TABS Data Dig: Average Dormitory Size Among TABS Members

Richard Phelps, TABS Director of Research, has gathered a variety of data points from TABS member schools which are featured in a regular section on the blog called TABS Data Dig.

All TABS Members are boarding schools; all house students on or next to campus. But, there exists quite a variety to both the size and character of residences, or “dormitories.” Some schools group students among a significant number of small buildings—a few to several students per building. Other schools house all students within one.

Size of dormitory building is not correlated with community feel or ease of access to school counselors, however. Any large building can be split into few to many smaller residential units.

There is a correlation between overall school size and dormitory size, though. Nonetheless, some relatively large schools have a relatively large number of dorms and, thus, small average dorm sizes (e.g., Midland, Ross, Rectory, Lowell Whiteman, Cardigan Mountain, Trinity-Pawling, Brewster). Conversely, some relatively small schools house all their students in one or two buildings (e.g., Queen Margaret’s, Emma Willard, St. George’s, Annie Wright).

Basic statistics on TABS Members’ average dormitory sizes:

mean = 34
median = 29
smallest = 4
largest = 150

School average dormitory size is…

  • below ten at nine TABS Member schools.
  • above a hundred at three Tabs Member schools.

School average dormitory size at…

  • thirteen TABS member military schools = 57
  • 243 TABS member non-military schools = 32

School average dormitory size at…

  • 24 Canadian schools is 43.
  • 219 US non-military schools is 31.

Note: About 90% of the TABS membership included (N = 257)

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