One girl, one guy, one room.
While some students may consider coed dorm rooms to be a new and worthwhile experience, some see it ending in disaster.
Seniors have began receiving acceptance letters from colleges, and have to start planning on how they are going to live when they go off to college.
Most colleges allow incoming freshman college students to live in dorm rooms that are provided by the school. These current high school seniors must choose from being in a floor with only their sex or be on a floor with the opposite sex.
“Next year I am definitely considering coed dorm rooms because I think it’s the best way to make a solid group of friends. Not only can you find a group to party with, but you can also find a group of friends you can study with all the time,” said senior Soha Said.
According to Universityy101’s website, Oberlin College began offering coed dorms in 1970, and it was considered revolutionary. However, now it is considered normal at most universities. In fact, coed rooms are available in many schools. The lifestyles in coed and single-sex dormitories have significant pros and cons that students should consider when making decisions regarding their campus living arrangements.
According to the website Seattlepi, there are many aspects that students should consider before committing to a coed or same sex dorm room.
Socialization could be an issue to think about because men and women have different approaches to many things from cleanliness to social attraction. Dorm-mates would have to share eating and study spaces and, in some cases, bathrooms.
“It could probably help you adventure out a little more than it would if you were in a same sex dorm room,” said Said.
Students in coed housing tend to drink more often and in larger amounts than those in single-sex dorms. Although the reasons for this are unclear, studies in the Journal of American College Health have found that 58 percent of students in coed dorms drink at least once a week while only 23 percent of those in single-sex dorms do. In addition, coeds are likely to binge drink on a weekly basis.
“A problem of coed dorm rooms could be excessive drinking because of the pressure from the other dorm-mate. My friends said that peer pressure is a lot worse in college, especially when there are a lot of people together,” said senior Kailee Wiser.
Sexual activity is always a hot topic in college. When Oberlin College was surveyed about sex, a majority of the students reported that they had not had any sexual partners in the past year. On the other hand, close to 63 percent of students in coed housing reported at least one sexual partner. Almost 12 percent of those had three or more partners.
“One potential disadvantage is when a couple decides to live together, and break up in the middle of the school year. Chances are they probably don’t want to room together anymore. It’s not easy to change rooms and find new roommates in the middle of the semester, so that might cause some new issues that colleges will have to deal with,” said former Carlmont student Sabrina Leung, a freshman at Wellesley College.
According to a poll conducted by the Carlmont Highlander of 150 students, female students were more in favor of coed dorm rooms by a two-to-one margin.
“The one male only dorm here at Berkeley is getting remodeled and converted to coed,” said Simeon Giverts, a freshman at UC Berkeley.
