What is Amherst housing like for freshmen? I know you have to have a roommate (with very few exceptions) but does that mean you also share a room? or are there two-room suites shared by two people?
There are some two room doubles (second room accessed via first room with a wall and door in between) and a lot of one room doubles. Location of all is excellent on a quad in the middle of everything. Most Amherst first years love their dorms.
Their dorms are nice, mostly shared rooms and community bathrooms. One odd thing was gay students dorming together, AA students dorming together, athletes dorming together, i didnt see this kind of self segregation at other top schools.
First year students do not choose their roommates so whatever cupcake observed is not relevant to the first year dorms.
Housing for freshman is decent. Mostly one room doubles with a couple two rooms doubles thrown in. The roommate matching system is not very good, though. I (and others) didn’t mesh well with my freshman roommate.
@OHMomof2 Students can “request” to room with specific people their freshman year. Not many pursue this option, though, because most people don’t know each other.
Yes I’m sure one’s mileage does vary with the roommate matching process.
If I remember correctly, there is a questionnaire they fill out in an attempt to create compatible matches. First, the process is as only as good as the info each student enters (garbage in garbage out), and second, if the science of matching people really worked well, dating sites might have a better reputation. Joking aside, they do the best they can. For example, they ask questions about sleeping habits making sure not to match someone who stays up to 2am regularly with a early to bed type. They also allow requesting a “Substance Free” situation (even though at this age any substance use is illegal). I believe they tried to work this out on a floor by floor basis in a single dorm. I don’t remember if they had enough requests for a whole dorm to be substance free. Our D’s freshman roommate worked out OK. I say if it isn’t a disaster, then it was a success.