Hello everyone, I was wondering what the dorms are like at Cornell. Which attribute is unique to each dorm, ect. I am wondering about both the physical and social differences. Thank You.
As a freshman, you don’t get to choose your dorm other than preferencing a traditional dorm, an all-girl’s dorm, a townhouse, or a program house.
There are a bunch of different program houses that represent different interests or demographics, such as theater, music, ecology, Latino heritage, or Native American culture. I believe most (all?) program houses require you to apply to live there.
Townhouses are apartment-style living but in campus, and only for freshmen and transfer students. Either four or six people live in one townhouse, and it comes with bedrooms, a living room, kitchen, and bathroom.
The all-girl’s dorm is Balch, and that’s where I lived my freshman year. I loved it; it’s a beautiful, quiet building with huge rooms that contain sinks and are perfect for studying. It’s not considered one of the more social dorms, so some people don’t like it for that, but people leave their doors open and there are plenty of organized dorm activities. I personally liked that it was usually quiet and not too social.
Then there are 8 traditional freshmen dorms, but you don’t get to specify which one you’d like. Donlon and Dickson are the more social dorms and some people love them, although they’re older. CKB and Mews are the newer dorms which a lot of people prefer. The low rises and high rises are typically everyone’s least favorite dorms (and one of them made it onto the New York Times’s list of the worst college dorms last year).
DS was in CKB and it was very nice!
My D was also in Balch, but had a very small room. She liked having a “sink room”, which are shared between two rooms. She also loved the fact that Balch was quiet enough to study in her room when she didn’t feel like going to a library. She also became good friends with her “sink mate” - a girl in the adjoining room.