Choosing A Residence Hall/Dorm

Student Lounge College Life
1

<p>Hey guys, I'm just looking for a little advice on choosing my residence hall/dorm.</p>

<p>Is it better to have co-ed by floor or by wing (just personal recommendations)?</p>

<p>I'm a guitarist of about five years, and play recreatonally (I play everyday, and love the instrument, but by no means am I a Music Theory major -- I would, however, enjoy always having someone to jam with -- but on the other hand, it might be fun to be more of a unique person in a hall without tons of musicians)... should I consider joining the "Creative/Performing Arts floor"?</p>

<p>Is a two story residence hall necessarily better/worse than an eight story residence hall (they all have elevators)?</p>

<p>Is it better to pick a hall closer to main campus or closer to the dining commons? (All the halls are relatively close to one another, and none of the halls are far from either campus or food, but some are closer to one thing than another).</p>

<p>How important is the view from the room? Do you actually look out of your window often, or does it really not matter much and no one cares?</p>

<p>If one of the eight story halls is being renovated next year (walls, carpets, vending machines, elevators, and possibly a pool)... is that worth considering over perhaps a hall in a slightly better location?</p>

<p>Would you recommend picking a larger, medium sized, or smaller residence hall?</p>

<p>Yes, I know, tons of various random questions that are probably all really hard to answer. Just for reference, I'm talking about housing at UCSB for my Freshman year.</p>

<p><a href="http://www.aw.id.ucsb.edu/ucsbmap.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.aw.id.ucsb.edu/ucsbmap.html&lt;/a> (I'm considering the five residence halls right above the lagoon, on the right hand side). THANK YOU!!!!</p>

2

<p>OK...based on my bad experiences with the dorm I was in I can try to answer these...</p>

<ol>
<li><p>I wouldn't think it would make a difference with where the boys and girls were seperated. People will sneak out at the wrong times no matter what. Mine was by floor, and I think wing would be just as bad as far as guys being on the girls floor at 3AM and vice versa.</p></li>
<li><p>If there is a floor for creative/performing arts folks and you play a lot, I'd go for it. Everyone would probably be more tolerant of the music there than on a regular floor. You'd also be more likely to find jam buddies.</p></li>
<li><p>As long as you have an elevator it shouldn't matter. If you had to climb eight flights of stairs each day I'd consider the two story one.</p></li>
<li><p>Get a hall as close to the cafeteria as you can. Mine was on the opposite side of campus, and I often skipped meals when I was tired, it was rainy, or was cold out. You get the idea as to why closeness counts.</p></li>
<li><p>Your window is really important if it's cold in the room and you need to let sun in. I didn't look out mine that often, but if there's something really nasty looking outside the window I'd probably move.</p></li>
<li><p>Renovations are great. It elminates the stench that older dorms have, plus you get newer stuff. It's better to have clean carpets, un-nicked walls, vending machines that work, elevators that don't shake when you're going up, and the possibility of a pool would be enough to get me to look into it if I were still a residential student.</p></li>
<li><p>You want to judge on floor size, not overall. If you absolutely must share a bathroom with a bunch of other guys, make it as few as possible.</p></li>
</ol>

<p>Only seven questions. Not too bad. I'm not familiar with UCSB so your mileage may vary slightly.</p>

3

<p>I can't help at all with ucsb, but I can tell you that my excellent view of the skyline of New Orleans at night makes me happy whenever I look outside.</p>

4

<ol>
<li><p>Don't really know. I'm a frosh, and my dorm is coed by floor. It's okay, I guess. The other option at Stanford (where I am) is having coed floors (i.e. coed by room), and I don't really know which of those I would prefer.</p></li>
<li><p>That's your preference. Just keep in mind, a "creative/performing arts" floor or dorm isn't going to be all musicians. You'll get all kinds of artsy types.</p></li>
<li><p>I think it depends more on size of the dorm than number of floors. Fewer floors = smaller dorm, most likely.</p></li>
<li><p>I'd rather be close to the dining hall. Standard practice here is to bike to all your classes, so distance doesn't matter a whole lot. I'd personally rather walk to the dining hall and bike to classes, which would mean that I would prefer closeness to the dining hall. But part of that could be specific to Stanford.</p></li>
</ol>

<p>5, 6. No idea. Sorry.</p>

<ol>
<li>My dorm is 80 people, and I absolutely love it. Everyone knows everyone else (well, except the people who never come out of their rooms). I'd recommend as small a dorm as you can get, up to a certain limit (50 or so).</li>
</ol>