<p>Hey all--</p>
<p>I am officially going to Tulane in the fall and cannot wait. Now, housing comes up. I have had two extremely bad roommates this past year (one for drinking excessively and the other for compulsive lying) so naturally I am a bit wary.</p>
<p>As a transfer, I think it is the most important for me to be in a social atmosphere than in a brand new really nice dorm.
I want to be in a dorm with mostly or all sophomores, and somewhere social and in a good location. I don't care if it is older or not, I just want to make friends easily! What would you all suggest?</p>
<p>Thank you!</p>
<p>Anyone else pipe up of course, with the new dorms and other changes, I am not sure what is still the case. But I think Mayer is one you will want to look at. I believe it is virtually all sophomores and centrally located. Although the Tulane campus is compact enough that there aren’t really bad locations. The other one you might want to consider is Weatherhead. It is a sophomore honors dorm, but non-honors students can live there. I am mostly focusing on the ones that have majority, if not nearly all sophomores. Other dorms have a mix of freshmen and sophomores. JL is the only all girls dorm, and is mostly freshmen but does have some sophomores (even besides the RA’s). I think the other freshmen dorms usually have a smattering of sophomores as well. Finally, it looks like the dorm that is opening this year, Greenbaum, is split between freshmen and sophomores. My guess, and it is only a guess, is that the freshmen will be in one wing and the sophomores in the other. But you could call housing and ask if that is true. It would be the least centrally located, but again that means a relatively small difference in distance to most classrooms, although it would be the furthest from the dining hall until the new dining hall is finished in 1-2 years. Even then, you are talking about an extra 3 minutes walk, maybe.</p>
<p>Obviously there are no guarantees for the kind of roommate you will get. This is always an issue at any school.</p>
<p>Just asked my sophomore D which one she would recommend and she said Mayer too. She doesn’t think SOHO/Weatherhead is an option as they had to apply for it and lots of people didn’t get in so she figures it’s full.</p>
<p>Great! Thank you! Does anyone have any ideas for second choice?</p>
<p>I would check out Greenbaum and confirm or correct if the sophs are in a separate wing. After that, you could check out Phelps and Irby. I forgot to mention those the first time, and I think they like to slot transfer students into those. They are kind of old (and I think unattractive on the outside), but they are suite style and I think the rooms are fairly large, at least in Phelps. I assume Irby is similar, but I actually never went into a room in Irby the whole time I was at Tulane, at least that I can recall. Can’t beat the access to the dining hall from those two dorms!</p>
<p>^ Phelps and Irby are exactly the same, minus the fact that HRL is on the first floor of irby while the first floor of Phelps has student loan offices. I’m pretty sure you’re right in that freshman and sophomores will be separated by wing in Zimple. </p>
<p>I also think Mayer is your best option. It’s a social dorm, but it’s not too rowdy. You’ll also only have to share a bathroom with 4 people max. It’s also (in my opinion) in the best location on campus being only seconds away from bruff and super close to the LBC. It’s also in pretty decent shape. </p>
<p>I would put Irby or Phelps as a second choice. Phelps is majority guys while Irby is majority girls (I have no clue why it’s that way). They are both easily the most social dorms on campus, which has its downsides as the noise level can be high well past midnight during the school week. You also have to share a bathroom with 7 other suitemates so privacy is more limited. However, both are close to bruff which is a huge plus. Irby is also in a little better condition than Phelps. </p>