Like you I had no idea what dorm to choose. Fortunately I had a family connection who was the director of residential housing. He recommended BWR without hesitation. Older dorms, so rooms are bit larger than the newer dorms. The complex is layed out in a clasical design. Buildings are only 3 stories, with courtyards. Quieter with lots of green space. They had a reputation for a strong “house” system, some what similar to the Greek system. I really enjoyed my 4 yrs there. In many ways the group experiences of dorm living were way more important life skills than my course work.
Best Dorm?
- Thread starter Cyfan1965
- Start date
Btw, that area on the SE corner of BWR that doesn’t grow grass. That’s usually about how far from the bars I could make it before the alcohol took full control.
I lived in Birch Dana in 03-04. Would agree old RCA gives you an authentic college experience. Courtyard to east is cool. Don't know if Hixson-Leid eats into that now or not. Very unique floor plans.
I hung out quite a bit in the 3 person room in Birch that was referenced. There is a single right to the left when you walk in that's odd too.
We got stuck with a boring perfect square room right next to RA. He tolerated us. Good guy. We did have a bump out outside our window that was not legal to sit on. But of course we did at night often.
They closed Linden dining hall during my first semester. That was cool until it went. We ate at oak elm then. Kind of sucked because UDCC had just opened the new style. I know MWL is all legit now.
Hotel Cassel. Our next door neighbor, that was the party house at the time. Herbal fumes were fairly common from that direction. Co2 keg taps easy to find.
Thanks for trip down memory lane all.
In all seriousness, I recommend if your son isnt comfortable to find someone to trade with or find an open spot. That might be hard these days, was probably 8k less kids back then. But, it's important to have a foundation or support system that first year. MY opinion.
Have fun.
I hung out quite a bit in the 3 person room in Birch that was referenced. There is a single right to the left when you walk in that's odd too.
We got stuck with a boring perfect square room right next to RA. He tolerated us. Good guy. We did have a bump out outside our window that was not legal to sit on. But of course we did at night often.
They closed Linden dining hall during my first semester. That was cool until it went. We ate at oak elm then. Kind of sucked because UDCC had just opened the new style. I know MWL is all legit now.
Hotel Cassel. Our next door neighbor, that was the party house at the time. Herbal fumes were fairly common from that direction. Co2 keg taps easy to find.
Thanks for trip down memory lane all.
In all seriousness, I recommend if your son isnt comfortable to find someone to trade with or find an open spot. That might be hard these days, was probably 8k less kids back then. But, it's important to have a foundation or support system that first year. MY opinion.
Have fun.
Larch was pretty nice for me, but maybe it was due to the great group of guys I was lucky enough to be on the same floor with (Cunningham!) Also, this was mid 80’s, so lots may have changed since then. Loved being so close to Hilton & Jack! However, engineering majors would probably be better off in UDA.
That was right outside the door of our floor. Some picnic tables there. Lots of drunken cell phone calls to high school significant others out there in the first month. Many break ups witnessed. Admiral Nelson and Sailor Jerry often the sauce of choice. Smirnoff ICE for the ladies.
I don't know when Barton went co-ed, but in my day it was all-female. I have good memories of connections with women from both Anders & Tappan, nothing that turned into a permanent "formal" relationship, but I met and socialized with a lot of good people there.
Interesting, I didn’t know that. I lived there in the early 2000’s but it makes sense to have Tappan be co-ed so any guys that didn’t stay in the the honors program but wanted to stay in the building could just move upstairs. I liked the basement level since it stayed pretty cool down there even without air conditioning even when it got hot out (sorry that fact won’t help the OP since it’s a girl’s floor).
That room was where the RCA president lived before being moved to linden. That’s why it was a 2 roomer. Little trivia for you.
Is the Linden dining hall permanently closed then or did they re-open it again at some point? Was my preferred dining hall back when I lived in BWR and Linden because it was buffet style which meant the food was fresher and you could take as much as you wanted in 1 trip. Oak-Elm dining was OK, you'd go there more for the female scenery than the food though.
I will say though I got probably the worst food poisoning I ever had 1 time at Linden dining hall. It was breakfast for supper on the menu, in hindsight I wondered if maybe the breakfast sausage either was undercooked or tainted or maybe the plate or silverware I used that night were because a few hours later started to get a gassy stomach and spent the entire night vomiting everything I ate that night. It was a good thing I had the corner room at the end of the hall because sometimes I knew I was not going to make it to the bathroom and just opened the door to the fire escape. Absolute worst feeling when you are dehydrated from throwing up so much yet every time I drank water that wanted to come back up too a short time later.
One other funny thing about Linden and Dana house. Freshman year in 1998 we were coming back from dining at Linden and noticed a toilet on the dock. Bunch of idiots we were we took it back with us and debated if we wanted to pull a pank on another house in the building or something. Ultimately decided it would become the new house award call the "sh**head" of the week" that we voted on at floor meetings. It made floor meetings a lot more fun and better attended as people would nominate someone for something they said or did that week and the winner had to keep the toilet in their room for a week. Not sure what happened to that toilet because it was gone my sophomore year but it was a fun little thing while it lasted.
Yeah, I remember being surprised that it was still there. I thought it had been knocked down.
For convenience to most of the campus, I recommend Friley. Greater amenities will mean a further distance, if that's a priority. But my dorm room in Friley was larger than I saw over in MWL or Towers.
Plus, back in my day (sound like an old fogey), the good pick-up BB games were in Beyer. Damn, I used to be able to hoop for 3 straight hours. But I digress ...
Anyway, in Friley, if I had a class in Pearson, I could wake up 5 minutes before class, put on a baseball hat and still be there 2 minutes early.
Plus, back in my day (sound like an old fogey), the good pick-up BB games were in Beyer. Damn, I used to be able to hoop for 3 straight hours. But I digress ...
Anyway, in Friley, if I had a class in Pearson, I could wake up 5 minutes before class, put on a baseball hat and still be there 2 minutes early.
Go Greek.. Learn some responsibility for maintaining a house; Get to know 20 to 50 guys before school day 1; Probably have at least 3 or 4 guys in the house that have had every class he will take his first year or two who will help him study; Gain some real leadership experience if he chooses to be an officer; And, when he's old like me, he still has some place to go back to for reunions, homecoming, etc....my wife has none of that from her dorm years...Oh, and spare me the 'party' comments - Apartments are 10X worse, and dorms are the same as frats...
I know I have bias when I say Friley but I say go there for the best college dorm experience. It forces you to be social, meet people, and it's close to campus. I lived their two years and was in student govt for the dorms and experienced them all, and would still choose no other (helser or old rca a close 2nd). MWL may be big, but you just take an elevator to a secluded floor. Friley you can walk forever on each floor and find like minded people to do whatever with.
All my best friends I still have at age 34 are not the people I followed from high school, or forced into a shared 4 person bathroom with in the suites, but guys I met on 5 different houses within Friley.
I also witnessed the transition between windows/dungeons and the UDCC, and although the UDCC has much better food and options, the old setup fostered a great college environment for incoming freshman.
All my best friends I still have at age 34 are not the people I followed from high school, or forced into a shared 4 person bathroom with in the suites, but guys I met on 5 different houses within Friley.
I also witnessed the transition between windows/dungeons and the UDCC, and although the UDCC has much better food and options, the old setup fostered a great college environment for incoming freshman.
I don't think it was in Linden when I lived in RCA in2011-2013. I'm pretty sure the president lived in the bottom of Roberts.
But I may be thinking of the BWR hall director as well.
Also our hall director was dating his grad assistant I believe. Once they became official the grad assistant went out to the towers.
But I thought it was crazy that he was talking to me about ethics when a guy on my floor did a weird fake suicide thing out the window of the floor. I was president of my floor so that's why I was called into a meeting with him about it.
Was it distasteful? You betcha. Was it kinda funny when we were all drunk as **** freshman? Yep.
If any of you saw abti-suicide bulliten boards in RCA in late 2011-early 2012 you can thank my floor as that was our "punishment".
We also got our CA fired for drinking with us and had the lowest GPA on campus (7 years later only 8 of us graduated). Spoiler alert, if you're the president or the academic chair of a floor and you have the worst GPA on campus, you're ineligible to hold house office the next year. (According to the hall director even though I couldn't find any rule)
Man... Dorm life was pretty awesome.
