<p>I'll be living in a five-person suite in Dav this year. I'm rooming with my roommate from this past year and the girls in the other double were roommates last year as well (we haven't met the 5th girl yet), so I'm hoping this means we shouldn't really have any roommate issues. </p>
<p>I lived in IV last year, so I know what it's like sharing a bathroom... hoping this year will be better on that front (we rarely spoke to our suitemates last year). </p>
<p>So I was just wondering if anyone had any advice for living in apartment-style housing. I think we want to split a TV for the common room (I was thinking that we'd split the price but I'd pay a little more since I'll probs end up with it since I anticipate I'll be buying/storing it since I live in MA). And I'm thinking I'll buy a Profiler meal plan (after eating 2x/day in the IV dining hall all of last year, I don't think I'll be eating there too often). But I'm not sure which to start with (I believe I can just keep buying additional Profilers as I run out, correct?). Also, is there any particular way people go about splitting the cost of groceries and whatnot?</p>
<p>Any advice at all is greatly appreciated!</p>
<p>Create food rules. Even if you are all buddies and you think you’ll just split groceries, you won’t. At most you’ll share milk and sometimes allow each other to have a certain thing, but give it a month and you’ll just have your stuff. Also create rules about the messiness of the common room, since a lot of times people think that because it’s common space they aren’t responsible for keeping it clean. And buy a large kitchen trash can before you move in because they are a pain to try and bring back from Target on the bus.</p>
<p>Thanks for the advice! I figured that would happen with the groceries.</p>
<p>I was looking at the floor plans, and it looks like we have 2 bathrooms but only one of them has a tub/shower… is that the norm for 5-person suites? I was wondering if there’s enough room in the tub for people to leave their soap/shampoo (well, it’s a bit more complicated than that with 5 girls haha) in there?</p>
<p>Good call on the kitchen trash can-- hadn’t thought of that!</p>
<p>You’re living in Dav? Both bathrooms should have a tub/shower and toilet, even if the floor plan doesn’t show it.</p>
<p>Yes I am. That’s such a relief-- thanks!</p>
<p>Does anyone have any recommendations for TV size for our common area? My uncle can get me a 42" plasma for half its original price, but my mom’s concerned that that would be too big (I think she’s worried about the picture quality).</p>
<p>I would highly discourage a TV, especially a large one. But if you want to do so, it would make sense for you to buy it and keep it as yours. (It’s not like you can slice the TV in 5 parts at the end of the year. ) Maybe a small TV with built in DVD player would make more sense.</p>
<p>It’s just that I’m an avid DVD-watcher and my roommate and I are kind of sick of watching them on my 19" we had last year. My uncle can get me a $600 flat screen for $300 and a free DVD player. I’m pretty sure I’m just gonna pay the $300 and keep it at the end of the year. I just wanted to make sure that 42" wasn’t way too big or anything. I think I read online that you should be ~5 feet away from a 42" television, which I thought was pretty reasonable. I just can’t remember the common area set up and the 360 Tour thing doesn’t show it well. I’ll take a look at the floor plan to see if that helps.</p>
<p>Dav common rooms usually have plenty of space… 42" is pretty big, but I don’t think it’ll be a problem.</p>
<p>42" should be pretty awesome in anything but a freshman traditional dorm. There will always be enough space to fit it in somewhere and have a good viewing area.</p>
<p>So the northeastern cable system (not sure if it’s neu or if it’s a problem with comcast) tends to have not-so-great quality on the massive tvs. Personally I very much disagree with the above recommendation of paying for it all yourself. Imagine paying 300 for a tv (in a room with 5 roommates) and one day it falls over or shorts out or makes weird noises, and no one cops to being the offender? You are now out 300 dollars. Meanwhile if you split the 300 dollars 6 ways and each pay 50, not only is that way easier on your pocket, but if something happens to it, you are only set back 50 at the very most. All of my friends have done it this way, and at the end of the year the roommate(s) that wants to keep it pays back the others a set amount. Some paid the full amount and some paid a discounted price for the ‘usage’ the others got during that year. It’d be up to you guys to decide.</p>
<p>As for the size, you won’t be miserable with a 42, but it is rather large- and a huge pain to move in and out without major help.</p>