THERE was a time when the university dorm was the great equalizer. It didn't matter if you were on a scholarship or a trust fund. You still had to put up with communal bathrooms, florescent light, windows that didn't open, cinder-block construction.
Things have changed. To start, don't call them dorms. Now they're residence halls, and the archetypal cramped room has morphed into a suite, bringing with it once-unimaginable amenities. If parents don't understand why it's taking so long to finish that liberal arts degree, invite them over for dinner in your kitchen, complete with full-sized refrigerator, dishwasher and granite counter top. They won't want to leave either.
Need a break from that mind-numbing statistics reading? Take a dip in the junior Olympic-sized pool or hop onto the treadmill in the 24-hour gym, followed by a session in the tanning salon. Not your style? Plop on a Herman Miller chair and watch "Entourage" on the 72-inch plasma TV in the lounge.
That is, if you haven't brought your own. Even when the buildings aren't anything special, students are making them so, hauling in their own comforts and conveniences. "The newest trend is the bigger-screen TV, the plasma -- I've seen some big ones, 40- and 50-inchers," says Dana R. Pysz, who as resident director of Rieber Hall at UCLA will oversee the move-in of 1,068 students this fall. Last year he saw a lot of Nintendo Wii video game systems come through the doors. One former UCLA student, he says, tried (and failed) to move his water bed into a residence hall.
Back-to-school shoppers will spend $5.4 billion this year, a figure that has nearly doubled since 2003, according to the National Retail Federation. On average, about $1,500 of that will come from each freshman gearing up for life in a residence hall that is nicer than most parents ever imagined.
Workers have been putting the finishing touches on a new dorm scheduled to open this week at USC. The Arts and Humanities Residential College is modest by emerging standards, but students will still find a mini-microwave and refrigerator in every room, a private bathroom for every two units and $11,000 Poul Henningsen artichoke lamps hanging in the lounge.
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THE trend toward the four-star dorm is a convergence of several factors: a generation of students who have grown up sharing neither the bedroom nor the bathroom with siblings, parents who are accustomed to high tuition costs and don't object to paying a few hundred more per month for better accommodations, and universities competing for enrollment and using posh new residence halls as marketing tools.
