<p>I am considering the chem-free dorms for next year… can a current or former Bowdoin student please tell me what this housing is really like? i know that at some schools it is a complete joke, while at others it is taken very seriously.</p>
<p>i would like to know the answer to this too</p>
<p>im not a current or former student but when i visited bowdoin last month, i asked my host about chem free dorms because i was considering living in one in the fall and she said that she didnt really know anyone from the chem free dorms… she said that its not that they are weird or anything its just that they pretty much stick to themselves and their kind of their own group and that people who live in chem dorms dont really associate with people who lived in chem-free dorms. she told me that lost of people who dont drink live in the regular dorms. </p>
<p>she pretty much convinced me to go with the regular dorms. </p>
<p>i hoped that helped a bit.</p>
<p>Thanks crazyyy, that’s very interesting.</p>
<p>Can anyone else attest to this?</p>
<p>I live in Coleman hall which is half chem free this year. I live in the non-chemfree part so I guess that could be a reason I know some of the chem free kids better than people who lives further from hyde.
While yes they do kind of keep to themselves, they are just like any other group of kids.
For example, the kids who live in Moore Hall tend to stick to their own groups. Also the kids who live in Appleton, it is the same story. This reigns true for every freshman dorm. The people who you live with your freshman year, you will see the most and therefore get to know the best.
I know plenty of people from other dorms; however, I go to dinner the majority of the time with other people from Coleman. Thats mainly because I come back to my room from stuff I do and then I go to dinner with people who I am around.
I also frequently each with student groups I am part of. So I have met people from the chem free dorms that way. </p>
<p>Overall…Hyde does its own thing yes. but as does every dorm. Its no different than anything else. There are people who don’t drink who live in regular dorms and people who drink who live in chem free. You can find groups of people no matter where you live. It all is just dependent on who you meet early on, on preO and the first weeks.</p>
<p>summerspirit – My S will be at Bowdoin in Sept. At the admitted students open house we attended, a panelist at the parents-only session was a first-year girl living in the chem-free portion of Coleman. She said she opted for it partly because chem-free is quieter and cleaner. Much of the questioning by parents of the panelists concerned drinking. Apparently chem-free students pledge not to bring the “effects of drinking” (or other “chems” I assume) into their dorm; they don’t pledge to abstain. She and her friends go to parties and she said that at first when someone new learns where she lives, the reaction often is “Oh, you’re one of the chem-free kids.” Then, the curiosity wears off and they see she’s pretty much like everyone else. </p>
<p>I gathered chem-free was more about keeping the rowdiness of drinking and post-party behavior out of living areas of students who either don’t drink or drink in moderation and want quiet(er) common areas and room mates. The D of a friend reported a pretty disgusting scene at her freshman dorm at U Mich: freshman girls’ bathrooms on the weekends with vomit (sorry, this isn’t pretty) in all the sinks and toilets and on the floor. Now, I haven’t heard anything along those lines at Bowdoin, but if you’re not into the drinking scene at all, it might be a good idea to opt for chem-free housing, at least for the first year, when kids are adjusting to their new freedoms.</p>
<p>I hope you hear back from some actual Bowdoin students in chem-free housing.</p>
<p>Thanks zfox and royal. Your insight is much appreciated.</p>
<p>I am really good friends with the girl that royal is talking about actually. Funny how small the world is.</p>
<p>What royal said is pretty much right. the only thing that I would say is that living in the chem free part of coleman is different than living in Hyde. The chem free and not chem free floors interact quite frequently in Coleman. So I would say while it is still chem free it is a little bit different. I mean, the social scene is a bit different too.
And don’t be fooled. Hyde has its own social scene and CAN be rowdy and noisy at times too.</p>