Sontag Dorm -- Freshman question

Colleges & Universities Harvey Mudd College
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<p>I’ll answer those questions!</p>

<p>Rooms have closets - Sontag ones are fairly nice, but remember that they aren’t going to be huge. Sontag rooms have these open closets with shelves right next to them to store a few things. The closets + shelves take up roughly one side of a room. Note that this means that two closets/shelves share a wall (since there are two people in a double usually, after all). Also, each bed/desk has two cabinets to store stuff.</p>

<p>You don’t need a desk lamp, but your son might find it convenient if he happens to be working late and his roommate wishes to sleep. There’s a small shelf that you can move around on the desk as well to put a few books on. And yes, there is overhead lighting in the room - which is why you don’t necessarily need a desk lamp, but it sure is handy.</p>

<p>Sontag suites are indeed one bathroom for five students, or one bathroom for four students. I believe they are segmented to an extent, and the five student bathrooms (from what I remember) have two shower in them. Multi-use isn’t that problematic if it necessary, but usually you’ll find yourself using the bathroom at different times so it really doesn’t become that much of an issue.</p>

<p>Beds start out lofted. I know a good proportion of the population chooses to deloft their beds in Sontag, just because it is more convenient than walking down a little ladder setup. Some people even choose to sleep under their desks (since the bed is the size of the desk), which frees up the bed loft for a little additional storage, although it is a slightly odd solution.</p>

<p>I’ll try to see if I have pictures.</p>

<p>[EDIT:] I’ve got a few pictures of my old double while it was being set up last year. Things are a little messy in the closet area, but they should give a fairly decent indication of how big things are:</p>

<p><a href=“http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1822844/IMG_0123.JPG[/url]”>http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1822844/IMG_0123.JPG&lt;/a&gt;
<a href=“http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1822844/IMG_0124.JPG[/url]”>http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1822844/IMG_0124.JPG&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>HammerZZ–thanks a lot!</p>

<p>Pics would be great.</p>

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<p>One other thing I forgot to mention is that delofting the bed does in fact use up quite a bit of floor space. I posted a sample above that my roommate and I managed to do (one half of the room + a little is bed/desk space), but that has a bit of overlap, since we didn’t really use the full desk anyway. </p>

<p>Some rooms might not even accommodate this setup - my friends in a double in another suite in Sontag, for example, couldn’t quite get the setup that we had, so they arranged their beds/desks in a fairly weird S configuration. I can’t really describe it that well, but if both members of the double want to deloft, you may need to do a little bit of finesse work to get it all to work. Then again, if you were looking to keep the bed lofted, floor space really shouldn’t be an issue.</p>

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<p>As HammerZZ said, there is one bathroom for 5 people, which contains 2 showers, 2 sinks, and a toilet. The showers are segmented with a curtain so that both can be used while someone can use the sink area and the toilet area is a stall with a door so it can be used as well. Frosh generally have classes way earlier than upperclassmen so there is unlikely to be much conflict in shower use. When I lived in a Sontag double, my roommate and I kept our beds lofted which allowed for a bit of space in the middle of the room. Apparently some people deloft, but I don’t really see how that works well with the shape of the room, they would clearly lose a ton of space and be a lot more cramped with their roommate.</p>

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<p>Thanks again for all the info… it is very helpful. And the pictures were great! If anyone else has Sontag room photos they want to share please do! Of course, my daughter will see it all soon herself.</p>

<p>About the bathrooms… I hear that the college does some bi-monthly cleaning (if that has been addressed in this thread already and I’ve missed it, forgive me… I’m old…)
– does that include cleaning the bathrooms or just some light vacuuming?</p>

<p>And, do most of you walk to class? Or is biking & skateboarding the norm? I went to a college with a huge campus, so to me HMC seems very walkable…</p>

<p>cheers.</p>

26

<p>Again, I’ll answer those.</p>

<p>Sontag suites are usually cleaned bi-monthly if I remember correctly - however, basic maintenance such as taking trash out is usually performed daily. Individual rooms will we warned - usually accompanied by a green doorknob tag that explains that your room will be cleaned soon, heh. They usually try and clean while students are out, so it really shouldn’t be too much of an issue.</p>

<p>Yes, bathrooms are cleaned too. </p>

<p>Most people on campus do walk to class. However, a good amount of people bike to class (myself included) or skateboard. Naturally, there are a few more exotic options you might see on campus, such as unicycle, freewheeling, etc, but bicycles/skateboards make it very convenient to get back to class, especially if you have a class lined up on Pomona ten minutes after your Mudd class finishes. We even had to install another bike rack in Sontag last year due to so many bikes…</p>

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<p>Thanks, HammerZZ!</p>

<p>Can you recommend a good local bike shop to buy & repair bikes… we figured we’d get her a new or used one locally.</p>

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<p>There are quite a few around. Depends on how much you want to pay really.</p>

<p>The local retail giants like Target can get you some pretty basic Schwinns/generic bikes, but they will usually end up being fairly heavy. I bought my Trek from Jax’s bicycle center down in the Village, although their prices tend to be a little high (350-450 for an entry bicycle last time I checked).</p>

<p>There’s a shop nearby that sells used road bikes (should be down foothill in a little kiosk down west), but you really want to watch out for what he is selling - some of it is good, some of it, well, not really lol. He mainly deals with used road bikes, and you might be able to find something interesting here. </p>

<p>Another option is Coates, which mainly caters to a little bit of a high-end audience, but you might be able to find some decent stuff there. This is a little further down foothill past the kiosk.</p>

<p>Some of my friends purchased two Trek mountain bikes for a fairly decent price (~$300 each if I remember), but I can’t remember what store it was from.</p>

<p>The Pitzer bike shop repairs bikes for free if you are a student, and has a (free?) rental program - but rentals go to Pitzer students first. However, they do repair bikes for cheap - no cost on labor, just on replacement parts. If your student in Sontag, this is like a two minute walk away for repairs.</p>

<p>Aside from those, there are people on campus (and also in dorm auctions) who are looking to sell off bikes, so that’s always an option.</p>

<p>I may have listed off too many options, but your mileage may vary. A good amount of people also do work on their bikes at Mudd, so finding help shouldn’t be that difficult.</p>

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<p>I recommend a cheap one, as there is a fair chance it will be stolen, especially if it looks expensive. My frosh bought a bike, had it stolen, bought another one, less than a week later only a wheel was left.</p>

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<p>I have a quick question about the kitchen in the suites. Would a toaster oven fit on the counter space? My frosh is in the 4 person suite, so maybe the kitchen space is a little smaller than most, but I have no idea what the layout is like.</p>

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<p>Yes, a toaster oven does fit.</p>

<p>I lived in a four-man suite last year, and we had a toaster oven, a George Foreman Grill (oddly convenient for one of our suitemates), and a rice cooker on our countertop. Our toaster oven could barely be called one, but I would assume that a real toaster oven would fit.</p>

<p>This all fit on one side of the kitchen, so we had some cutting space around the oven.</p>

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<p>As a parent who just visited HM (mine is applying this fall for next year, crossing my fingers…)
There are a slew of home goods stores a modest car trip from HM so I would go skimpy on things like lamps - it will be easy to pick them up as needed.
Also, Bed Bath and Beyond (I just found out while buying random stuff) will let you buy stuff at one store for delivery at another, so that might make life easier.
Get a butt-ugly bike! Mine , in college, was dark green with a hideous red seat and generally battered up. Nobody ever stole that monster. It was really heavy too.
So, how do you lock up a unicycle anyway?</p>

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<p>There is also a good will a mile or 2 west down foothill. Thats also a great place to get stuff like that. In addition, there will be dorm auctions before a month in, where you can buy old crap that us graduated seniors left behind.</p>

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<p>You lock up a unicycle as you would a bike - with either a U-lock or a chain lock.</p>

<p>Granted, that really isn’t an excellent idea, so the people who unicycle to class usually bring them indoors and park them in the same manner as skateboards.</p>

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<p>I have a silly question… since I am very old… does HMC use blue books for tests? Does anyone? Cheers!</p>

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<p>I know Pomona does, at least in some departments. I haven’t seen any Mudd classes that use blue books.</p>

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<p>Some of my classes at Pitzer, CMC, and Pomona used blue books. Primarily for extended in-class writing tests, which Mudd has few of, given that take-home tests are far more common. They also don’t lend themselves particularly well toward math/science tests where the questions are generally laid out differently.</p>

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<p>Do the rooms in Sontag also have a bureau (dresser drawers) in addition to the closet and desk?</p>

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<p>Yes, every room has a bureau.</p>