As of this moment, I’m ~90% certain that I’m going to UMDCP - Clark Engineering. I recently received an invitation to VIRTUS, the engineering living and learning program, and I was fairly interested. However, I noticed that a requirement of VIRTUS students is that they live in Easton Hall together. So, before I go ahead apply to VIRTUS, and confirm my enrollment at UMD, I’d like to know what Easton is like.
If you could, discuss any of the following:
Cleanliness
Noise
Distance to important areas of campus (classrooms, dining hall, etc.)
Has it been renovated recently?
What other grade levels live in Easton?
Types of rooms (single, double, suite, etc.)
Any other relevant information
Also, are there any dorms available for freshmen that have private bathrooms? I did a sleepover weekend at another schools a few months back, and the kids I stayed with had a private bathroom (it was a quad though to be fair).
Easton is pretty much just like all the other high rise dorms on north campus (excluding oakland).
Cleanliness: This will really depend on who lives on your floor and if your RA enforces things or not. It has community bathrooms, but they are cleaned by housekeeping staff so they are pretty clean most of the time.
Noise: Again this depends on luck and who ends up around you. However quiet hours are from like midnight to 6 or 7am (different on weekends) and so if someone is being noisy you can ask the RA to tell them to shut up.
Easton is on the north western corner of campus. It is located closest to CSPAC (performing arts center) and the stadium. For most class rooms on south campus (liberal arts and geneds mostly) its just as far as it is from any other north campus dorm. For classes on the north eastern side of campus, (Comp sci, engineering, chem, physics etc) It is a bit farther of a walk then from the cambridge community or ellicott community. The north campus dining hall is located in ellicott community, which is in between denton community (where easton is) and cambridge community.
Easton is primarily Freshmen and Sophomores. Though your floor would likely be almost all freshmen.
Pretty much every room is your traditional double room. There are a handful of singles, but freshmen rarely can get those. You’ll share a community bathroom with all the kids of your gender on your floor. Its usually girls on one half of the floor and boys on the other.
A major plus to Easton is that it has air conditioning. Alot of south campus dorms do not (and they are older mostly) and on north campus Chestertown, Cambridge (closed for renovations), Ellicott and Hagerstown do not have AC. Which sucks for the first and last month of school. Easton is fairly nicely renovated, but is pretty much the same as the other buildings, with only slight differences.
Yeah, 251 is an all you can eat dining hall. If you live on north campus you get one meal a week included in your dining plan, if you live on south you get 4 meals a semester included in your dining plan. The food is nothing special, but its better than the regular diner food. Plus you can sit there for like 3 hours and just eat and eat and eat. Great after a workout haha, although it can kind of obsolete the workout lol.