<p>Which dorms are the worst? Which dorms are the best? The UR World and Spinning Your Web programs both tout that they are in Dennis Hall which is newly refurbished. I read that Dennis Hall is one of the worst dorms, though. Can anyone tell me if it is actually any better after refurbishing? Which dorms are really the best?</p>
<p>Drama, I'm assuming you're a male because you mentioned Dennis. For a first year student, I think the only choices are Dennis or Grey. Grey would be a good choice. You're close to D-hall and the commons and are on a hall with a lot of other freshmen. It's suite style with two rooms sharing a bath. The bath is cleaned for you weekly. Rooms are a touch small, but you can make due. Dennis wasn't bad, but since they refurbished it, it should be really nice. I'm going to guess that the bathroom is still hall style after the refurbishment. You're surrounded more or less by Moore, Wood and Marsh which are women's dorms and right next to Whitehurst, which is a small rec. area with late night store. I would recommend joining either the Webers or RC Xtreme. The guys in those groups get to do some fun activities and typically form pretty good bonds. I don't know anything about the UR World program. If you do join one of those groups though, just make sure that you go outside that circle to meet new people as well. It's easy to stay within that group and a lot of people do, but it's a mistake.</p>
<p>I am a girl, but I have friends who live in both Dennis and Grey now and I personally like Dennis more than Grey. I'm not sure how the room sizes compare, but if you do a search on the Richmond site and search for housing, you can find the dorm floorplans and figure it out. Grey rooms do have private bathrooms, but even though they are cleaned weekly, they aren't the cleanest things in the world, and hall-style bathrooms are not bad. You get used to it. Grey is also MASSIVE. It houses the majority of the male freshmen population, and it gets crazy there, especially on the weekends. Dennis is much smaller.
I'm honestly more familiar with Dennis, so I'll tell you more about that. I think it's a fairly nice building. Some of the rooms have bay windows, which are nice. There are lounges in each hall with comfy chairs and tvs and whatnot. Dennis also has a faculty member in residence (there is an actual name for them, but I just can't remember what it is) and he'll host various events in his little apartment on the floor and cook and whatnot. If you like to cook or you just want food that isn't from a dining hall, you can also ask to use their kitchen, and they'll probably let you...
In terms of location, Dennis is on the main side of campus, I guess. It's where most of the buildings and classrooms are, and you can look at a campus map and see that for yourself. Your also on the side of the lake with the library and all of the University's and Richmond College's adminstrative buildings. The dining hall is across the lake, but it's only a 5-10 minute walk, depending on how fast you walk. The Commons is pretty centrally located.
Grey, on the other hand, is really close to the Dining Hall, the Modlin Center for the Arts, and North Court, which houses most of the classics, religion, and philosophy classes (with some other things thrown in, I think). The post office is on that side of campus, and again, the Commons is pretty central.</p>
<p>As far as the programs are concerned, I would definitly do one of them. I have friends who did the Spinning Your Web program and they had a great time with it and made a lot of friendships on the hall that they were able to maintain even after the program ended. It's also a good way to get involved in the leadership program (at least, I think that Spinning Your Web is the leadership program...one of them is).</p>
<p>How about in terms of girls dorms for freshman? Any idea which would be best?</p>
<p>As far as girls dorms go, there is Lora Robins Court and Moore. Moore houses the Ready for Moore leadership program. I currently live in LoRo in sub-free and I love it here and I love the friends I've made, but I will tell you now that unless you meet them in other classes or clubs or sports or something, you probably will not know a lot of people outside of your hall. LoRo houses most of the freshman girls. Moore is much much much smaller and I think the entire dorm has the intimate feel (the you-know-everyone feel) that a hall has in LoRo. Being in sub-free, I don't know if it's just my floor that's kind of disconnected or what, but I do get the feeling that because of the way the dorm is set up and the size of it, you don't really know a lot of people who live there right off the bat. </p>
<p>I haven't been into Moore, but I'll tell you a bit more about LoRo. The closets are nicely sized and we do have quite a bit of storage, especially if you elevate the beds on cinderblocks, which is what a lot of girls choose to do. There is an overhead light and a window (two if you live in a corner room), and the windows open, which is great when it's nice outside. We've got AC and heat that we can control with a thermostat. Each girl has a desk, a closet, a dresser, and a bed, although the furniture can vary slightly from room to room. The rooms are a decent size, too, which you can see on the blueprints that are available from the housing website online. Oh, one nice thing is that our walls aren't concrete blocks, so things like posters actually stick to them with tape or stick tack or something like that. (It may seem trivial now, but it becomes important very quickly) There is carpeting on the floor...I'm in my room now and trying to figure out what you'd like to know, but I'm drawing a blank....PM me if you want more details, or post again.</p>
<p>Thank you! That is very helpful! What actually is the Ready for Moore leadership program? I've heard about it but have no idea what it actually consists of?!</p>
<p>Humminburd,</p>
<p>Try this link <a href="http://oncampus.richmond.edu/Student_Affairs/wcollege/Ready_for_Moore.htm">http://oncampus.richmond.edu/Student_Affairs/wcollege/Ready_for_Moore.htm</a>
I actually don't know much about it because I didn't come into Richmond interested in the leadership program. Also, you can check out the spider diaries which are written by current students. They might have a little more information. You can also search the Richmond website ("ready for moore") and see what you come up with. I did a quick search just now and came up with a bunch of different things.</p>