Dorm Info for Incoming Freshman

MomTheChauffer
Mon, 08 Jun 2015 17:47:04 +0000

Yes, each dorm has its own personalities, so to speak. My daughter lived in Martyr’s for two years. Yup TWO. One as a freshman and the second as a sophomore because of “post housing”. So here is what we have learned about the freshman dorms----

Loschert and South. Nice big rooms. No AC. There are triples but they are still nice sized rooms. If you are on the first floor of South and face the railroad tracks, it will be noisy when trains go by. But after a while you won’t hear them anymore. South has the reputation of being called the “Dirty South”. At least it got that name when my daughter was a freshman. And apparently that name stuck with this last freshman class, they were crazier than the previous year’s freshman. But the shenanigans that go on there pretty much go on in all dorms throughout the country. Loud. Singing outside at night. I remember when we toured the campus my daughter really REALLY wanted to be in South. These dorms have elevators. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iz2W1rebzhA

Queens Court----this is really nice. The dorm to be in. Until Loyola, but I’ll get to that in a bit. No AC (I think you can request them) or elevators. The bulk of my daughter’s friends were here so she spent many hours there visiting. Has Auntie Anne’s and SubConnection in the basement (these are good). Forced triples, but it’s ok. Some kids, not all, tend to be on the “nerdy” side, but they were pretty nice. This past year, they seemed to be a pretty good bunch, not many problems like in South. They have really good programs for the residents like “Night Court” I think it was called. Fun times. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTGna17ZrYg I’m partial to the 2014 one since it’s mostly friends of my daughter and she’s in it a couple of times.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAWTAOu5a9U

Loyola-----which seemed to knock Queens Court off the “dorm to be placed in” pedestal. Huge rooms. My daughter visited a friend over there last year and he was in a single that was bigger than her double in Martyr’s. The joke the past year was that these kids living in Loyola are going to get a massive wake-up call when they have to live in a normal sized dorm room when they’re sophomores. The home to the Manresa Program. This dorm is really nice.

Martyr’s–the dorm they don’t show on tours (at least when we toured). The dorm our tour guide told us “you don’t want to be placed there”. Small rooms, no elevators. But you get AC!! Yes there is an upside to living in Martyr’s. Rooms on average are 11x17. There are forced triples, which is cramped. There was a forced triple across from my daughter’s room freshman year so all of us parents just went over to see each other’s rooms. LaLande and Goupil are together but Jogues has a separate entrance and you can’t access that wing from the other two. Jogues used to be the home to Manresa. First two floors are male, top two female. My daughter liked being in Martyr’s because it was convenient to the Fordham Rd gate to take Metro North or bus. Just a short walk to Queens and SubConnection. Plus Rod’s the coffee house. This past year’s batch of freshman were horrible. Noisy. Messy. Complete opposite of the previous year when my daughter was a freshman. Upside: Martyr’s Lawn is the place to be for Spring Weekend. Downside: Sound check that morning of Spring Weekend.

So when it comes time to choose, look at the Manresa program and see if that fits you and hopefully you’ll get placed in Loyola.

BUT keep this in mind also----from what I understand this is another big class. Be prepared to be put in a triple. So I would choose either Loyola or Queens. Loshchert and South have big double rooms and triple rooms but there will be forced triples and they won’t be as crammed as a forced triple in Martyr’s. And Fordham is pretty good at matching room mates. You’ll get the housing assignment with your roomie info and you can email and coordinate things to get.

You will find that your roommate in freshman year might not be your roommate for the next three years. You will makes lots of friends after a while and then when room selection comes in February you will have an idea who your future room mates will be and start dreaming about living in O’Hare.

There will be dorm drama. There always is.

You will probably get your housing assignment sometime in early to mid-august, move in is Sunday August 30th.