Pros/cons of dorm styles?

Hella
Mon, 16 May 2011 01:09:18 +0000

I assume standard means double.

Standards will be the typical “dorm” layout, where each dorm is one squareish/rectangular room with one door and two people.

Pros: It’s easier to meet people since you can just leave your door open and people can walk in and start talking to each other and stuff. I lived in a double in Thompson in Segundo my freshman year, it was fun. Everyone on the floor was pretty close. You have to use the floor bathroom, but custodians take care of cleaning.

Cons: RAs can hear/see/smell everything. I had the cops called to my room 3 times (if you’re going to party/drink in your room or smoke weed either go off campus or be careful/quiet. nothing ever happened to me though). Have to use the floor’s bathroom, not your own.

Quads: I can’t really speak for these since I’ve never met anyone in one. Sounds crowded, though. Probably the same pluses as a double, except with twice the amount of people (which can be a pro or a con… most likely a con.)

Suites are what they have in Cuarto. They consist of 2-3 or so bedrooms connected to a common room. The “open door policy” regarding these is less social compared to the doubles because of the common room; however, people do tend to become very close with their suitemates.

Pros: distance between bedroom door and common room door, so RAs can’t really hear/smell much. I partied/smoked in Cuarto pretty often. Your suite gets its own bathroom, which you have to clean and supply (toilet paper, hand soap, etc.) so I guess that’s a pro and a con. You get a common room.

Cons: I could imagine that it’s harder to meet people since you can’t just walk into open rooms and strike up a conversation, and I met a lot of people this way in Segundo. Other than that, not much. Last year I actually hung out in Cuarto almost every day, usually to smoke in my friends room or at the park.

Oh, and you didn’t implicitly ask this, but I forgot to include the differences between the actual areas (Segundo, Tercero, Cuarto)
In short, Tercero is in the middle of campus, by the cows and the arboretum. Definitely closest to classes, and only has standards and quads (correct me if I’m wrong, I don’t know much about it especially after all these new buildings)

Segundo is on the northwest edge of campus, by Anderson and Russell. By the U-Mall (Trader Joes, Forever 21, The Grad(club/bar), some restaurants, a used bookstore, and some other stuff) and Frat Row, which should speak for itself.

Cuarto is off campus, west of the U-Mall, a 7 minute walk from Segundo. Cuarto also has a park which was quite popular with the stoner crowd last year. Part of Cuarto is on the other end of that part, mainly housing for transfers. I think my friend is going to be living there in the fall.

god damn, I wrote an essay, hahah