At the University of Maryland, with 3 freshmen shoe-horned into a room designed for 2, students are hiding dressers in closets and clothes under the bed. "I can't believe I'm living here." "How much privacy do you have?" "I get dressed in the closet." "I was so nervous. I'm like, 'I don't want to be in there." Dartmouth College is hoping some freshmen won't even show up. "We've offered students in this freshman class free room for next year if they defer their enrollment to next year."
Across the nation, schools large and small are contending with an unanticipated overflow of first-year students. They're scrambling to put up temporary housing, construct new dorms and hire more teachers. Colleges and universities have always admitted more students than they can actually accommodate. "For the same reason that a maitre d' at a good restaurant will sometimes keep you waiting in the bar even though you had a reservation. He thought the table was going to empty and it didn't quite exactly on time."
Not all students at overcrowded schools are suffering. At George Washington University, hundreds of students were moved into this posh hotel with a pool, muzak in the elevators and furnished rooms complete with kitchens and marble bathrooms. "I'm not gonna have place like this until I'm 35, if I'm lucky." They're learning a nice little life lesson: In adversity there is opportunity.