Boys Hostel
Most American universities don’t use the word hostel. They call it a residence hall or just dorm. Single-sex dorms have become less common over the past thirty years. Coed buildings are now the default at most institutions. A few schools still maintain men-only housing. Some students specifically request it.
At the University of Notre Dame, about 80 percent of undergraduates live on campus all four years. The school has 32 residence halls. Roughly half are single-sex. Male students can choose from halls like Zahm, Dillon, Alumni, or Stanford. Each has its own culture.
The arrangement is unusual for American higher education. At most state universities, students move off campus after freshman year.
Room Types
A standard double room in a university residence hall runs about 160 to 200 square feet. Two beds, two desks, two closets. Sometimes the closets are built into the wall. Sometimes they’re freestanding wardrobes.
Older dorms built before 1980 tend to have community bathrooms. One bathroom per floor, shared by 25 to 40 residents. Newer construction usually includes suite-style or pod-style bathrooms shared by four to eight people.
Kevin Morrison works as a residence director at a mid-sized state school in Ohio. He’s been in campus housing for nine years. “The bathroom situation is the first thing parents ask about on tours,” he said when I visited last spring. “They remember their own college experience, showering in flip-flops, waiting in line. The newer buildings aren’t like that. But we still have plenty of the old-style halls.”
He walked me through one of the older dorms. Cinder block walls painted off-white. Linoleum floors. The radiators clanked. “This building is from 1967. We’ve updated the wiring, put in better windows, but the bones are the same. Students complain. Then they come back for reunions twenty years later and ask to see their old room.”
Single rooms exist but they’re scarce. Some schools charge a premium. $1,500 to $2,500 extra per semester is typical. Priority usually goes to upperclassmen or students with documented medical needs.
Costs
Room and board at American universities costs more than tuition at many schools in other countries.
The College Board reported average room and board charges for 2022-23 at $13,620 for public four-year institutions and $16,950 for private nonprofit schools. These numbers combine housing and meal plans.
Housing alone, without food, runs $6,000 to $10,000 per year at most state schools. Private universities charge more. Some urban schools in expensive markets go above $15,000 for a shared room.
Danny Reeves graduated from UCLA in 2019. He lived in Hedrick Hall his freshman year. “My share of the room was like $11,000 for the year,” he told me. “That’s a double. My roommate and I split maybe 180 square feet. Do the math on the price per square foot. It’s insane. An apartment in Westwood would have been cheaper but freshmen had to live on campus.”
He mentioned that most of his friends moved to apartments sophomore year. “The dorms are a freshman thing at UCLA. After that you’re gone.”
Meal plans add another $4,000 to $7,000 per year. Most schools require freshmen living in dorms to purchase a meal plan. The options vary. Unlimited access to dining halls. Or a set number of swipes per week. Or points that work like a debit card at campus food outlets.
The RA System
Residence halls in American universities use undergraduate or graduate students as floor supervisors. They’re called Resident Advisors, Resident Assistants, or sometimes Community Advisors. The abbreviation RA is universal.
An RA typically oversees 20 to 60 residents depending on the building layout. They hold floor meetings. They enforce rules. They respond to noise complaints, roommate conflicts, lockouts, emergencies. In exchange they get free housing and sometimes a small stipend. Maybe $2,000 to $5,000 per year.
Morrison supervises 14 RAs in his building. “The job attracts a certain type,” he said. “Someone who likes helping people but also doesn’t mind being the bad guy sometimes. You have to tell an 18-year-old to turn down his music at 1 a.m. You have to write up your neighbor for having a bottle of vodka. Not everyone can do that.”
The RA role has expanded over the years. Mental health concerns take up more time than they used to. RAs receive training in crisis intervention, suicide prevention, recognizing signs of eating disorders.
“Twenty years ago the job was mostly about enforcing quiet hours and planning pizza parties,” Morrison said. “Now we’re training them on mental health first aid. The students coming in have more anxiety, more depression. The RAs are often the first ones to notice.”
Rules
Alcohol policies follow state law. Students under 21 cannot possess or consume alcohol in university housing. The rule applies even in states where the campus is wet.
Enforcement varies. Some schools have strict policies. RAs check rooms, document violations, refer cases to student conduct. Other schools take a harm-reduction approach. If you’re drinking in your room with the door closed and nobody complains, nobody’s looking.
Morrison’s school falls somewhere in the middle. “We’re not doing random room searches. But if I’m walking down the hall and I smell marijuana, I’m knocking on that door. If there’s a noise complaint and I find 15 people doing shots in a double room, that’s getting documented.”
Marijuana remains prohibited in campus housing even in states where recreational use is legal. Federal funding for universities depends on compliance with federal drug laws. Most schools won’t risk it.
Guest policies have loosened over the decades. Visitation hours used to be restricted. In-room guests of the opposite sex were prohibited or limited. Most schools dropped these rules in the 1970s and 80s. A few religious institutions still maintain them.
Cohabitation policies exist but enforcement is rare. A boyfriend or girlfriend spending occasional nights usually isn’t a problem. Someone essentially moving in and never leaving is supposed to be addressed. In practice, unless the roommate complains, nothing happens.
The Roommate Question
Most freshmen are assigned a roommate through a matching process. Students fill out questionnaires. Sleep habits. Cleanliness preferences. Study schedules. An algorithm or a housing staff member makes the match.
The accuracy of these systems is debatable.
Reeves had a neutral experience. “My roommate was fine. We weren’t friends. We coexisted. He went to bed early, I stayed up late. We worked around it. I know people who became best friends with their freshman roommate. I know people who requested room changes in the first month.”
Roommate conflicts account for a significant portion of RA workload. The issues are predictable. One person is messy, the other is neat. One plays video games until 3 a.m. with the sound on. One has a significant other who’s always there. One doesn’t shower enough.
Morrison has mediated hundreds of these conversations. “Most of it comes down to people who’ve never shared a bedroom before. They grew up with their own room, their own space. Now they’re in 180 square feet with a stranger. It’s an adjustment.”
Room changes are possible but not immediate. Most schools require an attempt at mediation first. Documentation of the conflict. A waiting period. If a room opens up mid-semester, a switch can happen. Some students stick it out until the end of the year and request a different assignment.
By sophomore year, students who remain in campus housing usually choose their own roommates. The random assignment is a freshman experience.
Food
Dining halls attached to residence complexes serve most meals. The all-you-can-eat buffet model is standard. Multiple stations. Salad bar, grill, pizza, pasta, rotating entrees. Cereal and ice cream available all day.
Quality varies by school and by day. Sunday brunch tends to be good. Tuesday dinner tends to be forgettable.
Reeves was ambivalent about UCLA dining. “The food was fine. Not great, not terrible. After a while you get sick of it because it’s the same rotation. I ate a lot of cereal by the end of freshman year. Cereal never gets old.”
Students with dietary restrictions face challenges. Vegetarian options exist everywhere now. Vegan options are increasingly common. Halal and kosher dining is available at some schools, limited at others. Students with allergies have to navigate carefully.
The unlimited swipe model encourages overeating. The “freshman 15″—gaining 15 pounds in the first year—is a cliché but has some basis in reality. Studies suggest the average weight gain is closer to 3 to 5 pounds.
Social Life
The residence hall shapes freshman social experience more than any other factor. The people on your floor become your first friend group by default. You see them every day. You eat together. You study together. You go to parties together.
Floor identity matters at some schools more than others. At Notre Dame, hall affiliation is a central part of student culture. Intramural sports teams form by residence hall. Students wear hall t-shirts. Alumni identify with their former halls decades later.
At large state schools, the dorm is more transactional. A place to sleep and store your stuff. Social life happens elsewhere—Greek houses, clubs, off-campus apartments.
Morrison sees the dorm as an opportunity. “These students are away from home for the first time. They’re figuring out who they are. The residence hall can be a place where that happens in a supported way. Or it can just be a hotel room. A lot depends on the RA, the programming, the building culture.”
Programming means organized activities. Movie nights, study breaks, intramural teams, trips to local attractions. Participation varies. Some events draw 50 residents. Some draw 3.
The pandemic changed dorm life in ways that are still playing out. The class that entered college in 2020 missed traditional freshman year. Students are still catching up on social development. RAs report more isolation, more difficulty getting residents to leave their rooms, more reliance on screens for connection.
Whether this will fade as pandemic cohorts graduate or whether it represents a permanent shift is unclear. Morrison doesn’t know. Neither does anyone else in his field.