Dorm or Non-Dorm
That is the question
Introduction
• Many different living choices for Dartmouth
students
• Most prevalent choice is college owned and
maintained dormitories
• Non-dorm housing available
– (Examples are Off-campus, Greek and other
societies, and affinity housing)
– However, less plentiful and often more expensive
• Dormitory housing is easily obtained and often
cheaper
We wondered
• Do students live in dorms…
– Because they are not always able to obtain
other housing?
– Or because they are satisfied with the living
conditions in dorm housing?
Our Feelings
• We think most students are dissatisfied
with dorm living conditions
• If so, the college should make dormitories
more pleasing to students
• The college should try to make dorms as
desirable as alternatives
Our Survey
• Survey was easy to understand and quick to fill
out
– We hoped this would maximize our responses
• Conducted via blitz
• We each sent to at least 15 people who had
already lived in non dorm housing while taking
classes
– Classes important because this strongly affects a
student’s experience, and therefore their opinion of
that type of housing
Survey cont.d
• We did not know each other before this
project
– we felt the lists we each chose would be
different
– This would provide for a more diverse
sampling
The Questions
• We asked everyone the same questions
– What is your year?
– Can you confirm that you have lived in non
dorm housing at least 1 term while taking
classes at Dartmouth?
– Which housing do you prefer: Dorms or Nondorm (Greek, affiliated, off campus etc.)?
Respondents from Each Class
Year Distribution
25
Number of Respondents
20
15
Series1
10
5
0
06
05
04
Year
03
02
Results
• Every class with the option to live in non
dorm housing was included
• 36 of our respondents preferred non-dorm
housing, 80 %
• 9 people (20%) preferred dorm housing
Preferences
Preferences
40
35
Number of Respondents
30
25
20
Series1
15
10
5
0
Dorm
Non Dorm
Housing Preference
Confounding Factors
• Most of the people surveyed were ’05s
– Test results might be more representative of
this class’s opinions than of the student body
as a whole
– In future tests we should try to include an
equal number of participants from each class
• It wasn’t a blind distribution since we
surveyed only people we knew
Confounding (cont.d)
• We also sent the survey to more than 15
people in order to get 15 responses
• Large difference in quality of living
depending on which dorm or non-dorm
location you choose.
– Off-campus houses and apartments can differ
dramatically from fraternities
Confounding (cont.d)
– The Choates is not the
same quality as East
Wheelock
Confounding (cont.d)
• We did not offer the choice of “no
preference”
• Our sample was limited as we had to find
people who had sampled both types of
housing
– This did not consider how many terms of each
housing they had tried, which housing etc
Proposal for Action
• We hypothesized that 70% would prefer
non-dorm housing
– We were surprised to see that 80% felt this
way
• This supports the claim that dorm housing
at Dartmouth is not satisfactory
• Therefore, the college should move to
improve dorm conditions or offer more non
dorm options
Follow Up
• A follow up to this survey should involve
the entire campus (excluding freshmen)
• If similar results occur, further steps should
be taken, such as a questionnaire asking
how dorms could be improved to make
them a more desirable housing option