First of all, I would like to clear up one confusion.
THE NAME OF THE DORM IS CARMAN. WITH AN 'A'. NOT CARMEN. CARMAN.
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Now then:
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Thanks for that, Denzera. Now I'm leaning towards Carman. Would you say that Carman is a good choice for someone who 1) wants a roommate, 2) wants to make friends, and 3) wants to get studying done?
I don't mean studying 24/7, but I mean, will I be able to concentrate on my work in my room when I want to in Carman? Because I definitely hear that Carman's big on parties.
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I definitely got plenty of studying done. Carman is 'social', but in columbia terms that means thursday, friday and saturday nights are wild. Everyone studies plenty on sunday - you're kinda looked on as a bit of a waste of space if nobody EVER sees you working hard. Unless my roommate had people over, I could close the door, fire up MS Word, and hack out an essay or crack a book and knock out a problem set, and it would be just fine. And best of all, there were always at least 5 people on my floor who were in any given one of my classes, so we'd always have people we could talk to about the problem set (or who i could roll dice with to see who'd drop off the sets in the morning and let everyone else sleep).
The difference-maker between someone who gets As freshman year and someone who gets Bs is twofold:
1) Finding a place where you KNOW you can be productive. After freshman year, for some reason I found that I could absolutely not get work done in my room. I could do it in my suite's common area, on the kitchen table, but not in my room. To actually read a book for more than an hour at a time, I had to go to the library. You'll learn this about yourself. The sooner, the better.
2) Organization. Forget interruptions from hallmates. The biggest difference freshman year for me was, the first week, picking up one of those weekly planner books from the Columbia bookstore. It was columbia-themed, had a pithy quote at the top of each week, and I wrote down all of my obligations. Some days this went something like:
11am: physics pset due
1-2: karate class
2-4: class
5pm: turn in/finish essay
6-8: dinner event w/Scholars
8-11pm: a cappella rehearsal
midnight: frisbee golf, meet @ butler steps
Some days only had 2 things on it, reminders like "go shop for food" or "do your freaking laundry". But the fact that I got myself into a routine of religiously putting down all obligations and life notes meant that, every morning, I could wake up and see the 'plan for the day' laid out for me. I can't emphasize this enough - that planner, entirely by itself, eliminated a lot of the stress of college for me. Sure, I had to do the work, but the UNCERTAINTY was gone. The chaos wasn't there, because i had everything I needed to worry about right in my planner.
That's the best piece of advice i can give. Other than that, enjoy carman.