<p>DS just tours Duke today and was very impressed. The tour focused only on west campus. East campus was explained (all freshman live there). After the tour, DS and I ventured east.</p>
<p>My questions are this:</p>
<p>1: What are the benefits and limitation of living so isolated from the main campus and upperclassmen?</p>
<p>2: What are the dorms and food options like on the east side? I understand that some of the dorms are not airconditioned.</p>
<p>1)
Pros of living on east:
a) It builds community among the freshmen class. Many of my friends lived in my dorm freshmen year and we kept in touch after the first year.
b) It’s relatively more calm both in terms of it being away from most academic buildings (save a few) and away from the frat/party scene on west (though still close to shooters). It’s less of a in-your-face kind of thing if you are not used to it or don’t like it.
c) It’s relatively compact with everything that you need like library for DVDs or studying, gym for working out, food, parking close by, laundry in most dorms (unlike on west where it’s one or two per quad). </p>
<p>Cons:
a) It is a bus ride from west which means it’s not convenient to go back to your room during the day (you need to carry stuff with you), it’s not convenient to go to west at night or on weekends when buses run less frequently (unless you have a car), and it’s not convenient if you want to get food (more choices) on west. But thankfully, during the day, buses are frequent and it’s not a long ride. Otherwise, you could always bike to west when you can.
b) Less interaction with upperclassmen. To be honest, this is not really a problem. There are plenty of opportunities to interact with upperclassmen in clubs, in class, etc. On west, people don’t really interact with people outside of their circle of friends anyway. West campus forms are mostly blocked off with frat sections and groups of friends in blocks of rooms, so the chances of you randomly talking with someone down the hall is decreased though not impossible.
c) Food at the marketplace can get old pretty fast. You can go to west for food or order out but you pay for a meal plan and it would be a waste to not take advantage of at least some of it. </p>
<p>Overall, because most extracurricular activities, classes, and almost all sports events take place on west, freshmen will spend a large amount of time there anyway so it’s hard to feel “isolated.” You’ll probably spend at least half of the day on west if not more and the evenings and nights on East. Weekends may skew more to East. </p>
<p>2) Unless there were some major construction/renovation, most east campus dorms (except 3) lack AC. It sucks. But the good news is that the heat is bad for about a month at the beginning and the last month of school most likely. The rest of the time, it’s fine. Make sure to bring a window fan and a floor fan at the minimum. Otherwise, most dorms are spacious and comfortable and I’ll say that between my room on west 2nd year (edens) and my apt on central 3rd year and my freshmen year dorm (Aycock, no AC), I actually preferred Aycock. Of course, my off campus apt senior year was the best, but I had to fork over $650/mo for a 1BR so it was expected. </p>
<p>Foodwise, I have no idea how it is nowadays. But 5 years ago, the food at the marketplace was tolerable but got old real fast. The best meals are probably brunch on the weekends. Otherwise, I ordered out a lot but I hear that the amount of flexible spending in the meal plans were decreased (Boo). </p>
<p>As a side note, just before graduation last year the seniors got to experience the marketplace for dinner for the last time (for old times sake) and it seemed about the same as freshmen year (to me at least). Unfortunately, I still didn’t like it very much. Oh well. YMMV</p>
<p>^ explained pretty darn perfectly. </p>
<p>Don’t worry, Easy campus is an AMAZING experience, and you’ll love it. It might not be perfectly convenient, but having an all freshman campus/dorms is awesome.</p>
<p>You’ll want a non-AC dorm, because you get more chances of meeting people. People in AC dorms don’t come out of their rooms because well, there’s AC, while in the non-AC dorms, people go the common room because that’s the only room with AC.</p>
<p>another complaint would be that there’s not an e-print in each dorm (eprint is basically free printing, so don’t bring a printer), so some kids have to walk to other dorms, and you can’t access any other dorm but your own after 2 am.</p>
<p>Yeah, SBR did sum it up very nicely. I think we were in the same class since I was on East for 2006-2007. Not sure about the comment on wanting a non-AC dorm because you will have more chances of meeting people? That’s not true at all, really. I was in an AC dorm and it’s honestly a comparable experience as otherwise. If you’re a social person, you are going to go out and about no matter where you live, regardless of the temp. of your room.
Also, enjoy the ePrint. At some schools you have to pay per page.</p>
<p>^ Yup I was BME class of 2010</p>
<p>Cool, yeah I was just back on campus today and the weather was actually really nice.</p>