The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: College Dorms

“Yes, I got accepted!” You run around your house kicking and screaming, eventually coming to a halt so you can begin to pick through the thick white packet. A smile is painted on your face while you fill out form after form. You reach a section in the packet where you have to choose a dorm, so using your process of elimination you pick the dorm with the coolest name.

Your extreme happiness persists throughout the summer months while you eagerly anticipate your future college experience. As you depart for the university, you see the tears began to mass in your parents eyes. Before you know it, you are there. You hug your parents and say goodbye.

You walk up to the all brick building straight ahead. Alright, so your dorm looks crumby on the outside, but you are sure it must be extremely elegant on the inside. You walk into the dark, narrow hallways. So what, the halls are a little dirty and there is a thick, biting stench. Who cares? You don’t even like halls and I am sure the animal producing that stench will decompose sooner or later.

There’s your room, you are oozing with excitement (much like how the ceiling above you is oozing with asbestos). You swing the door open.

“Wow.” You exclaim.

Not the good, “Wow!” wow, the wow you say when you see a room that is roughly three times bigger than your old closet, has floors that appear to have been glazed by a thin icing (which consists of toe jam and spilt beverages), and a window that looks right into a brick wall. College dorms, you just got to love ‘em.

Could this situation be avoided? Some freshman students at the University of Illinois think so. They have created a web-site that encourages students all over the nation to rate their college dormitories. By completing a rating of your previous college dorm, you are sharing vital information that students usually would not receive otherwise. As of now, only the University gives information about the dormitories. They ask, isn’t it time for the residents to do the talking?

Created in the Fall of 2006, DormAdvisor.com promises that no incoming freshman will be left in the dark when it comes to choosing their college residence, “Whether it was too loud, too small, too dirty, or too totally awesome, you are able to hear the truth about thousands of different dorms directly from the students who lived in them.”

By: Jason Michaels

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Jason Michaels is a student at the University of Illinois. He has written articles solely for DormAdvisor.com but is now willing to write for other companies. Jason can be reached at jmichae4@uiuc.edu