By Arden Berry | Staff Writer
First-year Baylor students are required to live on campus in one of Baylor’s dorm communities, meaning all these students will inevitably have to manage living with limited space. However, not all dorm spaces are created equal.
According to the websites for Teal Hall and Earle Hall, suite-style double rooms are 11 feet by 19.5 feet, which gives them the largest area of any of the most common room types in each dorm at 214 square feet and 6 square inches.
Woodway junior Lauren Myers said she thought Earle Hall was “pretty spacious” when she lived there her freshman year.
“The ceilings are really high in Earle, and I just feel like the rooms are bigger, so there is more space,” Myers said. “I lofted my bed and I thought that was really helpful just to store my desk underneath it. My roommate did the same thing … So that was more of a storage thing, and so that helped it be more spacey.”
Despite the space, Myers still said she felt like she brought too much with her. She knew she was only going to stay in the dorm for one year and said she could have saved money by bypassing some of the decor.
“I think a lot of stuff online makes you think that you need all this fancy stuff,” Myers said. “When you’re looking for stuff, get stuff that you think you would use for multiple years and for multiple different structures.”
The other most common room types in each dorm on campus are significantly smaller. According to the Campus Living and Learning website, Penland Hall, for example, has double rooms with community bathrooms that are 12 feet by 13 feet — slightly longer than Earle, but not as wide — for an area of 156 square feet.
Arlington sophomore Victoria Nguyen said she lived in Penland Residence Hall her freshman year and currently lives in Texana House.
“[Penland] was really small,” Nguyen said. “I feel like even with Texana’s two people per room, Texana’s room is just so much bigger than Penland, and you can see that in the prices as well. It took a while to get used to Penland.”
To survive the small space, she said she and her parents watched videos on how to pack luggage and bought containers.
“That helped with how to roll up your clothes to fit more in the drawers,” Nguyen said. “And also, we could use these Costco-sized containers … Those are pretty nice.”
Nguyen said she would advise incoming freshmen to contact their roommates early on, tour the dorm moving in and not to bring certain large furniture.
“Don’t bring sofas, please,” Nguyen said. “Or drawers or anything. Just check, tour the dorms first. Or we have a website that shows you.”
Friendswood freshman Pearl Senter lives in Memorial Hall, which, according to the CL&L website, has suite-style double rooms with shared baths sized at an average area of 157 square feet and 6 square inches as its most common room type. However, the room sizes vary, and Senter said some rooms on the second floor are below this average and “very shoebox.”
“Me and my roommate really match styles and we’re very — I guess you could say maximalist,” Senter said. “So we have a lot of posters up and a lot of cool lights and stuff hanging and everything. But it is really, really small. But it’s still really cozy.”
Despite the limitations, she said she and her roommate handle the space they do have well.
“It is tough at times trying to figure out having to rearrange every little thing trying to fit in new stuff,” Senter said. “I have to tell my parents not to send me stuff because there’s nowhere to put it.”
The CL&L website includes the current room rates for each hall. The list below shows the area of the most common room type for each dorm with dimensions available online.
Lead Coordinator for Housing Assignments Bethany Faulknor said via email that the information regarding room sizes posted on the CL&L website is the most up-to-date available. However, this information excludes the double room shared bath sizes for Allen and Dawson Halls, as well as specific measurements for the double room shared bath sizes for Memorial and Alexander Halls and double room pod bath sizes for Collins Hall. And so the list does not include Allen or Dawson and considers only the average sizes for Memorial Hall, Alexander Hall and Collins Hall. Additionally, since Kokernot Hall is under renovation, it is not considered either, as measurements and room rates may change.
The most common room type in each dorm, ranked by floor area:
- Earle and Teal Halls (214 square feet and 6 square inches)
- Brooks Flats (180 square feet)
- Heritage, Texana and University Houses (168 square feet)
- North and South Russell Hall (165 square feet)
- Alexander and Memorial Hall (157 square feet and 6 square inches average)
- Penland Hall (156 square feet)
- Collins Hall (about 144 square feet average)
- Martin Hall (143 square feet)
- Brooks Residential College (140 square feet)
- University Parks (100 square feet)
