<p>For current penn students, are the college houses the only on-campus housing? And which are the best? I've heard great things about the quad, and not so great things about Hill. I'm searching for possible houses I might want to consider in the spring, and I would appreciate any advice you have, thanks alot! =)</p>
<p>Quad is the best for a freshman. Highrises are best for upper classmen who want to stay on campus. For freshmen, after the quad, it really depends on what you want in a room. If you want a nice single and quiet, Stouffer is best. If you want to make friends and be social, Hill is best, though the facilities are pretty bad. Kings Court is a good third choice after the Quad and Hill. If you want a kitchen or to live in a very Orthodox Jewish community (Rodin) the highrises are good.</p>
<p>i hear the quad has a lot of mice. is this true?
oh, and didn't a random room burn down the other day?
i want to be in fisher...go residential programs! (substance-free living. hahaha)</p>
<p>sansom place is on-campus housing, though technically not a college house per se</p>
<p>and you can't live there as a freshman</p>
<p>for freshman living, i agree with venkat</p>
<p>quad has mice if you're not careful with your food</p>
<p>eh...mice.. that's a significant turn off. how about hills or king's court? if i want to go party, is it easy to find people in hills or king's court who are willing ?</p>
<p>hill yes for finding people, not so sure about kc</p>
<p>and honestly mice won't come near if you don't leave food lying about on the floor (as my roommates did one year, and made me deal with it because they were scared)</p>
<p>I've heard the community in King's is great though, and people are very close with their floormates. If you're an engineer, Kings and Hill are the closest houses to the engineering buildings.</p>
<p>hm...when i did a summer program there the showers were really gross in the quad lol. are some quad dorms better than others??</p>
<p>how does the housing work for Huntsman students? Are they automatically put at King's Court? Are they in anyway isolated from the freshman experience and the social scene? Is king's court one of the newer buildings?</p>
<p>I have the same question as kclee12...</p>
<p>I know almost everyone says that the Quad is the best freshman dorm, but which house out of the three specifically would you say is the best? Pro/cons of each...?</p>
<p>I live in King's Court English. So here is how it works. King's Court is actually comprised of two buildings, King's Court and King's Court English houses. They are definitely primarily freshman dorms - on my floor, minus the RA's and GA, it's about 85% freshman.</p>
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I've heard the community in King's is great though, and people are very close with their floormates. If you're an engineer, Kings and Hill are the closest houses to the engineering buildings.
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<p>King's Court is a good choice for engineers in my opinion. It's close to most of the engineering classes as you mentioned, so your travel time is short to-and-from classes, which can be nice in the mornings when you're running a little late. It's near the bookstore, DRL building (math and physics), Towne, Levine and Moore (Computer Science and Electrical, etc) and Van Pelt Library and Wawa (convenience store that you'll come to depend on). The community is definitely pretty great - people are very social and most keep their door open and socialize between studying. My floor, at least, spends a lot of time in the lounge playing word and board games and debating everything imaginable.</p>
<p>Hill shares the location advantage, but I don't know much about the community there. Both Hill and KCECH have dining halls on the bottom floor.</p>
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eh...mice.. that's a significant turn off. how about hills or king's court? if i want to go party, is it easy to find people in hills or king's court who are willing ?
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<p>Yeah, I think a small group goes out every weekend, though people definitely party more in the quad. I'd say more people in hill go out partying than people in KCECH, too. It depends on the floor really. People on the fourth floor in English are more of party-people than the people on our floor, but of course most of that is random.</p>
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how does the housing work for Huntsman students? Are they automatically put at King's Court? Are they in anyway isolated from the freshman experience and the social scene? Is king's court one of the newer buildings?
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<p>My friend is in Huntsman, and he was forced to live in King's Court on the designated floor. But they are not isolated from anything at all. The two buildings have a courtyard area between them, keeping everyone who lives in the entire dorm fairly connected. The newness depends on your definition. Here's a good link. KCECH</a> - About KCECH - History</p>
<p>Does anything go on in the quad that does not happen near KCECH? Do people who live in the KCECH area, especially freshman, go over to the quad quite a bit or do they have their own thing going on in their area? Also, if I'm not mistaken, isn't KZECH right near the main athletics facilities? Thanks for the great feedback so far.</p>
<p>The quad is closer to frat row, which is between 40th and 41st and Spruce, as the quad is located on 37th and Spruce. Meanwhile, KCECH is between 34th and 36th on Sansom street, which is 2.5 blocks away from Spruce street. That being said, KCECH is slightly closer to Center City Philadelphia, which has a lot going on, too. Other than that, people socialize primarily in their dorms anyway. Few go over to the quad unless you have friends you want to visit or whatever.</p>
<p>Actually, KCECH and the quad are about equidistant to Pottruck fitness center, which is on 38th and Walnut, roughly 3 blocks from each. You just walk from 37th across to Locust and then Walnut and walk a block up to 38th if you're coming from the quad. From english house, you walk half a block up sansom to 36th, across a half block to walnut, and up 2 blocks to the fitness center.</p>
<p>How social a dorm is will vary based on personal experience. I had an amazing experience in Riepe as a freshman and made a ton of friends in all parts of the building. I had some friends who had pretty bad experiences in Riepe because their halls were very quiet and antisocial. Same can be said about Hill or any other dorm. The dorms that I know are very conducive to being social and making friends are Hill, Riepe, and Ware. I don't know much about KCECH or Fisher, but guess they could go either way. The highrises, Gregory, and Stouffer make it a little tougher to make friends and put more of the burden on you to go out and find people.</p>
<p>About Huntsman kids, they have fun. I think a bunch of them join frats and that sort of stuff. The only way you'll be "isolated" is because it can be a pretty close knit group and you might not hang out with as many people outside the program as you wanted to.</p>
<p>I would just point out that every building on campus has mice - you'll adjust and learn how to prevent them (ie, not leaving food out).</p>
<p>Live in Hill or one of the quad houses as a freshman. Don't live in the high rises.</p>
<p>The Quad has mice, but is beautiful and conveniently located. Hill is gross.</p>
<p>My advice: Go for the high rises or an apartment in Center City.</p>
<p>i was careful with food and still had mice...because my next door neighbor was a pig with his food...so yeah</p>
<p>I wouldn't go ll the way over to center city for an apartment (but the one's I've seen there are sweet). You can find a lot of decent offcampius places nearby. The thing to keep in mind is that your place will look nice depending mostly on how you decide to furnish, not so much the place itself. My current place was pretty crapy before, and we furnished it nciely and now it looks awesome.</p>
<p>bump - this is a good thread.</p>
<p>more info about Hill plz</p>