My name is Jordan and I am a freshman at Westminster College. I am an out-ofstate student from Idaho and I plan on having a career in Mechanical Engineer. I came to Westminster College to play for the soccer team and well as for the skiing in the area. I live in Hogle Hall and throughout my experiences living in the dorms I have observed many different things that I have written about. My observations are about the general dorm life, students study habits, setup of college, and roommate relationships at Westminster College. I will discuss these topics in the same order that I observed them, from the first month, to the second month, and then finally to the fourth month, the end of the semester.

Dorm Life at Westminster College I have experienced once a month and three days of college. I have observed and analyzed the dorm life at Westminster College and will present my observations that pertain to the overall design of the dorms, the significances of the dorms to students social lives, and the difference in the design of upper classmen to lower classman dorms. The Hogle Hall dormitory is three stories and has a main common room in the middle of every floor. There are dorm rooms all down each side of the hall way and the community restrooms are conveniently located in the first doors down the hall from each of the common rooms, boy’s and girl’s restrooms are on opposite sides of the common room. The doorway, for the only stairwell in the building, is also located in the common rooms and rises to all three floors. The only exit of the entire building is on the first floor, from the first floor common room.

The overall design of the dorm is to unite students into a community of friends. The dorm room locations are a crucial part in making the community work. Have the rooms across from and next to other people forces students to have to interact with the other students living in the same hall way. In Hogle Hall, each floor has eleven rooms on each side of the common room. This forces students to come in contact with about 20 students (assuming ever room has two students), living on the one side of the common room, this making the total floor count around 42 students. With that many students on a floor, it would be impossible to stay out of contact with most of them, considering that each student has to use the same restroom, washer and dryer, common room, and set of stairs as everyone else on that floor. The second and third floor both have to use the same set of stairs to reach there floor, so a total of around 84 students use the same stairs everyday. Around 126 students use the same exit everyday in Hogle Hall. Along with the design of the building, the dorm setups, have two students to a room, which allows the students to interact with their roommates and make a friendship. The social life of college originates in the dorms. Along with the design of the dorms forcing students to be in contact with others, most people enjoy being around the others in their hall and make friends during the first couple weeks of school. Everyone finds the people in their hall that have similar likes and interests and those are the people that they become friends with. Televisions, Xboxes, and stereo systems create social gatherings because everyone is attracted to video games, TV shows, professional sports, or music all of which are on the TV or stereo system. You see the people that live in your hall everyday and so sometimes people become friends just because they see each other so frequently.

The difference between the Hogle freshman dorms which I describe above and the upper classman dorms is that the room setup is different, there are six bedrooms inside one upperclassman studio style room, compared to the one single room that two freshman have to share. This studio style room has one main living room, a kitchen, and two bathrooms. This studio style creates a more independent atmosphere from the other students on campus. This occurs because a student can live inside his room and not have to leave for any reason, at least for couple of days. Students that live in the studio style rooms make friends with the other students in that room, but must make an extra effort to meet the other people on the same floor because people don’t leave there rooms very often because the rooms are so independent. I discussed how the design of the dorms unite freshman into a community, how freshman social life is created in the dorms, and the difference in room design between the upperclassman and the freshman and how it affects the students. In conclusion from my observations, I have discovered that the dorm design can significantly affect the social life of a student. I think that it is best that most freshman have to live in the two students per room setup in Hogle or Carlson Hall because students are more likely to make more friends their freshman year and create a community. The Study Habits and Setup of College I have now experienced two months and fifteen days of college. I have observed the study habits of students at Westminster College and I have analyzed the priorities of students. I have also compared the work load and study habits of college compared to high school. I analyzed the setup of college and the transition it helps make for young adults.

Students in Hogle hall seem to not have any or very much homework. I am saying this because when I am busy with homework, which is every evening, most of the other students are out, running around doing activities or just hanging out in their rooms. I think that just because the students aren’t doing homework that that doesn’t mean that they don’t have any homework. I have observed and I am making a prediction that many students don’t make school their number one priority when attending college. I think that this behavior of students not putting school at the top of their priority list is a common pattern of freshmen students. These young students have not realized that they need to do well in college in order to receive a well paying job after college. I think many students go to college first, because they want to have the college experience; they want to get away from mom and dd and do whatever they want, whenever they want. Second, at least for Westminster students, I think students go to college because of the location of the college. Westminster College for example, is located next to the Wasatch mountain range that has 20 great ski resorts, several of them ranking the best in the nation. The best snow falls on these mountains and this snow attracts thousands of people to the schools in Utah. Many Westminster students enrolled at Westminster because of the mountains and their desire to ski. The third and final priority of some students is school. Grades come last to some students so students don’t do their homework or they just do a half ass job on it. The reason that students slack off in college is because they can. Most students don’t have their parents in close contact so they don’t have their nagging parents telling them to get their homework done. Students can do their homework whenever they want to or not do their homework. I think many students have lost the idea that the real reason

that they are in college is to go to school. I calculated that each class that a Westminster students attends costs them around $300. So when I hear of students skipping class on a frequent basis, I see that money that students are paying to go to school go down the drain. I have tried to keep my study pattern fairly constant, most days it goes like this: I sit down at my desk in my dorm room; I get all my books out that I have homework in and then I prioritize my assignments, from when the assignment is due, to how much the assignment affects my grade. For example, a paper has more priority then a regular assignments; that doesn’t mean that the less priority assignment doesn’t get done, it is just completed second because if I am pushing time to get an assignment done the higher priority assignment gets done for sure. So back to my routine, I turn on my computer, then open up itunes and play music on my head phones; then I start on my homework. College work is a great deal different from high school work. In college, like I said before, students don’t have their parents to make them get their homework done. Students have to be self motivated to do their school work. In college, there is a lot more free time, or time that you are out of class; students have to learn to manage their time so they can balance their schedules with fun and school work. High school is much different from college; students go to school for six hours a day and have every class everyday. There is no free time during school except for lunch, and attendance is taking for each class. In high school, it is very easy to skip class, but the school reports to student’s parents that their child hasn’t been in class that period or day. Since high school students have class everyday, assignments can be assigned everyday which means more assignment are given out. Most high school homework takes no time to finish where as a

college homework assignment can take several hours. In high school, I had less than an hour of homework every night compare to college where I have probably have 2 to 4 hours of homework every night. The reason why college is setup so students are independent is because students pay for college so they can make their own decisions and have their own responsibilities. Also, I think that the change from high school, living with your parents, to going to college is a transition stage for young adults to become mature adults who can then live on their own after college and become truly independent. College allows us time to make these decisions of who we want to become as adults.

Roommate Relations I have now experienced about 16 weeks of college and have observed the roommate relationships at Westminster College. I have observed the relationships between roommates and how they work, and I will discuss the problems that often occur and the unspoken compromises that take place between roommates. The relationship between two roommates is different from any other relationship that you experience. Only a roommate knows what their other roommate is really like. When your roommate is not around other people he may act different and do different thinks that are unique to that person. A roommate finds out what things that other people may not know, good and bad. For example, if your roommate snores when he is sleeping, usually you are the only person that would know. You also find out personal things, like

when or if your roommate showers or brushes their teeth on a regular basis. This aspect of the relationship could make it a bad one. The relationship between roommates is different from any other relationship because it is a forced relationship- not to say that it can’t be a good relationship. Another reason that it’s different is because you live with the person. Things that roommates must compromise on are, how clean the room will be and where both roommates can put their stuff. Many of these compromises are unspoken but sometimes they must be enforced and a spoken compromise must be made. Problems can occur when two roommates are put in the same living space, and one of the student’s lifestyles is very messy and unclean and the other student is a clean and tidy person. Conflicts like this occur quite frequently, when one person doesn’t clean up his stuff, or if the roommate doesn’t shower very often. The clean roommate tells his messy roommate to clean up the room and take a shower so the dorm room doesn’t look like a pig sty and smell like body odor. Typically, a messy students will tell his roommate that he will clean up his side of the room, but he is lazy, and he never gets around to doing it. Over my first semester of college, I have seen what the dorm life is like at Westminster College. Also, I have focused on the study habits, college setup, and roommate relationships. Throughout my observations, I have experienced and learned that living in the dorms as a freshman is the best way to live the college experience. Living in the dorms as a freshman makes you find friends, and it will end up paying off when you have a great deal of friends in the following years. Another change that I have observed that all freshman go through, is finding a family. In the dorms, you make friends with the students that live around you or near you; these people can become part

of your family, but mainly the people that you hangout with, your best friends are the students that become your real family. In conclusion to the observations that have collected over the pass semester, I will end with two statements that all freshman should follow to have school success and still have the college experience: meet and become friends with as many people as possible, and don’t skip class unless it’s a powder day.