As an undergrad, I lived on campus all four years, as did just about all of my classmates. So it was a bit of a culture shock to go to grad school at Michigan, where there is an odd social stigma against living in the dorms past freshman year. As a sophomore, you’re supposed to move off-campus as soon as you can, into a most likely dilapidated, slumlord-owned Ann Arbor house with seven of your best friends that you leased 11 months in advance. (Nine months now, since a new law was passed.) And grad dorms? Forget about it, unless you’re a parent or an international student who has to arrange housing in a hurry. I had a number of theories about who might have an interest in perpetuating this attitude. The university, for one; Michigan has just started building their first new dorm since the 70’s. And, of course, the landlords. Even if no one actually moves back to the dorms, just the idea that they’re a viable option could make student tenants better negotiators. When living on campus no longer marks you as a loser, there’s less pressure to sign the first lease that comes along.
So it’s encouraging that students may be starting to realize that living right near their classes in a large community of students with a nonsleazy nonprofit landlord might not be such a bad deal after all.
Lawrence Kestenbaum | 27-Jun-08 at 11:34 am | Permalink
The same social stigma against the dorms also applied at Michigan State when I was there. Anyone who stayed in the dorms all four years would be regarded as pretty odd. As for grad students, there was/is one graduate dorm, the Owen Graduate Center, but anyone who lived there was either foreign or just irredemiably weird.
I’m not sure what MSU’s situation is today, but I’m guessing that the city’s pressure to shut down off-campus student rentals is making the dorms look more attractive.
Cayden | 27-Jun-08 at 12:22 pm | Permalink
Social stigma or otherwise, I’ve got other reasons to live off-campus. One, I don’t have to put up with the sex-segregated, gender-based housing that drove me crazy as a freshman. Also, I’ve got room for all my amplifiers. And I’ve been saving money on this house over on-campus housing, which the folks back home like.
Sure there are areas that are pretty gross, but in my neighborhood things are quite a bit better, I think.
Matt Hampel | 27-Jun-08 at 1:12 pm | Permalink
I took out a Google Ad on some strategic keywords a couple of months ago to get my problems with the dorms across: http://matth.org/2007/12/21/n-reasons-why-upperclassmen-do-not-return-to-university-housing/
this blog is overrated | 27-Jun-08 at 1:46 pm | Permalink
At MIT, where I went, there was no gender segregation in most dorms and there were absolutely no restrictions like the kind Matt mentions. There wasn’t even a required meal plan. We did have a security guard making patrols sometimes, but he was beloved by all. Maybe some universities want to lower demand for on-campus housing by making unreasonable rules.
Zach | 27-Jun-08 at 1:48 pm | Permalink
Ann Arbor landlords may be sleazy, and I’ve had one of the sleaziest (Zaki “I alter your check and forge your initials to avoid paying income taxes” Alawi), but nothing they could throw at me approaches the degree of institutional incompetence and bureaucratic rot that infests University Housing. Meals that cost like $10 a piece and not having the option to go without a meal contract, janitors that don’t clean because the hall directors will cover for them when they get complaints, not having vacuums in West Quad for eight months even when residents are complaining about dust and filth that is a potential dust hazard, etc.
Bruce Fields | 27-Jun-08 at 3:28 pm | Permalink
Wow, yeah, Matt isn’t describing a dorm I’d like to live in.
Dale | 28-Jun-08 at 12:41 am | Permalink
What a crappy article. It’s about as responsible to write about housing markets and look only at on-campus housing as it is to write about job markets and look only at on-campus jobs.
hector | 28-Jun-08 at 2:44 pm | Permalink
?????? This article addresses on-campus, as well as off-campus housing. It concerns itself with student housing options.
Dale | 29-Jun-08 at 1:37 am | Permalink
“In urban areas, where there is often more off-campus competition for student housing, some colleges are still seeing a spike in upperclass interest in campus housing.”
This is the article’s only real address of any off-campus housing situation and it is a flat, facile statement where there is no analysis provided.
Young Urban Amateur | 29-Jun-08 at 9:34 am | Permalink
I think that the tendency at private schools (or at least, at elite private schools) for students to live in dorms for 4 years is due to several factors–partly tradition, partly snobbery, partly the higher incomes that tend to come with elite private schools, partly the lower class sizes at private schools. Also, elite private schools discourage part-time enrollment (if it’s even possible at most of them). The situation is different at public schools, where student family incomes are lower and class sizes are too big for universities to house anymore–hence there is no stigma attached to living off-campus. Furthermore, public schools are much more likely to welcome part-time students.
I support efforts by universities (and mega-universities like the U of M, just as a random example of course) to house more of their students. However, I will be the first to agree that it is kind of a ripoff.
Scott Wolchok | 03-Jul-08 at 1:52 am | Permalink
+1 for “the dorms are too expensive”. I paid ~$500/mo incl. bills and food to live in a 2-bedroom off-campus…the dorms are $8000-$9000/year for a tiny double.
Also, underage drinking is much more convenient if there isn’t a cop assigned to patrol the hallway right outside your bedroom.
mw | 08-Jul-08 at 6:34 pm | Permalink
“So it’s encouraging that students may be starting to realize that living right near their classes in a large community of students with a nonsleazy nonprofit landlord might not be such a bad deal after all.”
But the big, bureaucratic non-profit U seems to beat the sleazy landlords by a pretty wide margin in the “Who’s the biggest rip-off artist” competition.
Yes, the U is building “North Quad”, but even now while that dorm is still unbuilt and another big dorm is closed for rehab (last year Mosher-Jordan, this year Stockwell) — even then I understand the U is having trouble filling its dorm rooms at the prices it charges.
And wait until the new private dorms come on line and falling local real-estate prices have their effects on private apartment rental rates. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if it reaches the point where all the dorm rooms are singles–not because students request them, but because there just aren’t enough students wanting on-campus housing at the U’s high prices.
mo glue | 14-Jul-08 at 7:33 pm | Permalink
Well, university housing is pretty darn expensive. I stayed in the dorms two years and enjoyed it, but it a massive rip-off. I pay $500/month and I’m as close to campus as the dorms are.
I have more space, have a kitchen, have my own room, have better and healthier food, have more food options, and I pay MUCH less than the dorms. My landlord is actually really good too. Plumbing was clogged at around 10pm on a saturday and they had someone over within an hour. They have always been prompt. Living in private housing, if you’re smart enough to shop around, is definitely PARETO IMPROVING. i think rational choice more than social stigma is the reason why so many umich undergrads live off campus.
Purchasing dilaudid | 15-Aug-08 at 1:40 am | Permalink
Purchasing dilaudid…
Purchasing dilaudid…