Anybody been in the new dorm: Arbol de la Vida?

<p>What is the new honors college dorm like?</p>

<p>I’m bumping it up, glido - I’m wondering as well.</p>

<p>It’s a beautiful dorm, very close to Park Student Union and the 6th street parking garage.</p>

<p>The rooms are doubles, and fit two students and their stuff well. You can get the mini-fridge and two night tables between the beds by the windows. One side of the room has the closets (really more like a shelving unit where you can hang some clothes), and the other side has the door. No mirrors or sinks are provided in the rooms. The ceiling is VERY high. The desks have padlockable cabinets. The dresser is a squat 3-drawer dresser. Floor is carpeted. Beds are XL Twin.</p>

<p>Each floor of a wing is single-sexed. There are several study rooms and conference rooms in each wing’s floor. Also cubbies with chairs and coffee tables at each end of the hall. There’s at least 3 communal bathrooms (2 shower stalls, 2 toilet stalls, plus sinks) on each floor’s wing.</p>

<p>There’s a largeish communal kitchen on the first floor, with at least 3 microwaves, a range, and an oven. Also game rooms and several TV rooms. Laundry center features front load washing machines and dryers (which are free to use).</p>

<p>Access to the building is only through keycode and ID badge swipe. Students receive their mail and packages in the lobby.</p>

<p>My daughter noted that the dorm is rather far away from her classes (engineering major), and wondered if Sky View would be closer.</p>

<p>She also noted that the lights, being sensitive to room occupancy, will turn off after a while if you lay on the floor (talking on the phone), and not turn back on until you get up, open the door, go out, then re-enter the room.</p>

<p>I hope this helps. The room felt spacious enough for a dorm room.</p>

<p>Thanks - sounds great!</p>

<p>I live there!!!</p>

<p>It’s a little out of the way of main campus, but not too far of a trek. It’s about 2 seconds from Park Student Union, which is convenient. </p>

<p>Since they’re brand new, the dorms are really nice, and they really have anything I could ever want in a dorm:</p>

<p>The rooms are spacious. They’re all doubles and come with beds (which can be raised high individually or bunked), a dresser, a desk, a locking cabinet, a mini fridge, and a closet. </p>

<p>There are 5 wings (A, B, C, D and E) with anywhere from 4 to 6 floors per wing. Some floors are single-gender and some are co-ed. I live on a co-ed floor of 35 people (including me and our RA) and I love it. There’s a real sense of community not only within our floor but within the dorm as a whole.</p>

<p>Most of the residents are freshman, but there are some upperclassmen too. All the RAs are really helpful and enthusiastic.</p>

<p>There are two laundry rooms (FREE LAUNDRY), a rec room (pool tables, a ping-pong table, couches and lots of tables and chairs, two TVs), two media rooms (couches and giant TVs), a kitchen (two stoves, three microwaves, a sink), and two workout rooms (cardio only–there is an elliptical, a stair-stepper, a treadmill, and a stationary bicycle with a few TVs).</p>

<p>The bathrooms are community bathrooms but they’re small enough that it’s not strange and they’re kept pretty clean. My floor has two women’s bathrooms and one men’s bathroom. </p>

<p>Each floor has at least two study rooms. Mine has three. Two are smaller (a table with four chairs around it and two armchairs with laptop tables attached) and one big one (two bigger tables, a few armchairs) which are really nice, spacious, lots of natural light, a overall pleasant to study in.</p>

<p>There are also common areas at the ends of the halls on each floor with couches, chairs, etc. The courtyard between each wing is also nice to hang out in when it’s not too hot–there are lots of tables and lounge chairs to work and hang out at.</p>

<p>You can check out things like board games, movies, cooking supplies, pool and ping pong supplies, and vacuums from the front desk. </p>

<p>The rooms are designed to let in a lot of natural light, and if you’re gone for more than ten minutes or so, the lights and the air conditioning turn off (and then turn on when you come back in). There are solar panels on the roof and lots of recycling bins. Overall a very “green” dorm. </p>

<p>The community directors and the RAs make an effort to have a lot of community activities, which is nice. And even within our floor, we have a lot of impromptu floor activities, whether it’s just going to PSU for dinner or going to a movie or something.</p>

<p>It’s a great community and I like that it’s all Honors students. It’s a very different atmosphere from AzSo right across the street–even though people do like to have fun, and some go out and party, there aren’t huge problems with noise or crazy drunkenness or whatever.</p>

<p>Even though it’s one of the most expensive options I love it. If you have any more questions just ask.</p>

<p>Thank so much for the very detailed answers. Sounds wonderful. D just got her acceptance letter into the Honors College today - very exciting!</p>

<p>I’m going to thank you too for the detailed responses! I’ve been fretting for days over which dorms I’d like to be in! How does Arbol compare to Yuma and Likins?</p>

Hi! Thank you for your response. I’m looking at specific rooms to live in. What are the better ones? Or how do the layout of room numbers go? Is one floor better than another?