Current Grinnell student answering questions

NemesisNyx
Sun, 15 Dec 2013 17:41:26 +0000

Dorms are basically divided into North, South, and East campus, and clusters within those sides of campus… each side has its own sort of personality/stereotype, and those stereotypes are kind of self-fulfilling from what I’ve seen. I think athletes tend to live on North, but I don’t really know much about any of the North dorms so I can’t really comment on that. Norris, the northernmost dorm on North, seems to be everyone’s least favorite; a lot of first-years wind up there. South is artsier but also has more parties and drinking/drugs (mainly pot), although I can speak from experience that it’s easy to live on South and not participate in that culture. East is quieter, fewer big parties, and allegedly less dorm community… they’re also the newest and nicest (in my opinion) dorms, with elevators and air conditioning and such. I actually love the East dorms and I’ll probably live in one of them next year; others would never live there. It’s really up to personal preference. There’s one sub-free dorm, meaning no “substances” (alcohol, drugs, etc.) on each side of campus.

I’m personally sub-free, in practice if not in name, but I live in a non-sub-free dorm on South this year. Not really the best fit for me socially, but other people love it here and it’s a nice dorm in a central location. In general, the dorms are pretty great and it isn’t hard to find one that suits you.