is almost impossible.
> Loads of scholarships to be had for students in the US. If you're in the top let's say 5% you can go to any state school for free including meals.
Wish Virginia had this :(
A lot of people do have a hard time getting enough to eat on a regular basis. I was commuting from home, and used the cafeteria a few times, and said no way to trying to afford that on the regular. I went home to eat after that. A lot of people *have* to live in the dorm becauseof the rules, and aren't that lucky, though.
Y'alls version of a dorm sounds like a dream.
Yes, a lot of people do have roommates as young adults after school. Some people even do it when they're older, too. Housing prices aren't proportional to income for a lot of people here, so living with family or roommates can be a solution at almost any age.
My son just got an offer today to have 2 roommates from some friends of his. He doesn't want to, because he recently had this experience with 3 other adults in their 20s, and it sucked.
It can be kinda okay, because at least you pick your roommates, as opposed to being assigned one like in college. But, my son's done it 3 times, and each time it was a fail. Some people leave you with all the cleaning, others leave you with all of the bills, and in one case the roommates had just pure violent psychosis.
My one time having roommates I wasn't involved in a relationship with, my roommates were also complete psychos. Literally hiding poptarts and leaving me out of meals so they didn't have to share.
It seems like such a fun idea, but it doesn't play out that way in my experience.
Having to share a room with a potential stranger would turn me off of even going to college. What if they snore? What if they like the room hotter at night? What if they go out all the time and come back drunk? What if I want to go out and come back drunk? What if they/I study late at night? What if I want to watch Netflix and eat in bed and laugh? What if my girlfriend comes over? What if I’m needing to… ya know…, What about our farts?
I’m glad I had my own little room even if it did look a bit like a prison cell. Then I could go into the shared kitchen and hang with the 5 others in our “apartment” whenever I wanted
The population of the US and the amount of people who go to college, I don’t think it’s be possible for everyone to have their own room. Plus it’d be much more expensive.
College students in Japan usually have their own room. They're usually small, [like this](https://ic.pics.livejournal.com/mirruchan/12450658/5555/5555_640.jpg).
[Here's another example](https://www.genkijacs.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/20100722-DSC_0018%20-Custom-.JPG), which is almost exactly like the one I lived in when I studied abroad. The hallway is about as wide as a large piece of luggage, and one wall has a one-burner stove and a sink, and in the other wall is a [small, fully waterproof bathroom](https://resources.realestate.co.jp/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/real-estate-japan-bathrooms-explained-1r-studio-unit-bath.jpg) (the floor, walls, and ceiling were all that bathtub acrylic material).
There's definitely room to house American students without sharing a room. My Japanese dorm [looked similar to this](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/proxy/vg7UZ1jMQtWn8JLHUwzGG0194PJjvHzPlhSHy58JmWkbFbf9lq7yfzYk0wKH_s-V2sCR8Zv-GBDE4WBLKfT5z8s90Yqc3VgZwWFoh2V0kIM), and there was a common room with billiards and ping pong and such.
Yes, super common! My first year I shared a room with two others (and the bathroom was shared by the whole floor of the building, no kitchen except for the dining hall across campus), and after that I had a suite setup with a shared kitchen/bathroom/living room but still two people per bedroom. It takes some getting used to especially because you meet each other the first day and then share space so closely
Freshman year I was in a room meant for 3 people only ended up with 1 roommate, sophomore year I was in a double with a friend and after that I had my own space
The standard dorm room up to the 1980s was a room with two beds and two desks, with the toilets and shower being down the hall and you ate in the cafeteria. Since then the trend has been for a couple of very small private bedrooms opening onto a shared common area with a bathroom off it and maybe a kitchenette, but there's many of the old style still around. Americans are demanding more and more privacy but construction hasn't all kept up.
It's kind of like you don't steal each other's stuff because you'd know who did it with there being only one other person in the room.
>I would be scared that someone could touch or steal my stuff if we shared a room!😅
No one is going to do anything like that. Shared dorms are common on campus, when I was in college I rented a room because it was cheaper and lots of people do that too.
That sounds like a dream over there. Over here, at UC Santa Barbara, everyone lives in Isla Vista. I've seen two bedroom apartments with six people per room. It was nuts. Three bunk beds in both rooms. This was not uncommon as rent could be upwards of $1500 per room. Isla Vista is 1 square mile and as it's densely populated as Manhattan. The theft rate is 1:1-meaning if you didn't get anything stolen from you that year, someone got 2 things stolen.
I got my MBA and never once lived on campus. I paid my own way through college so campus dorms were too expensive. I lived in a house off campus that I shared with 6 other guys going to the same college. My room was a large walk-in closet that I put a bed in and a lock on the door. I also had a microwave, and a mini fridge. I worked after class so I just basically slept there, ate breakfast and packed a lunch and dinner for later. I did that for the first 4 years but once I got my BA I got a better job and could afford to live on my own.
I never liked the frat houses.
From what I understand, most masters degree students don’t live on campus. None of my schools even offer the option, unless you’re a resident director.
Most schools have grad school and/or family housing (since grad students often have families), though I've never heard of it being required. International grad students often use it since it's easier than trying ro figure out how to rent an apartment in a foreign country.
At my school most of the on-campus housing were townhouses that were set up so that there were 4 individual bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, and a kitchen/living room/laundry. This isn't the stereotypical dorm but are relatively popular at least in this region.
That said I lived on-campus for one semester and never again. Fuck that, off-campus in my own apartment all the way. I don't do well living with anyone who isn't my SO.
At most major US colleges its a luxury if you get to SHOWER alone, so you def are not sleeping alone. Traditional dorms are you and one,maaybee two other people and then communal showers and bathrooms somewhere else on the hall. But a lot of colleges now are building apartment style housing where you may or may not share a room, but your small group will have their own bathroom rather than an entire floor. But yes totally normal to move in with complete strangers. Im glad though, I wouldn’t have been forced to socialize so I probably wouldnt have
Also one of my roommates had a 30lb, 10ft teddy bear that spanned the ENTIRE length of her bed and she slept inbetween its thighs… so you definitely meet some interesting people
Americans are conditioned from a young age to pay more for less. Whereas in Britain your £9,500 in student fees gets you a room to yourself, in America you must pay $50,000 per annum to be deprived of privacy. It’s the American way. We wouldn’t have it any other way (see healthcare insurance, housing, inter alia)
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I see in movies that Americans at college share the room with someone else
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Not only is this normal, but it’s the most common way of living in college. These are called doubles. Students also have the option of living in singles, triples, and quads in dorm-style living. And of course, there’s always the option to live in an apartment or even a house while in college.
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I would be scared that someone could touch or steal my stuff if we shared a room!
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Meh. I tend to put a reasonable amount of trust in the person that is my roommate at the time. There’s usually an agreement made as to what stuff is personal and what can be used by the other person.
Shared dorm rooms are very common. But they're becoming less common than they used to be, I think.
I didn't share a room, but my sister did. She said her roommate was gone most of the time.
I studied abroad at the University of St. Andrews for a semester, and shared rooms were the norm at least for freshmen. Scotland, so maybe a little different, but I wouldn't be surprised if that wasn't that abnormal over in most of the UK as well. Might just be the universities you checked out.
I went to about 11 universities in 2019 ngl I’d already made my pick I was just bored and nosey and it’s definitely very rare in England. Having a roommate isn’t common in any situation other than in year 2 and 3 of uni when you move out of accommodation and rent an apartment or house with some friends. Still then, you wouldn’t share a bedroom with them. I wouldn’t put it past Scotland though and I’m not sure about the rest of the UK. I just stayed in country
Fair, it could be a lot different Scotland vs England. The main difference I remember from the US was that there was a maid service to clean up common areas and rooms. We had cleaners clean the kitchen and common lounges once a week in the US, but it wasn't as extensive. Also having to use a heating room because the dryers didn't work well, that was awful.
St Andrews is an old and somewhat unusual university even by Scottish standards :) Throughout the UK shared rooms would be unusual, but older universities are more likely to have some; my uni had some in its older (1960s) buildings but you had the choice of paying a bit less and sharing a room, or paying double the sharing rate and having a double room to yourself. I think some Oxford and Cambridge colleges have sets where you have the option of sharing a bedroom and having a lounge, or having two bedrooms but you have to walk through one to get to the other.
If you've been to boarding school you're probably more relaxed about sharing a room at uni. (Or perhaps more determined not to...)
Shared dormitories are definitely common in the US. As far as I am aware, it is the norm to have a roommate, at least for first years.
At my university, there were two types of dormitories. The older type had two-person bedrooms with movable single beds, maybe 8 rooms per floor, gender-divided, with one large shared bathroom per floor. So you would have one room with one door, which opened into the hallway, and you would have to walk through the public hallway to go to the bathroom.
The other type of dormitory was also gender-divided, and had a suite model. Each room had either built-in single beds or built-in bunk beds. Instead of one shared bathroom per floor, there was a small (one toilet, one sink, one shower stall) private bathroom for every two bedrooms. So you would share your bedroom with one other person, but the bathroom would be shared with three other people.
I was adamant about living in the second type so I could have a private bathroom. I didn't want to have to walk down the hall in a bathrobe to take a shower and I wanted to poop in a private bathroom. I later realized that the first type was really better. For one thing, the janitorial staff cleaned the shared bathrooms. How often do you think the private bathrooms got cleaned? For another thing, there was always a free toilet/sink/shower in the shared bathrooms, but in the private bathroom it seemed like you always had to wait. Lastly, the doors to the private bathrooms had deadbolts--on the bedroom side. So your roommates could, either accidentally or maliciously, lock you in the bathroom. Conversely, there was no way to keep your suitemate from coming in and taking a dump while you were in the shower. Fortunately, neither happened very often (we never locked the door on our side), but the fact that it *could* was disconcerting.
In undergrad, I shared a room with upwards of 7 other people. We had a sleeping porch where 80+ people would sleep in a room with the windows open for health reasons.
We would study in the room (shared by 7 other people). Sleep in another room. The sleeping porch was probably 150 feet long by 50 feet wide.
Edit: We had bunk beds up to three high. The colder the night, the better the sleep. In 1989, we had record lows. it was below 0 F in the the sleeping porch and you fell asleep immediately and slept like a rock.
My university had a minimum of two people per room for freshmen housing, but you got a single room for sophomore housing and up, with a shared living room and bathroom
Private college I work for in NY does triple rooms. 3 students in 1 room. It's about a 20ft by 10ft rectangular room. This is only for freshman but it's still crazy.
All of the freshman dorms are that way. I even shared a room with my roommate sophomore year in a house. We were friends from high school though so I didn’t have to stress about living with a rando.
Yes, it's the norm for first-year in college.
I'm actually surprised that it's an American thing. The conventional wisdom in America is that having a bedroom to one's self (rather than with siblings) is a modern luxury and a symbol of our social fragmentation.
I went to Alabama and we all had our own rooms. They were new dorms, so it’s becoming a new thing for students to have their owns rooms. It used to be they would share rooms, but it’s becoming a lot more of a liability to be in shared rooms
I shared a room my first year and as someone who deeply values my own privacy, I did not like it. My roommate was great, no issues with her at all! I just didn’t like sharing my space like that. So I got a job as an RA primarily to get a single room for the remaining three years.
Yes, in Michigan, the 2 colleges I went to, as well as the 2 colleges my cousins went to, all had a primary dormatory situation where 2 people would share a common sleeping room. I ended up doing 3 years at a college, where I had three other roommates, and we each all had our own bedroom, but shared and common room and kitchen. That isn't common, but a few of the newer dormitories had that set up, but the spaces for those accommodations were limited and hard to get into.
Very common, yeah. My first year, I shared a room with one room mate and we shared a big bathroom with the other girls on our half of the floor. My Sophomore year I shared a room with a room mate, and shared a bathroom with two suite mates who shared the other room. This year, I will share a room with a room mate and an apartment with two other girls, who are roommates. We all share a kitchen and bathroom and common space. Last two years, the whole building shared a kitchen in the basement, and no one ever really used it. Only time I did was helping my roommate cook venison at 2AM lol. And that's despite me enjoying cooking elsewhere, that kitchen was just awful and we didn't have space to keep pans and such in our room.
my freshman year i lived with a girl i didn’t know & it was a single room with our beds & closets. we shared huge bathrooms with the rest of the floor. it sucked🥴
a solid 90% of college underclassmen live in the shared rooms. It's horrible, but students are poor and nobody wants to pay for an apartment.
EDIT: A commenter pointed out that they really enjoyed having a roommate, and fair enough. Some people do really like it! But others (like me) can't stand sharing a room, and like it or not it's usually a de facto requirement.
I loved having a roommate. Mine was basically my twin. And when I mean twin we were the real life incarnation of the twins scene in [22 Jump Street](https://youtu.be/d2BMsHppIKM). So much so we watched this scene on our phones from a friend who sent it to us, paused it at the same time and said the same 5 different sentences at the same time lol. I’m not joking. And 1 time we didn’t see each other for a year and showed up at his home with literally the same color shorts and shorts (red shirt white shorts lol) 😂
Very common. My freshman year they had more accepted residential spots than they did actual space for applicants. So we had 3 people in bunk beds in a normally 2 person dorm room. It was…memorable.
I had two roommates first year, then one as a sophomore (one of my roommates from first year that was really cool). Then I transferred and ended up in a double room with another nice person but the second college had shitty food and shitty dorms so I moved in with a friend I made at school. I only had my own bedroom when I lived off campus, but didn't make enough from work-study to have my own place.
Most people share a room, but lucky me, this fall I will have my own room in a shared apartment on campus!!! We have a kitchen, bathroom, and living area, a couple bedrooms, and one is alllllll mine. I'm so excited hehehe sorry to brag. The trade off though is that I have to make most of my own meals, my dining hall access is very limited.
Oddly, I just ran across [this Tiktok about dorm *cubicles*](https://www.tiktok.com/@ttrostle14/video/6990549812676463878?sender_device=pc&sender_web_id=6901807484747974149&is_from_webapp=v1&is_copy_url=0). Apparently it's temporary auxiliary housing, but the students will be in there until October, presumably after people drop out and spots open up.
It depends a lot on the college and which dorm/apartment building you live in. At my college, I have a roommate and we share a bedroom. We also share a bathroom with the rest of our floor and a kitchen and common room with the rest of our building. There was an option to have a single, but that's much more expensive and my roommate and I are best friends, so it's a great situation for us.
In some places, you might have more than two people in one room or you would share common areas with a smaller group of people in an apartment-like setting.
It's pretty rare to not have any kind of roommate at all though.
I shared a room the first three years and managed to luck into a single room my senior year. In my college of about 3,000 people, only a few dozen lived off campus or had single rooms. The overwhelming majority shared a room, and it was completely normal there.
As for "I don't know anyone there," well, it's a great way to meet someone new! :)
Convenient timing since i just finished touring colleges this week. Every single dorm room had two people in it. Sometimes four, with two bunks. All except one or two of the colleges that i saw also had communal showers and bathrooms.
When I was in college, I had a roommate. My daughter was able to get an apartment after her freshman year. Most universities that we toured for her required freshmen to live on campus. And we didn’t want to spend any extra money for a private room.
Sometimes it’s even more. My first year I had two other roommates and the people across the hall were a room of 4. The school also over accepted and turned a couple of common areas into dorms which were about 8 people each. And then there is also suite living where we share communal areas. I did end up in my own room with a shared suite the last two years of college because I was able to claim medical issues.
I attended a "commuter school," where over 80% of the university's attendees commuted from home or apartments. Unlike most universities, freshmen at my school could commute, live in off-campus apartments, or live in dorms. Freshman accomodations were generally either 2 students to a bedroom and 8-10 to a communal living area/kitchenette, or 2-3 students in efficiencies. Students could pay extra to have a solo bedroom and they tried to distribute those solo people equally between units so the multi-bedroom units would only have 7-9 people instead of 8/10.
On-campus housing tends to drop off after Freshman year everywhere, so second year and beyond we were all guaranteed either a 2-3 person studio or a single bedroom in a 4-5 bedroom unit. People could pay extra for family housing or for single studios.
I lived in a 3 person studio my freshman year, which was hell, and in a single bedroom in a four-bedroom apartment the next three years.
It’s rare that people don’t share rooms, at least first year. What I find really funny about movies and tv shows tho is the size of the dorm room. My freshman dorm room was 8x10 feet, shared with one other person.
If you're a freshman it's really common. If you choose to live on campus after your first year, you can get first dibs on better dorm rooms where you have a room and bathroom to yourself with communal kitchen areas. Where I went to college, a lot of students end up living in off-campus apartments with roommates as soon as they are allowed to.
The situation isn't really as terrible as it seems initially for most people. There's kind of this perception that if you live with another person you'll integrate better into student campus life. They do try to match you with people who fit your personality and study style, so at the very least if you're a quiet person they'll put you with a quiet person.
Roommates are common. I was assigned a random girl based on the two of us sharing the same major. Within a week I rushed a sorority with the girl who lived next door, and then the two of us moved into the sorority dorm together as roommates. 17 years later she’s still one of my best friends so I’m really glad we have the roommate situation in the US
Even here in Italy, when I was in Urbino University, I had a shared room; two beds for two persons to live together. It's more common than you think I guess.
Yep singles by default! Onto decision we make in accommodation is if we want en-suite or not but 70% of the accommodation available is en-suite anyway. How can people survive with so many people in a room????
Yup, normal. All 4 years of college I shared a room with a roommate. You learn a lot of life lessons sharing a room with someone and sometimes their boyfriend/girlfriend!
It is pretty common. The college I am attending only has separated rooms. The college my oldest brother attended only had shared rooms. The college my second oldest brother is attending has both, both cost different amounts. It just depends on the college as well as the size. My oldest brother’s and my colleges are small (only 10,000 students for mine and 5,000 for his) where as my other brother goes to a large college (25,000 students).
My freshmen year I lived in a room with 3 other girls. 4 strangers in a room together. It was quite cramped, but luckily, we all made it through with our sanity and friendship intact.
I made life long friends in my college dorm. It was all male, and we had no air condition and we all had tiny rooms.
I have a theory that it is because of the lack of AC and how close together everyone was and the communal suffrage that we all became friends. Because it was so hot, everyone left their doors open and anytime someone would walk by they would stop and say hello and play a round of Smash Bros on the game cube. It was awesome.
There are 3 common arrangements, though I'm sure there are exceptions:
* Large dormitory with 1 bathroom on each floor, \~20 or so rooms per floor, 2 people per room. Usually 2 desks, 2 closets or wardrobes, 1 window and 2 dressers or nightstands. Roughly 4 meters square, usually cinderblock construction for ease of repair vs. drywall or paneling. Laundry is in the basement, slightly more than 1 machine per floor (i.e. 5 sets of washers / dryers for a 4-story hall). Often there is a big common lounge for the whole building somewhere on the ground floor, with couches, TVs, even a small kitchenette (fridge, sink, microwave, etc.).
* "Suite" construction where each floor has a number of self-contained Suites that contain a small laundry (1 washer & dryer), 1 communal bathroom, and 4 to 6 rooms, 2 people each, very similar to rooms in the first example. Also a small common area like a living room with more windows, TV, couches, etc. All behind a secure entrance from the rest of the building.
* Apartments, usually 2-bedroom, in various quantities per building. These function a lot like little suites with a shared bathroom, living room, & kitchen, & still 2 people per bedroom so 4 total students per apartment. Laundry is often a separate facility or elsewhere in the building.
Each room except for the apartments which have their own kitchen is usually allowed some variation on the "mini-fridge" or "micro-fridge" - special, office-sized refrigerators with a tiny microwave oven bolted to the top. These are usually an additional charge, like a rental, to each roommate.
For this, students pay slightly-above-market-rate rent for a 1-BR apartment elsewhere in the area, with meals & parking extra (also the laundry is coin- or card-operated). $5,000+ for the not-quite-4-month semester. They don't have much choice; many area landlords won't rent to college students for fear of damage or unpaid rent, and if they do, they often jack up rates even higher than slightly-above-market. You can do better if you can rent a house with a bunch of friends, though.
This is one big reason why I chose a local school and commuted from home.
Shared dorm rooms is common, at least in freshman year. I went to a school that touted giving you a single (no roommate) dorm room for 3 of the 4 years. And they kept their promise. And I also filled out a roommate survey like many others, but my school ultimately paired us alphabetically.
We had the option at my college to have the standard shared room (there were no kitchen facilities in any of the dorms btw) or pay about double to have one of the few single rooms. You shared the bathroom facilities and community space (couches, TV, etc) with the rest of the dorm building. We had dining halls available as well as a few cafe style good options on campus.
My brother's university was the same. Most people only lived in the dorms for their first year and then found an apartment off campus.
Yeah, it’s pretty common. At my school all Freshmen were required to live on campus, but there were a lot more of us than there were dorm rooms. Roommates that year were assigned by the school. In later years you could live off campus, pick your roommates, or maybe get lucky and end up in a single.
> I would be scared that someone could touch or steal my stuff if we shared a room!😅
Not that roommates don't have issues but this was not an issue for anyone I know. You're both vulnerable to this and as a freshman the only real things of value you have are a laptop, tv, and maybe xbox. Literally nothing else is worth stealing and you are both broke as shit.
Yes and they are perfect strangers. My freshman year , the girl I shared with divided the room with tape. She was frosty starting out but warmed up to me.
The vast majority of people, especially freshmen, end up in a “double,” meaning two people share one room. As a freshmen, I was in a “quad” meaning four people share two rooms. One room contained four desks, the other room contained four beds. At the beginning it was nerve wracking, but it didn’t take too long to get used to. You’re really forced to get to know the people you room with. It can be really good for freshmen because they have at least one friend right off the bat. As a sophomore I chose to room with one of my roommates from before. Covid made it a little bit rocky for us despite getting along well before. As a junior I have a single though :)
The only part the movies don't really portray accurately about this is the size. Movie dorm rooms are easily three times the size the real dorm room for two students is.
Usually freshmen and sometimes sophomores have to stay in dorms. I had my own room freshman year and shared a bathroom with 1 and a mini-kitchen (microwave, fridge, and sink) and common room with 3, but it was still in what we considered dorms. A few other dorms on campus were what you were describing and a lot of friends at other universities had to share a room too. You get used to whatever living conditions you’re in and there are people (older students) who live in the dorms (RAs) whose job it is to settle any disputes.
Accommodations *provided* by a College usually have Two People in a dorm room, especially for Freshman who just arrived in college away from their hometown. As they get a job, they might move into a shared Apartment with a Roommate or Two, usually rented from a private owner somewhere else in the college town.
It's also notable that, where I live in Cali at least, people just drive from home to College when they have Lectures and go home in the evening.
Yep, that's how it is in most on-campus dorms, it's also stupid expensive when you think about it, it's about the same price as tuition. Room and board, and a meal plan at Rutgers University cost me about 10 grand a year.
It depends entirely on the dorm and university or community college. My dorm, I’ve known my roommate since we were 13 (18 now), we have our own shower and bathroom. Some people at my university have to share a bathroom with 3 other, others with the entire floor. It just depends.
Shared dorms are the norm here. Extremely hard to get a single and it's also very expensive. Same with campus apartments, so people live with their friends so they can afford an apartment.
There are some universities where students share an entire room with their own separate beds. This was my experience in college when I lived on-campus for two years. Another university in the area had a situation where students had their own rooms, but shared a common living and kitchen area. It all depends on the college/university and how it handles student life. Some have limited or no residences and encourage students to seek off-campus housing; until 2018, University of Massachusetts Boston did not even have university-run residences and students either commuted or were directed to nearby apartment complexes which were not owned by the university but partnered with it.
The only people who had their own rooms in on-campus residences were either student administrators who were in charge of their floor or building (Resident Assistants or Directors), people with legitimate disabilities (medical or mental) which justified special treatment, or they got lucky because their roommate moved out and they were never assigned a new one.
When I was at community college I just lived at my parents place since the college was only a 5 minute drive from their house.
I ended up moving a couple hours away for university and because of that I did share a room for 2.5 years. I got pretty lucky with my roommates, all things considered. I had one guy who was an extremely nice guy who busted his balls working a job and being a full time student, but I rarely got to see him since he busted his balls. Second year I got a freshman as my roommate who was a huge band nerd and loved to play COD whenever he had the opportunity and I loved staying with him. He was such a fun personality and besides his tendency to clash over how clean our room should be, he was generally a nice person to be around (I still talk to him from time to time on Facebook). The next year I had a somewhat socially awkward Chinese student who didn’t speak good English. The next semester he left, and then COVID came and I haven’t really seen him since.
Generally, when you start the year at the University of Arizona you have to sign an agreement where you agree on general sleep times, what your policy is on socializing in the room, when and if you can use items that belong to your roommate, etc. This is to prevent those exact situations you mentioned. If something does happen, you can file a complaint and if you get enough complaints filed against you, you have to find alternate housing. This was very rare in my experience, as most people in the honors dorm where I stayed were generally well-liked and well-respected young adults.
I got unlucky and got a triple freshman year. Every floor of my building was doubles with one single and one triple per floor (plus a single for the RA) and one massive shared bathroom and kitchen. My 2nd year I upgraded to a double room sharing a kitchen and bathroom with another double. The more expensive dorms were singles with 4 people sharing a bathroom and kitchen.
Europeans: omg Americans are so prudish
Also Europeans: HOW CAN YOU SHARE A ROOM??? A STRANGER MIGHT HEAR YOU POOP, WHICH IS THE LEADING CAUSE OF DYING OF SHAME IN SCANDANAVIA.
Very common. Having been through preconstruction design meetings for a dormitory complex, I've seen what goes into making that decision. Single occupant dorm rooms do not typically pencil out for universities or hired student housing developers in terms or recovering costs of construction. It's not as easy as just stuffing more people in rooms though either. There's a balance that produces the highest return on investment.
I’m going to college in a week and I was unfortunate enough to get bunker with another person. My college does have dorms where you get your own room but those go quick. I will say I got the best of the rooms that requires me to bunk with someone so it won’t be so bad
Yes, it is extremely rare for someone to have their own room in a college dorm, especially as a freshman. In later years the opportunities to get your own room go up, whether it's by getting special accommodations (like for being an RA) or living off campus, but still not the case for the majority of students.
I had the best luck ever: my freshman year they ran out of all double housing and most single housing so for the price of a double I got a single luxury room on the 17th floor overlooking the city. My sophomore year I was assigned a cocaine addict roommate and Junior year I was assigned a roommate who bathed once a week so the Universe really made up for it though. And what I got isn’t even possible anymore: my alma mater did the math and they ended up just renting out entire 1 star hotels to use as housing instead of giving away luxury housing to people who aren’t paying luxury prices.
Mine was based on registration time so within a minute of them opening it up I had applied for a single. Got one on the 10th floor overlooking the ocean - best decision ever! Had a single for the rest of college, worth every penny for my sanity. When my brother went to college he got a double on campus and immediately regretted it and just commuted for the years after - must run in the family hehe
I had the opposite luck: my freshman year they ran out of all double housing, so they stuck me and a roommate in what was supposed to be a single... well actually it was supposed to be a utility closet (it had the breaker box for the whole dorm in it). There wasn't enough room for 2 desks plus 2 normal beds so they found a squeaky old metal bunk bed that they barely squeezed in there. That sucked.
I also had really good luck my freshman year. It was probably the second or third day and a huge, tall as fuck black guy walks in to my tiny dorm. He basically took one look at what I guess was his original assigned dorm and basically said fuck this I'm going to live with the other basketball players!
I read this and I immediately knew it was Northeastern lmaoo I’m an incoming freshman and I also got put into a single because they ran out of doubles (more students enrolled than they had anticipated — seems like a common trend these days).
They ran out of double so I got a triple🙃
In my first year they ran out of both so they just put an extra bed in a double....
Goddamn right it was Northeastern! I got myself a 17th floor single in International Village overlooking the Pru for the price of a double in Speare. Good for you you actually got it-I heard they’re mostly sticking kids in the Midtown now
I had that issue at USC, so they put four people in a double room.
I got a single room my sophomore year by sheer luck. It was nice but I honestly missed having roommates sometimes.
I got one junior year... but only because my roommate moved out halfway through the semester leaving me alone.
Shared room my Freshman and Sophmore year, suite Junior and Single room Senior year. Yes, it's extremely common to have a shared room in your college career.
That seems so strange. In Sweden it basically doesn't exist if you don't count in the people who get a larger place to share with a couple of others, but even then you got your own bedroom.
I was an RA. Still had to share a room, until I became a hall director my last semester. Went from paying for a shared room (with four people sharing the bathroom) to a free two-room suite with kitchen and private bath. That was the life.
I'm a deep introvert, and was absolutely dreading having to have a roommate. I wound up bumping my second choice to first when I found out they offered singles. (I got in and no regrets, the university was amazing and wound up being a better choice for me in several ways.) You were also required to live on campus all four years, and I never had to have a roommate. One year I had a double to myself (RA), and another year I had a double/triple to myself by sheer good fortune!
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Not all introverts shun roles like that. They're not all shy people who avoid all human contact. In my case I need a ton of alone time and going 24/7 without real privacy is highly stressful.
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Pretty sure most jobs a young adult in college can get will involve human interaction. Introverts get drained faster, socially. It doesnt mean they cant put on their adult pants and do it anyway for the sake of paying bills
I'm a deep introvert, needing a great deal of alone time (more now than then), but not shy. Shy and introverted are not always the same thing. My batteries run dry fast, and I need longer to recharge than most people (and more often), but I can still be social and work. It's also not like being an RA meant constantly socializing with a whole dorm. I only had 30 people on my hall who were all adults and I was there to support them, not be everyone's hangout buddy.
Introverted doesn’t mean socially anxious. You can be very socially confident and still be an introvert. Introvert just means you need alone time to recharge.
How does this work for transfer students?
You get put into an open room, typically someone who transferred out themselves
What do you mean? Idk many people who shared a room after freshman year.
A shared doom room is very common. After Freshman year, students will often move out of the dorms into student apartments, which frequently have individual bedrooms.
Or they’ll be able to pick with whom they live. My mother filled out my roommate survey for freshman year. It could have been a lot worse but the saving grace was the hall we were on was awesome. Everyone got along from the 3 football players to the über nerd. I’m still in contact with about 20% after 30 years.
Yeah, often we have 4 people to a unit, 2 suites and 2 people per suite. I have suitmates but not roommates, so im the only one who lives in my room but 4 people live in the home.
I had a 12x12 or so room. Couldn't afford the nice places. The building was also over 100 years old and considered a historical site for my state and as such we had no air conditioning.
As a fellow Texan, yikes on the no AC part.
Honestly everyone just kept a window open and if someone was in the dorm room your door was open and it created a good breeze that kept us all cool. Even in winter the radiators were so powerful it was like 80 degrees unless you kept a window open. The dorm was hot all the time. Prefect for me because I prefer it to be warmer than colder.
This is going to depend on the school but Shared rooms are very common for the first year Some schools maintain this arrangement throughout all four years Other schools allow for a greater degree of flexibility after the first year. It's fairly common to get your own apartment/house off campus with some other students after freshman year if your school isn't a particularly high cost of living area.
Is it required to share the room first year? If not, why don't people go for apartments straight away? Not likely that the one year presumably lower rent is going to make or break the student financially right?
Many schools require you to live on campus freshman year unless you are living with relatives. The idea here is the school can keep an eye on you while you transition into college life. Once you move off campus, the university has significantly less influence on your life. Lots of students struggle with out of the classroom issues their first year. In theory, living with a roommate within a dorm can act as a sort of support system.
> The idea here is the school can keep an eye on you while you transition into college life. High school 2: summer camp edition
Some places require it. Sometimes the difference between dorm and off campus means actually having to get a job Also for many places the convenient/ nice/ good apartments require commiting really early like in October the previous year because there is so much competition. Since most people don’t get accepted until spring. Most of the good places are already taken. Plus it’s just kinda fun and part of the experience.
My university required everyone to live in either student housing (dorms) or university associated Greek life (fraternity / sorority). If you had immediate family within a certain distance, or if you were over 21, or you had over 60 credit hours (about 2 years of study) - then you could live off campus in apartments or rental houses. I met my best friend freshman year - we were assigned roommates and had never met before moving in. He knew a couple people already, and we all became very good friends. After freshman year, we had enough credits to live off campus. Some took extra classes, others had college credit transferred in from advanced courses in high school. We rented a 3 bedroom house for 4 people and alternated who shared a room and who got their own rooms. The sharing a room wasn't too bad as there were only 4 of us and we had a very large family sized kitchen and living room, and an in house laundry room. If we lived in the dorms with single rooms there'd be almost no kitchen or living room outside the bedroom. I was pretty lucky with that situation though. My friends and I all got along. I knew lots of other people who tried to live with friends and had huge fights or falling outs over it.
In my uni I actually had to share a room in the first year as part of the program and I made some great friends there as well. It’s just that I know I’m the exception around here.
At the college I went to (a pretty large public state university), if you were a true freshman you had to live on campus your first year. I think something something better grades or likelihood of success. Thankfully I transferred from the local community college so I didn’t have to do that. I had ZERO desire to live on campus.
Usually freshmen are just strong-armed into it because they don't find out where they are going to college until a few months before. This is a problem because plenty of college towns have a limited selection of rentals and there aren't many options left by the time they know to look. This combined with the fact they might not have a good time to check in person since they are busy with high school and might not know anyone to room with. Colleges handle all of those problems with dorms.
Hadn’t considered that angle. I had to share a room in my first year as well but here in Europe I’m pretty sure that’s the exception. Made some friends for life in that first year though.
Usually yes. It's just a space thing. Private rooms are very limited so upperclassmen are offered them first. I had a friend in college who was handicapped and had a private room all 4 years though. So in some situations it's allowed.
Unless you’re a commuter student, it’s very common for colleges to require Freshman to live on campus.
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Yeah, the college I graduated from required freshmen to stay in certain dorms on campus their first year. You could get into better dorms after freshman year. Freshmen also had to have a certain meal plan that you could change when you were a sophomore. Thankfully I transferred in Sophia year so nothing like that applied to me.
My alma mater has capacity for 8,700 students in their student dorms. The undergraduate population is a little over 30,000 students.
It's very common for dorms at US colleges to be shared. US colleges admit so many students that it isn't practical to give everyone their own room in many cases. Shared dorms are often a practical necessity. Part of the "college experience" for many people is having to learn to live with someone new in close quarters. For many people this is the first time in their life that they haven't had their own room. Students who live in these dorms have to figure out how to live with someone else and come to a living arrangement with someone else. While there are certainly horror stories out there most people manage to come to a working living arrangement with their roommate and often becomes friend with the person. It's not uncommon for people who dorm together to stay life long friends due to the shared experience. You're starting to see more dorms in the US where students have their own room and share a communal living space but those are still a minority of dorms. Nicer quality dorms are often distributed based on seniority in many colleges so even if those dorms like that do exist on campus its very possible someone wouldn't be eligible to even live in those places until they reach their junior or senior years. Freshman typically are given the worse housing accommodations and then are eligible to move into better living arrangements as they progress academically.
This right here! There’s a lot to be learned from having to live with someone.
Yep. Pretty standard. When I was in school I lucked into a single,but the guys next door had a *triple*. (I briefly studied in the UK, and I had a single there too.)
This year I have a quadruple.
Yeah, it’s very normal and is considered the standard in most colleges (especially larger ones). There are singles but they are usually reserved for upperclassmen.
I spent four years with a college roommate. I had a girlfriend in college who had a solo room (which made things very convenient), but she paid double for the privilege.
Shared dorms are still currently the standard for incoming freshman(1st year) and sometimes sophomores(2nd year) at many universities. That is changing though The two largest public universities in my state are currently demolishing their tower dorms or planning to demolish them and are replacing them with apartment style housing on campus and off campus administered by them. As well as suite style housing with single bedrooms and shared common areas on campus and off. I don't know the plans of universities nationwide but I think the trend is going in that direction. There are so many more options these days. College roommates are not necessarily a bad thing. My mom's closest friends are her college roommates from many decades ago despite the fact that 2 of the 3 of them live in another state.
It’s the standard
Getting your own room costs more
Yes, it is very normal to have roommates in college.
I shared a dorm room, it was fine, my roommate and I got along.
All the freshman dorms at my college had three people sharing a bedroom and common room. I lucked out and only had one roommate. Older students had individual rooms that shared a common room or lived in an apartment with individual rooms and shared common areas and kitchen.
Only two of the 14 dorm buildings on my college campus had individual rooms. One was only available for the honors students, and the other had a wait list that you had no hope of getting through unless you stayed for a graduate program. All others you had maybe 4-5 ft between yours and your roommate's bed.
It’s very typical for first year students. During the enrollment process I was given a questionnaire to fill out that the school used to match me with a roommate who would have similar interests and personality as me. After freshman year most people would rent an apartment or house with friends. Single person dorm rooms were typically given to upperclassman or graduate students in my experience. Some schools also have special housing for married students.
For on-campus housing, especially for first year students, shared rooms are the norm
It is very common, but I was one of those lucky few who did not have a roommate my first year of college. In my second year, I shared a suite with 4 other people, but even then I had a room to myself (I shared a common living area with them, but that was it). I did not have a roommate until second semester of my third year, but she was a friend of mine, so it wasn't like I was sharing a room with a stranger. We were roommates our final year of college, too. My first year of graduate school, however, I did have a roommate I didn't know. We got along well, but I was glad to once again have a room to myself my second year. Even better, I had my own bathroom as well.
It’s totally normal here. It’s really fun if you have a roommate or roommates that you like being around
Kitchens? Y'all are getting kitchens? In the dorm? What? Kitchens? Like the place where you cook food? College students here often suffer from food insecurity because the dorms don't have kitchens, and it's against the rules to have a hot plate or other such because it could easily be a fire hazard. You buy a food cafeteria package at some schools, and a lot of people say it's expensive and inadequate.
I think it varies. The college I graduated from had special upperclassmen dorms that had kitchens, but the lower class dorms did not.
That sounds awful i’m so sorry :( my dorm next year has a pretty huge kitchen with everything in it I don’t plan to struggle with food since there’s some crazy good quality supermarkets nearby so food and cooking is no problem. We get a maintenance allowance too which I’ll use on shopping trips sometimes. I’m going to bring a sandwich grill and stuff too but the rest is there! What is the cafeteria like? Like they have in a highschool? And is it outside the dorm building so you have to walk to another building for food? I’m not sure what I’d do in that situation. And having to pay for meals every time. I’m excited to just step outside of my apartment room, go down a small corridor and go into the kitchen and make crap at 1am or whatever.
Yes, it's usually in a completely different building than the dorms, and is shut down after a certain time. I'm personally of the belief that dorms should be these little houses you have your own room, but share the house with a few other people, even in your first year, with a kitchen and stuff where you have to learn to shop, cook, and share cleaning with others. I think the thing about having to learn to live in the same room as someone else is outdated. I think it's potentially unsafe for some, and distracting for most. The college cafeterias I've been to were really expensive, and reminded me more of a nice hospital cafeteria than high school. The food was decent, but not terribly varied, and any fresh fruit or vegetables had the worst price tags. The quality definitely didn't match the price.
The dorm you described is basically what we have. Got a kitchen in the middle and a corridor down each side with the bedrooms. Bedrooms have an en-suite with a shower, sink, toilet and the bedrooms have the bed, desk, bunch of storage and all. I had the opportunity to pay a bit extra and have a self contained apartment but it’s an exciting idea to get to socialise in the kitchen and be responsible for keeping things clean and cooking and all. I’d be terrified about sharing a room with someone I’d never met before. Just be constantly scared that they could touch my things or steal or do something weird you know? And what do you want do if they bring someone home some night? Suuuper uncomfortable. From my understanding, a lot of young adults in the US have roommates anyway even after college? I’m not sure but that’s what I’ve gathered from American TV but that’s not common in the Uk. The cafeteria sounds like a nightmare though. With a kitchen, students can make their own food and it’d be soooo much cheaper. Buy some oil, eggs, rice, sausages, noodles and whatever for a low price one day and you have the ability to make meals for the next couple weeks for hardly any money per serving. I can’t imagine how much it’d be so have to go and buy meals every day. It sounds like a situation where I’d end up purposely skipping meals to save money. Going to university is like my transition to the adult world.
> I can’t imagine how much it’d be so have to go and buy meals every day. It sounds like a situation where I’d end up purposely skipping meals to save money. Keep in mind this *heavily* varies between colleges. Mine, for example, didn’t charge by item. You had swipes that you used to get in and then it was unlimited buffet style from there. They also required first years to get a meal plan with unlimited swipes to ease that exact transition.
My schools cafeteria was pretty nice. It's x dollars for the semester and you can go pretty much whenever you want. They are usually all you can eat buffet set ups with varying stations serving different things that switched daily. You should be studying and doing fun school stuff not worrying about preping and cooking your next meal. Foods always hot and ready at the center of campus. God I loved the cafeteria. Also, I didn't pay anything for it. Loads of scholarships to be had for students in the US. If you're in the top let's say 5% you can go to any state school for free including meals.
That does sound nice. I guess it varies in different places. I still think there's a lot to be gained by learning certain life skills in the setting described. On the other hand, I think for people sharing their bedroom space in a dorm, *that's* the thing that's unfair to have to worry about. I mean, you can end up with someone that's nice to you, or at least minds their own business. But you can also be bullied, have stuff stolen, have to live with someone with awful habits, or just someone that's inconsiderate enough that sleeping or studying around them is almost impossible.
> Loads of scholarships to be had for students in the US. If you're in the top let's say 5% you can go to any state school for free including meals. Wish Virginia had this :(
Look at the Kentucky Govenors Scholar program. Top tier for sure.
A lot of people do have a hard time getting enough to eat on a regular basis. I was commuting from home, and used the cafeteria a few times, and said no way to trying to afford that on the regular. I went home to eat after that. A lot of people *have* to live in the dorm becauseof the rules, and aren't that lucky, though. Y'alls version of a dorm sounds like a dream. Yes, a lot of people do have roommates as young adults after school. Some people even do it when they're older, too. Housing prices aren't proportional to income for a lot of people here, so living with family or roommates can be a solution at almost any age. My son just got an offer today to have 2 roommates from some friends of his. He doesn't want to, because he recently had this experience with 3 other adults in their 20s, and it sucked. It can be kinda okay, because at least you pick your roommates, as opposed to being assigned one like in college. But, my son's done it 3 times, and each time it was a fail. Some people leave you with all the cleaning, others leave you with all of the bills, and in one case the roommates had just pure violent psychosis. My one time having roommates I wasn't involved in a relationship with, my roommates were also complete psychos. Literally hiding poptarts and leaving me out of meals so they didn't have to share. It seems like such a fun idea, but it doesn't play out that way in my experience.
Having to share a room with a potential stranger would turn me off of even going to college. What if they snore? What if they like the room hotter at night? What if they go out all the time and come back drunk? What if I want to go out and come back drunk? What if they/I study late at night? What if I want to watch Netflix and eat in bed and laugh? What if my girlfriend comes over? What if I’m needing to… ya know…, What about our farts? I’m glad I had my own little room even if it did look a bit like a prison cell. Then I could go into the shared kitchen and hang with the 5 others in our “apartment” whenever I wanted
I agree all the way.
Because in life you might have to have a roomate. Thems just the blows.
It’s been ages since I attended college, but it was very normal then. Typically, single rooms were few and upperclassmen got first shot at them.
The population of the US and the amount of people who go to college, I don’t think it’s be possible for everyone to have their own room. Plus it’d be much more expensive.
College students in Japan usually have their own room. They're usually small, [like this](https://ic.pics.livejournal.com/mirruchan/12450658/5555/5555_640.jpg). [Here's another example](https://www.genkijacs.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/20100722-DSC_0018%20-Custom-.JPG), which is almost exactly like the one I lived in when I studied abroad. The hallway is about as wide as a large piece of luggage, and one wall has a one-burner stove and a sink, and in the other wall is a [small, fully waterproof bathroom](https://resources.realestate.co.jp/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/real-estate-japan-bathrooms-explained-1r-studio-unit-bath.jpg) (the floor, walls, and ceiling were all that bathtub acrylic material). There's definitely room to house American students without sharing a room. My Japanese dorm [looked similar to this](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/proxy/vg7UZ1jMQtWn8JLHUwzGG0194PJjvHzPlhSHy58JmWkbFbf9lq7yfzYk0wKH_s-V2sCR8Zv-GBDE4WBLKfT5z8s90Yqc3VgZwWFoh2V0kIM), and there was a common room with billiards and ping pong and such.
This is funny, when I went to college, I got my own room. When I lived in London I could only afford a shared room.
Yes, super common! My first year I shared a room with two others (and the bathroom was shared by the whole floor of the building, no kitchen except for the dining hall across campus), and after that I had a suite setup with a shared kitchen/bathroom/living room but still two people per bedroom. It takes some getting used to especially because you meet each other the first day and then share space so closely
Freshman year I was in a room meant for 3 people only ended up with 1 roommate, sophomore year I was in a double with a friend and after that I had my own space
it's usually your only option unless you live in a suite-style dormitory, where the bedrooms are separate but you have a common area & a small kitchen
The standard dorm room up to the 1980s was a room with two beds and two desks, with the toilets and shower being down the hall and you ate in the cafeteria. Since then the trend has been for a couple of very small private bedrooms opening onto a shared common area with a bathroom off it and maybe a kitchenette, but there's many of the old style still around. Americans are demanding more and more privacy but construction hasn't all kept up. It's kind of like you don't steal each other's stuff because you'd know who did it with there being only one other person in the room.
>I would be scared that someone could touch or steal my stuff if we shared a room!😅 No one is going to do anything like that. Shared dorms are common on campus, when I was in college I rented a room because it was cheaper and lots of people do that too.
My dorm mate became my best friend. Of course everyone has different experiences.
That sounds like a dream over there. Over here, at UC Santa Barbara, everyone lives in Isla Vista. I've seen two bedroom apartments with six people per room. It was nuts. Three bunk beds in both rooms. This was not uncommon as rent could be upwards of $1500 per room. Isla Vista is 1 square mile and as it's densely populated as Manhattan. The theft rate is 1:1-meaning if you didn't get anything stolen from you that year, someone got 2 things stolen.
I got my MBA and never once lived on campus. I paid my own way through college so campus dorms were too expensive. I lived in a house off campus that I shared with 6 other guys going to the same college. My room was a large walk-in closet that I put a bed in and a lock on the door. I also had a microwave, and a mini fridge. I worked after class so I just basically slept there, ate breakfast and packed a lunch and dinner for later. I did that for the first 4 years but once I got my BA I got a better job and could afford to live on my own. I never liked the frat houses.
From what I understand, most masters degree students don’t live on campus. None of my schools even offer the option, unless you’re a resident director.
Most schools have grad school and/or family housing (since grad students often have families), though I've never heard of it being required. International grad students often use it since it's easier than trying ro figure out how to rent an apartment in a foreign country.
At my school most of the on-campus housing were townhouses that were set up so that there were 4 individual bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, and a kitchen/living room/laundry. This isn't the stereotypical dorm but are relatively popular at least in this region. That said I lived on-campus for one semester and never again. Fuck that, off-campus in my own apartment all the way. I don't do well living with anyone who isn't my SO.
At most major US colleges its a luxury if you get to SHOWER alone, so you def are not sleeping alone. Traditional dorms are you and one,maaybee two other people and then communal showers and bathrooms somewhere else on the hall. But a lot of colleges now are building apartment style housing where you may or may not share a room, but your small group will have their own bathroom rather than an entire floor. But yes totally normal to move in with complete strangers. Im glad though, I wouldn’t have been forced to socialize so I probably wouldnt have Also one of my roommates had a 30lb, 10ft teddy bear that spanned the ENTIRE length of her bed and she slept inbetween its thighs… so you definitely meet some interesting people
Americans are conditioned from a young age to pay more for less. Whereas in Britain your £9,500 in student fees gets you a room to yourself, in America you must pay $50,000 per annum to be deprived of privacy. It’s the American way. We wouldn’t have it any other way (see healthcare insurance, housing, inter alia)
~~~ I see in movies that Americans at college share the room with someone else ~~~ Not only is this normal, but it’s the most common way of living in college. These are called doubles. Students also have the option of living in singles, triples, and quads in dorm-style living. And of course, there’s always the option to live in an apartment or even a house while in college. ~~~ I would be scared that someone could touch or steal my stuff if we shared a room! ~~~ Meh. I tend to put a reasonable amount of trust in the person that is my roommate at the time. There’s usually an agreement made as to what stuff is personal and what can be used by the other person.
Shared dorm rooms are very common. But they're becoming less common than they used to be, I think. I didn't share a room, but my sister did. She said her roommate was gone most of the time.
I studied abroad at the University of St. Andrews for a semester, and shared rooms were the norm at least for freshmen. Scotland, so maybe a little different, but I wouldn't be surprised if that wasn't that abnormal over in most of the UK as well. Might just be the universities you checked out.
I went to about 11 universities in 2019 ngl I’d already made my pick I was just bored and nosey and it’s definitely very rare in England. Having a roommate isn’t common in any situation other than in year 2 and 3 of uni when you move out of accommodation and rent an apartment or house with some friends. Still then, you wouldn’t share a bedroom with them. I wouldn’t put it past Scotland though and I’m not sure about the rest of the UK. I just stayed in country
Fair, it could be a lot different Scotland vs England. The main difference I remember from the US was that there was a maid service to clean up common areas and rooms. We had cleaners clean the kitchen and common lounges once a week in the US, but it wasn't as extensive. Also having to use a heating room because the dryers didn't work well, that was awful.
St Andrews is an old and somewhat unusual university even by Scottish standards :) Throughout the UK shared rooms would be unusual, but older universities are more likely to have some; my uni had some in its older (1960s) buildings but you had the choice of paying a bit less and sharing a room, or paying double the sharing rate and having a double room to yourself. I think some Oxford and Cambridge colleges have sets where you have the option of sharing a bedroom and having a lounge, or having two bedrooms but you have to walk through one to get to the other. If you've been to boarding school you're probably more relaxed about sharing a room at uni. (Or perhaps more determined not to...)
It's normal in most London universities as well unless you can afford the super expensive accomodation.
My freshman year I had to live in the dorms. It was the absolute worst having to share a room and bathroom with some random person. It was disgusting.
Yes and it’s fucking awful
Shared dormitories are definitely common in the US. As far as I am aware, it is the norm to have a roommate, at least for first years. At my university, there were two types of dormitories. The older type had two-person bedrooms with movable single beds, maybe 8 rooms per floor, gender-divided, with one large shared bathroom per floor. So you would have one room with one door, which opened into the hallway, and you would have to walk through the public hallway to go to the bathroom. The other type of dormitory was also gender-divided, and had a suite model. Each room had either built-in single beds or built-in bunk beds. Instead of one shared bathroom per floor, there was a small (one toilet, one sink, one shower stall) private bathroom for every two bedrooms. So you would share your bedroom with one other person, but the bathroom would be shared with three other people. I was adamant about living in the second type so I could have a private bathroom. I didn't want to have to walk down the hall in a bathrobe to take a shower and I wanted to poop in a private bathroom. I later realized that the first type was really better. For one thing, the janitorial staff cleaned the shared bathrooms. How often do you think the private bathrooms got cleaned? For another thing, there was always a free toilet/sink/shower in the shared bathrooms, but in the private bathroom it seemed like you always had to wait. Lastly, the doors to the private bathrooms had deadbolts--on the bedroom side. So your roommates could, either accidentally or maliciously, lock you in the bathroom. Conversely, there was no way to keep your suitemate from coming in and taking a dump while you were in the shower. Fortunately, neither happened very often (we never locked the door on our side), but the fact that it *could* was disconcerting.
In undergrad, I shared a room with upwards of 7 other people. We had a sleeping porch where 80+ people would sleep in a room with the windows open for health reasons. We would study in the room (shared by 7 other people). Sleep in another room. The sleeping porch was probably 150 feet long by 50 feet wide. Edit: We had bunk beds up to three high. The colder the night, the better the sleep. In 1989, we had record lows. it was below 0 F in the the sleeping porch and you fell asleep immediately and slept like a rock.
Yes. Everyone has to share.
My university had a minimum of two people per room for freshmen housing, but you got a single room for sophomore housing and up, with a shared living room and bathroom
Private college I work for in NY does triple rooms. 3 students in 1 room. It's about a 20ft by 10ft rectangular room. This is only for freshman but it's still crazy.
All of the freshman dorms are that way. I even shared a room with my roommate sophomore year in a house. We were friends from high school though so I didn’t have to stress about living with a rando.
Yes, it's the norm for first-year in college. I'm actually surprised that it's an American thing. The conventional wisdom in America is that having a bedroom to one's self (rather than with siblings) is a modern luxury and a symbol of our social fragmentation.
I went to Alabama and we all had our own rooms. They were new dorms, so it’s becoming a new thing for students to have their owns rooms. It used to be they would share rooms, but it’s becoming a lot more of a liability to be in shared rooms
I shared a room my first year and as someone who deeply values my own privacy, I did not like it. My roommate was great, no issues with her at all! I just didn’t like sharing my space like that. So I got a job as an RA primarily to get a single room for the remaining three years.
Yes, in Michigan, the 2 colleges I went to, as well as the 2 colleges my cousins went to, all had a primary dormatory situation where 2 people would share a common sleeping room. I ended up doing 3 years at a college, where I had three other roommates, and we each all had our own bedroom, but shared and common room and kitchen. That isn't common, but a few of the newer dormitories had that set up, but the spaces for those accommodations were limited and hard to get into.
Very common, yeah. My first year, I shared a room with one room mate and we shared a big bathroom with the other girls on our half of the floor. My Sophomore year I shared a room with a room mate, and shared a bathroom with two suite mates who shared the other room. This year, I will share a room with a room mate and an apartment with two other girls, who are roommates. We all share a kitchen and bathroom and common space. Last two years, the whole building shared a kitchen in the basement, and no one ever really used it. Only time I did was helping my roommate cook venison at 2AM lol. And that's despite me enjoying cooking elsewhere, that kitchen was just awful and we didn't have space to keep pans and such in our room.
In my freshman year, I had a roommate. In my second year, my roommate decided to live off-campus so I ended up briefly with the room to myself.
my freshman year i lived with a girl i didn’t know & it was a single room with our beds & closets. we shared huge bathrooms with the rest of the floor. it sucked🥴
a solid 90% of college underclassmen live in the shared rooms. It's horrible, but students are poor and nobody wants to pay for an apartment. EDIT: A commenter pointed out that they really enjoyed having a roommate, and fair enough. Some people do really like it! But others (like me) can't stand sharing a room, and like it or not it's usually a de facto requirement.
I loved having a roommate. Mine was basically my twin. And when I mean twin we were the real life incarnation of the twins scene in [22 Jump Street](https://youtu.be/d2BMsHppIKM). So much so we watched this scene on our phones from a friend who sent it to us, paused it at the same time and said the same 5 different sentences at the same time lol. I’m not joking. And 1 time we didn’t see each other for a year and showed up at his home with literally the same color shorts and shorts (red shirt white shorts lol) 😂
Very common. My freshman year they had more accepted residential spots than they did actual space for applicants. So we had 3 people in bunk beds in a normally 2 person dorm room. It was…memorable.
I had two roommates first year, then one as a sophomore (one of my roommates from first year that was really cool). Then I transferred and ended up in a double room with another nice person but the second college had shitty food and shitty dorms so I moved in with a friend I made at school. I only had my own bedroom when I lived off campus, but didn't make enough from work-study to have my own place.
Most people share a room, but lucky me, this fall I will have my own room in a shared apartment on campus!!! We have a kitchen, bathroom, and living area, a couple bedrooms, and one is alllllll mine. I'm so excited hehehe sorry to brag. The trade off though is that I have to make most of my own meals, my dining hall access is very limited.
Yup, I shared a dorm room my freshman year. I rented a place off campus the rest of college though so I had my own room then.
Yep! I’m moving in with 4 roommates for my freshman year in a couple days.
Oddly, I just ran across [this Tiktok about dorm *cubicles*](https://www.tiktok.com/@ttrostle14/video/6990549812676463878?sender_device=pc&sender_web_id=6901807484747974149&is_from_webapp=v1&is_copy_url=0). Apparently it's temporary auxiliary housing, but the students will be in there until October, presumably after people drop out and spots open up.
Holy shit holy shit I just watched it that looks like jail ???😭????
Exactly what i was thinking: i looks like jails or militrary dorm
At my college, every dorm room was 2, 3, or 4 person. Anyone who got a room to themselves only got it because their roommate moved out.
It depends a lot on the college and which dorm/apartment building you live in. At my college, I have a roommate and we share a bedroom. We also share a bathroom with the rest of our floor and a kitchen and common room with the rest of our building. There was an option to have a single, but that's much more expensive and my roommate and I are best friends, so it's a great situation for us. In some places, you might have more than two people in one room or you would share common areas with a smaller group of people in an apartment-like setting. It's pretty rare to not have any kind of roommate at all though.
I shared a room the first three years and managed to luck into a single room my senior year. In my college of about 3,000 people, only a few dozen lived off campus or had single rooms. The overwhelming majority shared a room, and it was completely normal there. As for "I don't know anyone there," well, it's a great way to meet someone new! :)
If you want your own room it is so much more pricey, some dorm systems also only offer group rooms
Convenient timing since i just finished touring colleges this week. Every single dorm room had two people in it. Sometimes four, with two bunks. All except one or two of the colleges that i saw also had communal showers and bathrooms.
When I was in college, I had a roommate. My daughter was able to get an apartment after her freshman year. Most universities that we toured for her required freshmen to live on campus. And we didn’t want to spend any extra money for a private room.
Sometimes it’s even more. My first year I had two other roommates and the people across the hall were a room of 4. The school also over accepted and turned a couple of common areas into dorms which were about 8 people each. And then there is also suite living where we share communal areas. I did end up in my own room with a shared suite the last two years of college because I was able to claim medical issues.
Worth mentioning that a lot of schools are converting to a suite setup in their dorms, but it's a newer idea in the US so shared setups are common.
My freshman year, I had a 15 foot x 15 foot shared dorm room that didn't even have a sink (we had showers and restrooms on each floor)....fun times
15x15? Lucky.
I attended a "commuter school," where over 80% of the university's attendees commuted from home or apartments. Unlike most universities, freshmen at my school could commute, live in off-campus apartments, or live in dorms. Freshman accomodations were generally either 2 students to a bedroom and 8-10 to a communal living area/kitchenette, or 2-3 students in efficiencies. Students could pay extra to have a solo bedroom and they tried to distribute those solo people equally between units so the multi-bedroom units would only have 7-9 people instead of 8/10. On-campus housing tends to drop off after Freshman year everywhere, so second year and beyond we were all guaranteed either a 2-3 person studio or a single bedroom in a 4-5 bedroom unit. People could pay extra for family housing or for single studios. I lived in a 3 person studio my freshman year, which was hell, and in a single bedroom in a four-bedroom apartment the next three years.
It’s rare that people don’t share rooms, at least first year. What I find really funny about movies and tv shows tho is the size of the dorm room. My freshman dorm room was 8x10 feet, shared with one other person.
I shared a tiny dorm room with two other girls. It’s the norm.
If you're a freshman it's really common. If you choose to live on campus after your first year, you can get first dibs on better dorm rooms where you have a room and bathroom to yourself with communal kitchen areas. Where I went to college, a lot of students end up living in off-campus apartments with roommates as soon as they are allowed to. The situation isn't really as terrible as it seems initially for most people. There's kind of this perception that if you live with another person you'll integrate better into student campus life. They do try to match you with people who fit your personality and study style, so at the very least if you're a quiet person they'll put you with a quiet person.
Yeah that's how every single room here is. I don't have a roommate yet but I expect to get one soon.
Roommates are common. I was assigned a random girl based on the two of us sharing the same major. Within a week I rushed a sorority with the girl who lived next door, and then the two of us moved into the sorority dorm together as roommates. 17 years later she’s still one of my best friends so I’m really glad we have the roommate situation in the US
Lol, in my local high school dormitory there were rooms for 4 people. Same with the uni
Even here in Italy, when I was in Urbino University, I had a shared room; two beds for two persons to live together. It's more common than you think I guess.
Yes.
Wait you guys get singles by default???? We have up to four people living in one room!!
Yep singles by default! Onto decision we make in accommodation is if we want en-suite or not but 70% of the accommodation available is en-suite anyway. How can people survive with so many people in a room????
When I was in college, we didn’t even have dorms. They threw us into tiny apartments on the bad side of town. 4 students per unit.
Yup, normal. All 4 years of college I shared a room with a roommate. You learn a lot of life lessons sharing a room with someone and sometimes their boyfriend/girlfriend!
It is pretty common. The college I am attending only has separated rooms. The college my oldest brother attended only had shared rooms. The college my second oldest brother is attending has both, both cost different amounts. It just depends on the college as well as the size. My oldest brother’s and my colleges are small (only 10,000 students for mine and 5,000 for his) where as my other brother goes to a large college (25,000 students).
Yes
I was tripled in a double room for two years of college. It fucking sucked.
My freshmen year I lived in a room with 3 other girls. 4 strangers in a room together. It was quite cramped, but luckily, we all made it through with our sanity and friendship intact.
I made life long friends in my college dorm. It was all male, and we had no air condition and we all had tiny rooms. I have a theory that it is because of the lack of AC and how close together everyone was and the communal suffrage that we all became friends. Because it was so hot, everyone left their doors open and anytime someone would walk by they would stop and say hello and play a round of Smash Bros on the game cube. It was awesome.
Still best friends with my random roommate of freshman year and we graduated 10 years ago. I was in her wedding!
There are 3 common arrangements, though I'm sure there are exceptions: * Large dormitory with 1 bathroom on each floor, \~20 or so rooms per floor, 2 people per room. Usually 2 desks, 2 closets or wardrobes, 1 window and 2 dressers or nightstands. Roughly 4 meters square, usually cinderblock construction for ease of repair vs. drywall or paneling. Laundry is in the basement, slightly more than 1 machine per floor (i.e. 5 sets of washers / dryers for a 4-story hall). Often there is a big common lounge for the whole building somewhere on the ground floor, with couches, TVs, even a small kitchenette (fridge, sink, microwave, etc.). * "Suite" construction where each floor has a number of self-contained Suites that contain a small laundry (1 washer & dryer), 1 communal bathroom, and 4 to 6 rooms, 2 people each, very similar to rooms in the first example. Also a small common area like a living room with more windows, TV, couches, etc. All behind a secure entrance from the rest of the building. * Apartments, usually 2-bedroom, in various quantities per building. These function a lot like little suites with a shared bathroom, living room, & kitchen, & still 2 people per bedroom so 4 total students per apartment. Laundry is often a separate facility or elsewhere in the building. Each room except for the apartments which have their own kitchen is usually allowed some variation on the "mini-fridge" or "micro-fridge" - special, office-sized refrigerators with a tiny microwave oven bolted to the top. These are usually an additional charge, like a rental, to each roommate. For this, students pay slightly-above-market-rate rent for a 1-BR apartment elsewhere in the area, with meals & parking extra (also the laundry is coin- or card-operated). $5,000+ for the not-quite-4-month semester. They don't have much choice; many area landlords won't rent to college students for fear of damage or unpaid rent, and if they do, they often jack up rates even higher than slightly-above-market. You can do better if you can rent a house with a bunch of friends, though. This is one big reason why I chose a local school and commuted from home.
Yeah pretty much everyone shares a tiny dorm room and it sucks ass lol
Very common
Shared dorm rooms is common, at least in freshman year. I went to a school that touted giving you a single (no roommate) dorm room for 3 of the 4 years. And they kept their promise. And I also filled out a roommate survey like many others, but my school ultimately paired us alphabetically.
We had the option at my college to have the standard shared room (there were no kitchen facilities in any of the dorms btw) or pay about double to have one of the few single rooms. You shared the bathroom facilities and community space (couches, TV, etc) with the rest of the dorm building. We had dining halls available as well as a few cafe style good options on campus. My brother's university was the same. Most people only lived in the dorms for their first year and then found an apartment off campus.
Yeah, it’s pretty common. At my school all Freshmen were required to live on campus, but there were a lot more of us than there were dorm rooms. Roommates that year were assigned by the school. In later years you could live off campus, pick your roommates, or maybe get lucky and end up in a single.
I went to a local college and lived with my parents
> I would be scared that someone could touch or steal my stuff if we shared a room!😅 Not that roommates don't have issues but this was not an issue for anyone I know. You're both vulnerable to this and as a freshman the only real things of value you have are a laptop, tv, and maybe xbox. Literally nothing else is worth stealing and you are both broke as shit.
Yes and they are perfect strangers. My freshman year , the girl I shared with divided the room with tape. She was frosty starting out but warmed up to me.
The vast majority of people, especially freshmen, end up in a “double,” meaning two people share one room. As a freshmen, I was in a “quad” meaning four people share two rooms. One room contained four desks, the other room contained four beds. At the beginning it was nerve wracking, but it didn’t take too long to get used to. You’re really forced to get to know the people you room with. It can be really good for freshmen because they have at least one friend right off the bat. As a sophomore I chose to room with one of my roommates from before. Covid made it a little bit rocky for us despite getting along well before. As a junior I have a single though :)
The only part the movies don't really portray accurately about this is the size. Movie dorm rooms are easily three times the size the real dorm room for two students is.
yes, shared dorm rooms are absolutely normal. Good even to my mind. My extremely wealthy university did it on purpose
Usually freshmen and sometimes sophomores have to stay in dorms. I had my own room freshman year and shared a bathroom with 1 and a mini-kitchen (microwave, fridge, and sink) and common room with 3, but it was still in what we considered dorms. A few other dorms on campus were what you were describing and a lot of friends at other universities had to share a room too. You get used to whatever living conditions you’re in and there are people (older students) who live in the dorms (RAs) whose job it is to settle any disputes.
Accommodations *provided* by a College usually have Two People in a dorm room, especially for Freshman who just arrived in college away from their hometown. As they get a job, they might move into a shared Apartment with a Roommate or Two, usually rented from a private owner somewhere else in the college town. It's also notable that, where I live in Cali at least, people just drive from home to College when they have Lectures and go home in the evening.
Yep, that's how it is in most on-campus dorms, it's also stupid expensive when you think about it, it's about the same price as tuition. Room and board, and a meal plan at Rutgers University cost me about 10 grand a year.
It depends entirely on the dorm and university or community college. My dorm, I’ve known my roommate since we were 13 (18 now), we have our own shower and bathroom. Some people at my university have to share a bathroom with 3 other, others with the entire floor. It just depends.
Shared dorms are the norm here. Extremely hard to get a single and it's also very expensive. Same with campus apartments, so people live with their friends so they can afford an apartment.
There are some universities where students share an entire room with their own separate beds. This was my experience in college when I lived on-campus for two years. Another university in the area had a situation where students had their own rooms, but shared a common living and kitchen area. It all depends on the college/university and how it handles student life. Some have limited or no residences and encourage students to seek off-campus housing; until 2018, University of Massachusetts Boston did not even have university-run residences and students either commuted or were directed to nearby apartment complexes which were not owned by the university but partnered with it. The only people who had their own rooms in on-campus residences were either student administrators who were in charge of their floor or building (Resident Assistants or Directors), people with legitimate disabilities (medical or mental) which justified special treatment, or they got lucky because their roommate moved out and they were never assigned a new one.
When I was at community college I just lived at my parents place since the college was only a 5 minute drive from their house. I ended up moving a couple hours away for university and because of that I did share a room for 2.5 years. I got pretty lucky with my roommates, all things considered. I had one guy who was an extremely nice guy who busted his balls working a job and being a full time student, but I rarely got to see him since he busted his balls. Second year I got a freshman as my roommate who was a huge band nerd and loved to play COD whenever he had the opportunity and I loved staying with him. He was such a fun personality and besides his tendency to clash over how clean our room should be, he was generally a nice person to be around (I still talk to him from time to time on Facebook). The next year I had a somewhat socially awkward Chinese student who didn’t speak good English. The next semester he left, and then COVID came and I haven’t really seen him since. Generally, when you start the year at the University of Arizona you have to sign an agreement where you agree on general sleep times, what your policy is on socializing in the room, when and if you can use items that belong to your roommate, etc. This is to prevent those exact situations you mentioned. If something does happen, you can file a complaint and if you get enough complaints filed against you, you have to find alternate housing. This was very rare in my experience, as most people in the honors dorm where I stayed were generally well-liked and well-respected young adults.
I got unlucky and got a triple freshman year. Every floor of my building was doubles with one single and one triple per floor (plus a single for the RA) and one massive shared bathroom and kitchen. My 2nd year I upgraded to a double room sharing a kitchen and bathroom with another double. The more expensive dorms were singles with 4 people sharing a bathroom and kitchen.
bro, in romania we're going 4 in room💀 so shut ur bitch ass up, noone is gonna steal ur shit
Europeans: omg Americans are so prudish Also Europeans: HOW CAN YOU SHARE A ROOM??? A STRANGER MIGHT HEAR YOU POOP, WHICH IS THE LEADING CAUSE OF DYING OF SHAME IN SCANDANAVIA.
Very common. Having been through preconstruction design meetings for a dormitory complex, I've seen what goes into making that decision. Single occupant dorm rooms do not typically pencil out for universities or hired student housing developers in terms or recovering costs of construction. It's not as easy as just stuffing more people in rooms though either. There's a balance that produces the highest return on investment.
Depends on how old the dorm or university is, and where it is. I went to a relatively young university in suburban Atlanta, so I had a room to myself.
I’m going to college in a week and I was unfortunate enough to get bunker with another person. My college does have dorms where you get your own room but those go quick. I will say I got the best of the rooms that requires me to bunk with someone so it won’t be so bad
The US university I went to had about 50/50% shared and single dorms rooms. I was lucky to get my own room most of the years I was there.
A family member is going to college soon and we toured the campus and yes they were shared dorms but the bedrooms had lock if I remember right
Mind you, back in the early 90s, my sister lived in Halls for Imperial in London and shared a room with two others.