Dorms

charlie135 · April 2009

How are the freshman dorms? Pictures please if you have them.

Also, this is pretty important, how are the bathrooms?

mountains · April 2009

Dorm rooms are not very large but very well kept. They have three dorms devoted to chem-free housing, one quiet dorm and some theme housing.

I have only been in a chem-free dorm and it's very clean. Bathrooms are NOT co-ed and kept very clean.

Colby rotates the dorms each year and there are no freshmen dorms. I believe they try to keep a balance of 25% of each class per dorm. This makes for a really close knit campus where the frosh get to know a lot of the upperclassmen.

Once you commit to Colby, you'll have access to the dorm room plans. Frosh are assigned rooms while the rest are determined through some-sort of lottery. Colby-owned apartments are only available to seniors - but I don't think they have enough to accomodate all seniors.

thinker88 · April 2009

Mountains, when you say that "Frosh are assigned rooms", do you mean that freshman have no pick over their dorm room, or that they are assigned a room in a dorm of their preference (after some sort of ranked list of dorm preference)?

MomofaKnight · April 2009

As I recall the primary choice you can make related to dorm assignment is chemfree vs a standard dorm. I don't think you request a specific dorm

cadence76 · April 2009

And how well do chemfree/not chemfree interrelate? Any stigma to chemfree?

mountains · April 2009

thinker88 - MomofAKnight (I like that) is right, but I'll add that Frosh can also choose a "quiet dorm" - imposed number of hours of quiet time each day. The Frosh rooms are already mapped out even before the upper classes can do the room draw.

cadence76 - Zero, zero stigma. Chem-free kids have friends in non-chem free dorms and vice versa. Colby is such a friendly campus, this is a non-issue. I believe 25% of the kids are in chem-free dorms (3 dorms are chem-free plus one quiet dorm, which my S thinks is a lot like chem-free anyway).

Lots of seniors, juniors and sophs in chem-free dorms, not just frosh.

MomofaKnight · April 2009

My student was in a regular dorm as a freshman and now chemfree as a sophomore (not his choice, luck of the room draw). Chemfree seems fine for he and his roommates as they use their room as a place to sleep primarily. While serious students, the group of them do like their parties but they have respected the rules of the chemfree dorm so there has been no issues

mountains · April 2009

MomofAKnight - Did he get a not-so-great number as a soph for the room draw and ended up in the chem-free? My S is just a frosh, and the chem-free dorm room lottery is already over while the standard dorms draw are up in a week or so.

MomofaKnight · April 2009

Yes, he and his roomie got a lousy number for rising soph room draw and were placed in Colby Gardens, in August he was notified that they got a room on campus but it was in chem free
Says he has a bad room draw number again so he is thinking about living off campus

thinker88 · April 2009

Since two of the chem-free dorms will be at Hillside, I looked Hillside up and found that a lot of people didn't seem to like it. Is this mostly because of the design, or is there something else wrong with Hillside dorms?

Also, even though there may not be a stigma attached to chem-free living, is it a hindrance to social life in other ways, and are certain people more likely to live there? It seems to me like some people just choose to live there because they are nicer/cleaner.

mountains · April 2009

thinker88 - I can't seem to get a handle on why the kids don't care for Hillside - I think it's the design (very different compared to all the other dorms), but between the two chem-free dorms in Hillside, I believe the kids think Taylor is the better one. The most coveted chem-free dorm for next year is West Quad (not in Hillside) next year, and some of the rooms and suites are designated for Frosh, per my S.

Most of the kids in chem-free don't drink but the ones that drink like it a lot because they believe it's cleaner. I don't think the other dorms are filthy, though, since Colby does a great job keeping all dorms very clean.

There's also the quiet living dorm option, which will be in Anthony and Treworgy next year.

My S has a number of friends that live in standard dorms. They meet them in their classes, activities and sports.

I got this from the Colby website:

SPECIAL INTEREST HOUSING The Special Interest Draw is designed to provide a greater choice in the traditional housing options. These choices are described below:
Quiet Halls:Quiet Hall living is an essential and important option for Colby students. The College continues its support for providing Quiet Halls, demand permitting, and for allowing students to indicate their interest for Quiet Hall living prior to the regular draws. Students living in this/these hall(s) agree to the philosophy of 21-hours of quiet per day, with expanded consideration hours on the weekends. Consideration hours are defined as normal noise levels, provided that neighbors are not being disrupted.

Co-Operative Living: The first floor of Mary Low is designated for co-operative living. Students living on this floor agree to purchase food and to prepare meals independent from the traditional dining hall meal plan. Please note that the co-op will be substance-free if Mary Low is designated substance-free for 2009-2010.

Co-Educational Living: Students of the opposite gender may live within the same living area if there are separate, lockable, sleeping areas for each of the students. Rooms in which coed living is NOT permitted include, but is not limited to, one-room doubles and one-room triples. Rooms in which co-ed living is permitted includes singles within suites, Alfond apartments, and 2-room doubles in Heights in which there is a separate entrance for each part of the room and a locking door between the two sections. 2-room doubles without two separate entrances are not eligible for co-educational living.

Substance-Free Halls: The Substance-Free Halls are intended to provide an environment free from alcohol, tobacco, and other substances. Selection for these halls will be based on demand. Residents will sign an agreement prior to room selection agreeing to adhere to this philosophy, or risk being asked to move from the building.

Colby College | Dean of StudentsRoom Draw Information

Dorms

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