Single City: The Price of Living Alone

by
Stimson Dorm in 2009.
Photo Credit: WordPress blog of Billie Weiss, ‘11

Starting in the Fall 2018 term, Residential Life has predicted that there will be around 90 new singles on campus. This would effectively convert every double room in Stimson into a single. While Stimson isn’t known as a glamorous place to live on campus, the prospect of getting to live alone in a double room might outweigh the lack of air conditioning and abundance of mice. With 90 more people potentially being able to live alone on campus next year, anyone looking to get a single should know the cost.
Goucher’s single room rate per semester is $4,081 compared to the double room rate of $3,750 per semester. This is a difference of $642 per year and while that may seem like quite a lot of money to spend on top of the Goucher tuition, compared to other small private liberal arts schools, it’s not horrible. In comparison with three other similarly sized private colleges, Barnard, Allegheny, and St. Olaf, Goucher students pay the second lowest amount to live alone. Out of the four schools, it is the cheapest to live alone if you go to Allegheny College, where students only need to pay an extra $345 per year for a single. On the other end of the spectrum, Barnard College charges students an extra $1,528 per year to live in a single room. St. Olaf College sits with another horrendous rate of charging students $1,000 more to live alone. While no one wants to pay any more than they already are for their education, the extra $642 per year might be worth double the space, depending on who you are.

“Will the addition of more students in singles create a more isolated student body?”
Photo Credit: Goucher Virtual Tour

How will an all singles dorm, or single city, affect the overall student body? Will the addition of more students in singles create a more isolated student body as singles have the tendency to isolate those who live in them? Single city raises other questions about who should be prioritized to get these new singles. Should more senior students be prioritized over students who need singles for health reasons? And even with this addition will there be enough single rooms for all the people who need them? Right now Stimson is not very accessible to those with physical disabilities as only a small portion of it is wheelchair friendly. Will the student body see any effort to make Stimson more accessible or will it remain as is to prioritize the creation of new buildings? There are many things to consider while watching the progress of student housing in the next few years. While this is subject to change, Stimson’s single city looks to be a relatively cheap solution for students who need or want to live alone.

Oliver Whong is a freshman from Columbia Maryland. He is planning on majoring in International Relations and minoring in Peace Studies. In his free time, he makes crafts for his friends and works at Alice's.

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