Thickening the final paper

1. What's going on here?

Everyone in the dorm meets for floor meetings and hall events. All of the students are attending classes at Ball State University and are taking at least twelve credit hours to maintain living within the dorms.

The students are live in a tight knit area that has little private space. Everyone shares a room with another person and the bathrooms are shared by everyone on the floor. It is not hard to interact with people since there are approx. sixty people per floor and the building has eight floors.

I have interviewed people about the study lounges, elevators, and how they think life in the dorms may affect their later years at Ball State. I have been extremely surprised by the answers of some of the students, and I have expected some of the answers that were provided.

2. Where's the culture?

The fact that everyone is living in the same building with the same rules and similar routines helps convey that this is indeed a subculture within Ball State's culture. The language is that of a teenager, meaning that it is still developing towards that of an adult's. They also might use terms that older people may not understand like "creeper". The dorm was built in 1964 and students have been living there ever since then.

3. What's the story?

The culture for the students is just a living within a dorm and coping with everything around them while maintaining decent grades. I conducted this research while living with them. I am a part of this subculture as well and I am living it firsthand. The outsider might not think about all of the studying and hard work that is put into the students schooling since they only see them leaving the building to go to frats, sororities, or parties every night, but after taking a look inside of the building it is clearer to notice how much these students strive for success.