I will recommend avoiding Towers (Wallace & Wilson). Being off campus as a freshman sucks.
I lived in Willow my freshman year in 2011. At the time I was Computer Engineering, and it is NOT the place to be for that major. I was an avid partier yes, but besides that..in the winter time when you're working till 2-3 AM on campus and you have to walk back to MWL, it sucks. Willow was also 10 times crappier than it is now, so maybe it improved. I know that there are a ton of learning communities in Union Drive area. I think the Comp E learning community is on the 5th floor of Friley. I lived on a Co-Ed floor in Willow, and it got wild even during the week. I guess it depends on how well he can handle "distractions"...
BWR or die. It might be an all male dorm but then you don't have to deal with all that drama from co ed dorms. Plus it's not like women weren't allowed in the building.
The best room on campus I thought was the 3 person room on 2nd floor Birch right inside the main entrance. It was 2 rooms, someone built a loft that went in the smaller room that lofted all 3 beds and had enough room to put all the desks and dressers underneath it making the larger room pretty much a living room. Needless to say it was usually always occupied by upperclassmen and made for a popular hangout area on the floor. 2296/2298 was the room: -https://apps-housing.sws.iastate.edu/images/floorplans/Dana_2296-2305.gif There were a couple other larger 2 and 3 person rooms in BWR too I recall. Won't lie but the more I go through Ames and campus these days the more jealous I am of all the new stuff students these days have available to them that we didn't. Granted I'll trade that for lower tuition costs too.
I loved walking through Old RCA and the Creek/Knoll area. Best looking dorms on campus.I would strongly recommenced Richardson Court area (aka Old RCA - Birch-Welch-Roberts, Barton-Lyon-Freeman) etc. You get the nice courtyard, trees, quintessential college feel, the hallways encourage interaction, the dens feel like old school college dens. Boys dorms are close to girls dorms (building by building, e.g. Oak-Elm, at least in past) but avoid the co-ed-floor weirdness effects to male group psychology.
Not as far away as Maple-Willow-Larch, not as much of a mole-burrow as Deep-Friley I would advise against the new Martin/Eaton suite where the doors are heavy and close automatically, and everything is far apart and non-conducive to organic socializing. Sure it is a bit more of a walk to engineering buildings but as a freshman your classes are scattered and that walk takes you through the creek/Knoll area and central campus.
Wherever you end up you get out what you put in, but the spatial arrangements can help or hinder...
I mean look at this place! If "aesthetic truth" is lost on him, and if you don't think it will be awakened by the springtime dogwood blooming along College Creek between the Union and the dorms, trees then maybe leave the spot for someone else, but otherwise...
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BWR alum here and was my favorite dorm out of the 3 I stayed in. Linden is a close 2nd for me and my other stay was Towers and my building (Storms) was imploded years ago. BWR my freshman and part of sophomore year. The old RCA buildings have some huge rooms you can't get in some of the other cookie cutter sized dorms but you either luck into one of those rooms as a freshman or request one when you re-enroll the next year. Still though even that standard sized rooms in the old RCA area usually were bigger than most rooms on campus. Being all male dorm didn't bother me, Oak-Elm is right around the corner and all female and most of the floors usually wound up doing a brother/sister floor arrangement for social activities.
The other 2 places I was an RA in, ironically I had one of the better behaved floors at Towers in what usually was a big party complex then my last year was RA in Linden and got stuck with a horribly behaved floor in what was a really tame building otherwise. Not familiar with the newer dorms that went up after I graduated in 2002. I think I saw that all the lofts are now provided in all the dorms now? In BWR some of the lofts basically stayed with the rooms because someone custom built it to maximize space in a lot of those odd shapped rooms. The best room on campus I thought was the 3 person room on 2nd floor Birch right inside the main entrance. It was 2 rooms, someone built a loft that went in the smaller room that lofted all 3 beds and had enough room to put all the desks and dressers underneath it making the larger room pretty much a living room. Needless to say it was usually always occupied by upperclassmen and made for a popular hangout area on the floor. 2296/2298 was the room: -https://apps-housing.sws.iastate.edu/images/floorplans/Dana_2296-2305.gif There were a couple other larger 2 and 3 person rooms in BWR too I recall. Won't lie but the more I go through Ames and campus these days the more jealous I am of all the new stuff students these days have available to them that we didn't. Granted I'll trade that for lower tuition costs too.
I loved walking through Old RCA and the Creek/Knoll area. Best looking dorms on campus.
Hey, Hey, Hey, They were practically new when I lived there . . . .Helser's a ********. Lived there one year and could not get out fast enough.
That building shouldve been knocked down 15 years ago when they kicked us all out of there because they were going to knock it down.
I used to get into discussions with Zevs. He claimed he used Wild Turkey for the wine at his "church" services.My experience from the early 1980's won't be too relevant anymore, but I lived in Friley and thought that was the best location. The porno theater was right across the street on Lincoln Way, and Friley was the shortest stagger home from the bars on Welch.
As an extra bonus, Zevs Cosmos hung around Friley quite a bit. If you're too young to remember him, you missed a fascinating chapter of ISU history and its role in the Nudist Christian movement.
I used to get into discussions with Zevs. He claimed he used Wild Turkey for the wine at his "church" services.
Yes but it was OUR ********Helser's a ********. Lived there one year and could not get out fast enough.
That building shouldve been knocked down 15 years ago when they kicked us all out of there because they were going to knock it down.
I'm not old enough for Zevs we had God Socks.My experience from the early 1980's won't be too relevant anymore, but I lived in Friley and thought that was the best location. The porno theater was right across the street on Lincoln Way, and Friley was the shortest stagger home from the bars on Welch.
As an extra bonus, Zevs Cosmos hung around Friley quite a bit. If you're too young to remember him, you missed a fascinating chapter of ISU history and its role in the Nudist Christian movement.
My experience from the early 1980's won't be too relevant anymore, but I lived in Friley and thought that was the best location. The porno theater was right across the street on Lincoln Way, and Friley was the shortest stagger home from the bars on Welch.
As an extra bonus, Zevs Cosmos hung around Friley quite a bit. If you're too young to remember him, you missed a fascinating chapter of ISU history and its role in the Nudist Christian movement.