Tag Archives: dorm ghosts

New North Ghost

Interviewer: “So tell me more about this story, how did it start and become this huge legend?”

MA: Basically, I live in New North, and there’s always floods, or leaks, or water damage happening in the building. There’s this story where this girl died in the communal showers a long long time ago, and her ghost haunts peoples rooms. If your room gets a leak or water damage, she’s picked you to be her next victim.

Interviewer: Interesting, do a lot of people in your dorm believe this or is it more of a joke amongst residents”

MA: “Yea, honestly it’s a big deal and people get kind of freaked out going to the bathroom or showering late at night. My friends place had a leak and people have been teasing her about slipping and dying in the shower so she’s been extra careful”

Context: The informant first heard this story from her RA, and was told the entire dorm flooded the year before. She, and other residents her age tell this story for entertainment value, however some residents, including the one interviewed, believe the story enough to be wary and cautious when in the communal bathrooms.

Analysis: This is a classic ghost tale, however this could be employed from the RA’s to redirect attention from the water problems and convert it into folklore, as its transmission amongst residents is rapid and it seems to have grabbed their attention. This cautionary tale functions beyond a warning, it creates communitas between residents allowing them to bond over their shared belief, and the story evolves and changes the more exposure it gets, feeding more into the folklore.

The University Of Vermont Hallway Ghost

Age: 19

The story takes place at the University of Vermont, in an old dorm, on an October night at exactly 3 a.m. LL got up to use the communal bathroom. When she stepped into the hallway, she immediately noticed a mysterious girl standing just past the bathroom. The girl had long blond hair hanging in front of her face, was facing away from LL, and was wrapped in a towel as if she had just stepped out of the shower. LL thought it was an odd time for anyone to be showering, and the sight gave her an immediate gut feeling that something was off. It was “creepy,” she said.

After finishing in the bathroom, LL stepped back into the hallway, and the same girl was still there, standing in the exact same spot, still facing away from her. The girl hadn’t moved at all. Feeling increasingly unsettled, LL began walking quickly back toward her room. Suddenly, she heard footsteps behind her, growing faster as if the girl were following her. LL sped up, practically running, until she reached her door. She said she was relieved her roommate was inside so she didn’t have to return to an empty room.

LL emphasized that she had “never seen her before” that night and never saw her anywhere on campus afterward. When asked what the figure might have been if not a ghost, she said, “Maybe she was hooking up and then she went to take a shower… or really drunk and trying to scare me.” She also mentioned that she never saw the girl’s face…only the long blond hair and the towel.

When asked about the dorm’s history, LL explained that she lived in the worst dorm on campus and that the university itself was pretty old, so she’s “sure somebody has died in it before.” The combination of the hour, the setting, and the strange stillness of the girl left LL genuinely shaken by the experience.

I agree with LL. On a college campus…where people are experimenting with drugs and alcohol, keeping unusual hours, and living with strangers for the first time…it’s plausible that this was just a bizarre coincidence. The girl may have been standing there in a daze, unaware that her presence could be interpreted as unsettling.

There’s also the liminality of college dorms to consider. They’re your home, but not quite. They’re spaces layered with the histories of countless past students, full of stories you’ll never know. New experiences happen constantly, often before you have the framework to understand them. In an environment like that, the mind is primed to fill in the unexplained with occult or supernatural interpretations, especially when something feels off.

The timing only heightens this effect. It was October, when people are already steeped in horror imagery and Halloween atmosphere. It was 3 a.m., a disorienting hour when you’re groggy, alone, and hyper-aware of everything. In that context, encountering a silent, unfamiliar girl in a towel becomes more frightening than it might be in daylight. LL’s reaction makes sense: the setting, the hour, and the ambiguity of the moment all worked together to make an ordinary situation feel paranormal.

Loyola Chicago Honors Dorm Ghost

Nationality: American
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Performance Date: 04/20/2019
Primary Language: English

Background: This informant is a student at the Loyola University of Chicago. The informant describes a popular on-campus legend. This is a transcription of our conversation (the informant is labeled as “T” and I am labeled as “Me”):

Piece:

T: So this one girl who lives in the honors dorm, she would hear knocking at night and she thought there was something wrong with the pipes so when maintenance showed up the knocking stopped. When they would leave it would happen again. One night she went to bed at like 10 am because she had an 8 am the next day and she woke up the next morning and there was a picture of herself on her phone of her standing in front of the mirror and the picture was from 3 in the morning and in her eyes it looks like she’s possessed like there’s a demon in her.

Me: Did you see the picture?

T: Ya like everyone’s seen it it’s so scary.

Me: Does this happen a lot in this dorm?

T: It’s an old dorm so it’s known to be haunted.

Context: This conversation occurred between the informant and I one evening while he was visiting me from out of town. We were discussing scary stories on our campuses and he told me of a few of the most popular ones from his school.

Thoughts: I feel like every school has that one haunted dorm or building that everyone knows about.  This story is interesting as there is photographic evidence of something weird going on, however that photo may not be the most trustworthy piece of evidence (I have never seen it before). Still, it’s interesting how this ghost in this old, historic building used technology to haunt a student.