I’m applying to Brown ED this year, and I’ve read a lot of mixed reviews about the roommate pairing process/housing in general. 1) How extensive is the brown housing questionnaire and are people generally happy with their roommates? 2) What is the quality of Brown dorms? (I’ve read that freshmen dorms are generally good but upper class dorms are worse - how bad are they?) Thanks.
I can’t answer your first question but I do know that a lot of upperclassmen live off campus – probably for the reason that you stated. Anyways, come join the Brown ED thread!
I disagree with @ap012199 about students living off campus. According to collegedata.com 80% of students live on campus. Not sure if it’s still true this year but you used to have to live on campus through junior year.
I’ve been in a freshman dorm- nothing special. I’ve seen better and I’ve seen worse.
Housing questionnaire isn’t overly thorough but it asks the basics about sleeping patterns, degree of messiness, option for substance free housing. Now whether they spend lots of time matching these up, I couldn’t say.
It would be great if college websites with mandatory on campus housing had a statistic about how many first year roommates chose to live together sophomore year.
@BUalum93 20% is a large number of students living off campus compared to many other colleges. When I went on a tour of Brown, the tour guide said that many seniors lived off campus because the off campus housing is very nice yet cheap. I feel like that combined with the fact that the upperclassmen dorms are mediocre is why such a large percentage of seniors live off campus.
I guess compared to the other schools we looked at- Univ Chicago, Cornell, northwestern- the on campus housing rate at Brown seemed high. But you are right, it depends what you compare it to.
A lot of off-campus housing is closer to campus than campus housing. Brown has increased the percentage of students who live off-campus. Many students want to live off-campus because they want to cook for themselves.
I agree with BUalum about Brown housing – I’ve seen much worse, I’ve seen better. If housing is your number one criteria, then I wouldn’t apply to Brown.
Are people happy with their roommates? – this is based on my experience at Brown, all my friends, and my daughter and her friends – the vast majority of people do not switch roommates, but there are people who are unhappy. So many freshmen come to college never having shared a room before - so suddenly having to be in a confined space with a stranger is going to be an iffy situation.
The “problem” with upper class dorms is that there aren’t a lot of apartment suites – single bedrooms with a shared living room, kitchen and bathroom. Again, if your main criteria is housing, then don’t apply to Brown.