Update II:
I should have written this a year ago, but I forgot all about it until I posted in another thread about my old (and apparently notorious!) college dorm getting a major renovation. (See here: http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/1798498-dorms-you-ll-never-see-on-the-campus-tour.html) But since this is a not-uncommon issue this time of year, I want to follow up on post #50 to share that my son had a great freshman year in that liberal arts LLC. It had a wonderful mix of both STEM and liberal arts students, and while he didn’t actually join the LLC (some engineers do), he still regularly attends their functions with his friends who are members.
It really turned out to be the best of both worlds for him, and the friends he made there remain his closest friends at school today. They mostly moved off campus and scattered all around sophomore year, but they still get together regularly to socialize. One of his friends posted a group photo on FB yesterday from a spring get-together and tagged my son in it. (I never would have even known about it otherwise!) I recognized most of the kids from freshman year, and it looked like their circle had widened to include several new friends.
That’s not to say he didn’t experience a fair share of travails that year. His shared bathroom was flooded when the guys in the room directly above plugged up their toilet. (Ewww!) And it was frequently freezing because the AC was blasting much of the school year, but between the money saved from getting closed out of the suites, and the wonderful friends he made, it was a net win for sure.
In retrospect, I couldn’t be happier with how it turned out. 