Help with choosing top dorms for contract

bellavisto
Fri, 27 May 2016 19:22:01 +0000

Sorry for the length of this!

Before I start, quick question: The NU official page says housing is not first-come first-serve as long as it’s submitted before June 1st. However, I heard a few people saying that priority numbers are given by how early you submitted your housing contract. Which is true?

I plan on majoring in physics with a possible double major in engineering or another science. However, I’m not sure exactly what will happen so I could end up in something like economics. I also want to minor in music.

I haven’t been very social in High School, partly because of a transition from a small school to a big school, so I want to make an effort to be much more social in college and meet new people. That being said, I’m not a partier and won’t be joining fraternities (except the music one maybe).

I know most of my major-related classes will be in the north campus so naturally I figured I should make my top picks there. I hear Elder is great because it’s freshman-only, social, but not as party-hard as Bob, so I’ll probably add it to my list.

Also I’ll probably add Slivka somewhere on my list but I’m worried it’ll be too…nerdy? With 90% stem majors and weekly board games, murder-mysteries, etc, I’m worried I might not fit in as well. I’m sort of a nerd and pretty socially awkward but I want to be able to branch out (also I’m not into stereotypically nerdy things).

Would it be a bad idea to add something like Ayer if I don’t plan on majoring in econ/business? Location-wise it’s great and I hear it’s a nice place to live.

I’ve heard living on the south campus isn’t bad even if most of your classes are in the north campus, since it’s still a pretty short distance by bike. So I might apply for the “hotel Allison” or take a risk and go with a new building like the 1838 all-freshman community or the recently renovated Shepard Hall (not the SMQ Shepard college).

So a few questions, does my reasoning make sense? Am I putting too much thought into being close to my classes? All of my choices seem to be fairly popular so would it make sense to add a lesser known dorm as a backup so I don’t get a random dorm if my top 5 are all full? Also any other dorms you think would suit me?

TLDR I have no idea what I’m doing.

Edit: Also, are most dorms co-ed or separated? I’m a guy and would prefer Co-ed but I hear some dorms have genders in separate wings which isn’t a deal breaker. I just wouldn’t want genders on different floors.