<p>What do yall think is the best guy dorm(most spacious, newest, and generally nicest)? Are there any with a gym/weight room? And how exactly am I supposed to register for housing?- I am going to be a freshman- I sent in my deposit but I have no clue on how to get set up with a dorm and all</p>
<p>Thanks for the help</p>
<p>OK, as far as “best” guys dorm, pretty much every guy will tell you that it’s THEIR dorm. The newest one is Duncan. Several of them have gyms in the basement, but I’m not sure if all of them do.</p>
<p>But, it’s not really worth it to worry about this because as a freshman you get absolutely NO say in which dorm you end up in. The good news is that the vast majority of students love their dorms and end up staying there all 4 years. I lived in Walsh, one of the oldest dorms on campus and loved it despite its tiny rooms and lack of air conditioning. </p>
<p>To register for housing (assuming it hasn’t changed in the past few years), they will basically send you something that is like “do you want housing on campus?” that you essentially have to answer yes to because you’re a freshman. Then they will randomly assign you to a dorm and roommate(s).</p>
<p>The best guys dorm is Sorin College, hands down. </p>
<p>[Sorin</a> College](<a href=“http://www.nd.edu/~otters/]Sorin”>http://www.nd.edu/~otters/)</p>
<p>The only drawback is that it’s next to Walsh. However, when university presidents retire, they choose to live in Sorin. That should tell you something.</p>
<p>What PCB means to say is the only drawback to Sorin is that it’s the only men’s dorm that likes to pick on girls, which certainly isn’t very manly of them…</p>
<p>Shellzie is right–all students will all tell you that their dorm is best. My son lived in siegfried for the past two years. It has a small weight room–incase you end up there. Each dorm incidentally has it’s own-sort of-personality. My sons dorm is known for being the “jocks” dorm as they tend to do well in intramurals. My son fit right in and loved it. He’s made a great group of friends and are moving off campus next year into a house.</p>
<p>All dorms have their own uniqueness. Don’t worry so much about the dorm and pray for a great roommate!! My son has lived in Carroll, and although it is the “FarQuad”, he has some great friends and roommates! I think Sorin is a great dorm, EXCEPT for the fact that Sunday morning the bells in the church next door are VERY loud, and I suspect after a late Saturday night, that might be intolerable!</p>
<p>Those bells are loud alright! However, many rooms are relatively immune from the Sunday onslaught. Unfortunately, only one of mine in my time there was quiet on Sunday mornings.</p>
<p>Just out of curiosity, but what’s general personality type for each of the ND dorms?</p>
<p>The best dorms in terms of camaraderie and dorm spirit are Dillon and Alumni, without question. It is impossible to be placed in either of those buildings and not immediately have friends. But, everybody will tell you that theirs is the best. Zahm, St. Ed’s, Siegfried and Morrissey have great dorm spirit as well, but living in Zahm has some drawbacks. You’ll find out if you get placed in there.
The newest dorms are those found on West Quad (Duncan, Keough, O’Neill), although Siegfried, Knott, Keenan, and Stanford also have A/C, I’m pretty sure.
Overall you’ll probably enjoy being in dorms that have a lot of spirit the most, since you’ll almost definitely make some great friends there. You’ll find that small rooms and lack of A/C really don’t matter.</p>
<p>
That’s pretty subjective, and will probably depend in which one you’re placed in.</p>
<p>Every dorm has good things, and every dorm has bad things. The good and the bad might not necessarily be the obvious, though, and you’ll likely come to love wherever you’re placed (a few students a year don’t, though, and transfer dorms). </p>
<p>
Morrissey doesn’t, though we do have a restaurant.</p>
<p>
There are some stereotypes, like Zahm is gay, Alumni drinks a lot, and Carroll is a cult, but there isn’t necessarily a pervading stereotype for every dorm. The Zahm one is by far the strongest. For female dorms, BP is fat is the most common (and very untrue, in my experience), but I’ve also heard Lewis girls are slutty/crazy, Howard being called the Ho Ward, Ryan girls being hot, and Farley not existing. I cannot attest to how widespread these are, just that I’ve heard them several times. Of course, they’re not particularly true (actually, I don’t recall ever meeting a Farley girl…) and were usually designed to demean others.</p>
<p>Some dorms do embrace the stereotypes, like Zahm doing the bun run or BP’s mascot being the pig. For some, you can see the origins, like Carroll making all their freshmen bleach their hair or Alumni having the highest recycling rate and lowest GPA on campus.</p>
<p>Basically, there will be many different kinds of people in every dorm and you won’t have problems finding friends. If your dorm has a reputation, well, it’ll just be joking (no one actually believes them) and won’t majorly affect you.</p>
<p>
I think it’s hard to make statements like this “without question,” especially if, as suggested by your username, your information may be a little dated.</p>
<p>I was put in Morrissey, and I think it’s one of the best for making friends, given our unique common rooms. A few freshmen are placed in quads, but everyone else will be in an 8 or 10 man common room; this translates to 7 or 9 instant friends from day one. The friends I made on the first day are still my best friends at the university, though of course we have dozens of friends across the dorm now. The tiny rooms (smallest on campus) and nearby common rooms mean you’re virtually never sitting in your room, and always hanging out with your friends, making you get really close really fast.</p>
<p>
The A/C thing does get annoying, though. At least for the first and last month of the year.</p>
<p>The one stereotype I always remember is “ole, ole, ole, ole, Zahm’s gay, Zahm’s gay.”</p>
<p>Info isn’t dated, this is the son speaking. Almost everyone on campus that isn’t running another dorm’s frosh-o will tell you that Dillon and Alumni have the best spirit.</p>
<p>St. Ed’s is huge.</p>
<p>Eh, I’d say Alumni and Zahm for camaraderie. Dillon is so huge it’s hard to be as close knit. Dillon Alumni or Stanford Keenan are the best rivalries.</p>
<p>What’s up with the gay thing? I find that to be a bit offensive. If kids are randomly placed in dorms with random roommates, why would this be perpetuated. Sounds immature and somewhat intolerant.</p>
<p>
I’m not really sure where the “Zahm’s gay” thing came from… perhaps Zahm guys running naked through the library and student center during finals week led to it, or perhaps it was a reaction to it. I’ve heard explanations for how some stereotypes started (the relatively older “BP is fat” or the newer “Lewis is crazy”), but not this. Maybe it was them being strict about not letting outside guys into their parties.</p>
<p>The dorm atmosphere can get very competitive, so a guy from another dorm saying “Zahm’s gay” is like someone from ND wearing a “USCum” or “Muck Fichigan” or “Backup College” or “Go Green, Go White, Can’t Read, Can’t Write” or “Purdon’t” or “Trojans Break When the Irish Come” shirt. Sure it’s distasteful, but no one actually believes the negative stereotypes. Of the gay students I know, none of them are in Zahm, and no one I know would ever make fun of someone for actually being gay.</p>
<p>But yeah, it can get pretty immature. But it’s also pretty fun. Anyway, it’s not like everyone just gangs up on Zahm. Every dorm has a rival. So I hear more insults directed at the screamin’ seamen of Fisher Hall. It’s just the atmosphere. If it really repulses you, maybe ND isn’t the best place for you. However, it sounds a lot more intense described here. Living your daily life, dorm stereotypes will rarely come up (outside of jokes with people from your own dorm), except maybe something like “Well, there goes that stereotype,” when you meet someone very different from their dorm reputation.</p>
<p>
I do want to address this directly. The Notre Dame student body is very tolerant of gay rights, unlike the university’s administration. Despite documented overwhelming student and faculty support (through petitions, passed resolutions, and the like), the university continues to deny official status to the Gay-Straight Alliance or even put “sexual orientation” in the non-discrimination policy. So while Notre Dame is officially intolerant, the student body is not (except for a few religious extremists here and there, but they’re laughed off).</p>
<p>After the first week or so the rivalries don’t impact day to day living. However, everyone hates Zahm. Always.</p>
<p>Avoid Morrissey Hall like the plague, people. I had to live there. Horrible experience. Back me up on this, people.</p>
<p>After the first week or so the rivalries don’t impact day to day living. However, everyone hates Zahm. Always. </p>
<p>Why??</p>
<p>
Not really sure. It’s just something that developed decades ago and gets passed down to the new freshmen each year. But no one will dislike you for being in Zahm. People have a negative view of the dorm as a whole, not of the individuals in it (except when viewed as a group stereotype). It’s not particularly fair, but then it isn’t that serious.</p>
<p>Though with some of Zahm’s brutal pranks on other dorms (a particular incident this year comes to mind, which led to significant disciplinary action), some people have separate reasons to hate Zahm.</p>
<p>Just wait until you hear about the Bun Run.</p>