General Freshman Dorm Questions

polarbeary
Sun, 12 Apr 2015 00:05:48 +0000

I can’t answer the first one because I dormed in Barton freshman year. And the way we had it my year, none of the girls ended up having the floor baths so every single girl was treated with a semi-private bathroom, shared with 5 others.

The triple is pretty cool. I really enjoyed it and there was a ton more space. Our room setup when we moved in was kinda weird and two desks were in the middle while the other desk was under a loft. It made the room really small so we pushed everything we could towards the side and there was a huge space in the middle. A triple also means getting to know and befriend one other person. Whether or not you want to do that is up to you but it’s nice to have at least 2 others you know very well freshman year, given you actually go and interact with your roomies.

My suite and the one we shared our bathroom with never had a problem with the bathrooms. All 6 of us were friends and friendly with each other so we communicated things like when one person is gonna take a shower and first asks if anyone wants to use the bathroom. I did have a friend who was in a suite in Barton as well and her shared suite weren’t too friendly with them. No communication and apparently one of the girls would always take forever in the shower and always sing and put on music too so it was really annoying for them. So it also really depends on the people next to you. For me though, I don’t think it was a sacrifice to have a shared suite bathroom rather than a double bathroom.

Social scene is really hard to tell. I imagine it changes year after year as well. When I first came to RPI, everyone said Barton was the best because it was unlike the typical dorm where the hallways were small and there’s bad lighting. It pretty much had a lobby too, which was great. They don’t call it Hotel Barton for no reason. But when I went around to the other dorms occasionally to visit friends, the fact that it was a small space also added to the environment. People always kept their doors open and hung out in the corridors. It really depends. And once you’re in it, unless you have a really good reason to hate it, you start to grow to love your dorm and have a sense of dorm pride almost. It’s really neat.

Again, I had Barton so we did have AC and it was great to come in from the summer heat and relax. I often went to my friends’ dorms and the heat there was bordering on unbearable for me. I attributed it to the fact that I was so used to having AC in Barton though because my friends seemed to be getting on just fine.

Number 6 is unanswerable. At least for me. I absolutely loved Barton, but I know my friends loved their dorms as well. Each one also has its own pros and cons so it’s hard to judge. And like I said, I really loved Barton, but I also hated having to cook my ramen or make my food in the other dorms since Barton doesn’t have an oven/stove/general kitchen area.