How does room selection work, and can someone explain to me in more detail the character traits of each residential college. Do any of the colleges have substantially better dorms? Which dorms, if any, are better than the rest? Do you recommend choosing a single if available? Thanks, all help is greatly appreciated:).
I can’t help you with the character traits of the colleges, but I think the freshman dorms are all similar.
Here is some info:
This tells you a little about buildings on campus, such as when the were built
https://case.edu/administration/cpfm/Building%20List.pdf
If you want an interactive Tour:
https://students.case.edu/housing/facilities/tour/
During the summer there will be a link to choose housing. First you need to decide if you want suite style or the regular hall style and that determines which building to choose. My S chose suite style and really enjoyed the bond with the other roommates. They roomed together sophomore year and plan to room together off campus junior year so with the right mix it’s easy.
You will probably not get an option for a single and either you choose an empty room and wait for someone to click as a roommate or you pick someone that is already occupied. There are a list of questions that can match you with similar likes. I suppose you can meet someone thru Facebook and click on same room
The dorms are all fairly similar and changes with each group of people. The link above gives good info on the rooms and building locations.
@SweetTea So which halls are suite style, and which are regular? Is it likely to get to actually choose between the two, or is one harder to get into?
I thought suite style was for sophomores (on the South side).
@bopper , you’re right that sophomores get suite-style rooms-- they’re tiny singles around a large common room with a bathroom for 4-6 people.
For first-years on the north side, though, some of the dorms are suite-style and some hall-style. The first-year suites are decent-size double rooms, with four rooms in a cluster with a bathroom, and two clusters to a floor. Each floor has a big common area.
I’m not sure which dorms are halls and which are suites. The interactive tour you mentioned above should help, if someone wants to scout it out!
Back in the day I lived in one of those tiny singles for 4 years and loved it! You get your own space plus the living rom to hang out with everyone if you want.
Yes the sophomore housing is suite style with singles but the freshmen suite style are doubles though I believe one room in the suite is a single atleast it was in Cutler.
So when you click the link for the housing there are clusters. Hitchcock, Cutler, Storrs, Pierce and Clarke Tower are the suite style which you can see on tour of the housing. The other dorms will be the hall style. The interactive tour will give you a good view and when you actually click each room you will see the dimensions. The pictures are quite representative of what you get.
If you go for hallway-style housing, I would highly recommend choosing Taplin. All of the dorms were built in 1961 and the only one that’s been renovated since is Taplin (in 2014 when Case took it back from CIA). The rooms feel huge since they’re rectangles with huge windows along an entire wall. Plus its residents don’t need to use their physical key for anything other than opening their mailbox - they use their CWRU id’s to beep into the room (like a hotel). Where the rest of the hallway-style housing has a tiny common room and a separate kitchen area, Taplin’s is combined into one big open space. Taplin also has one of the nicer kitchens - new appliances and really nice counter tops.
No matter what you choose, a lot of your experience will come down to who else lives in the building. For example, most of the freshmen football players and wrestlers live in one building this year. As they don’t tend to be the cleanliest people, that dorm is notorious for being gross and always having floor meetings to address it. My dorm is full of swimmers, so it took a while to break through their clique and get to know them better, but everything has worked out in the end. All of my closest friends here live in my building, and I’m living with about ten kids from my building (in addition to them) next year.
Four years ago, my CWRU student lived in Mistletoe, leadership and service group, with the CWRU swimmers and other high school athletes, as well as kids who like to do service. It was good because they did a lot of cool trips to raise money, worked in Cleveland gardens, and tutored inner city kids The buildings don’t matter much, but the service oriented living group has good people and some athletically and service oriented students. Note that Pierce, Hitchcock etc are attached to each other. So most of the freshman dorms are clustered, look, exactly alike from the outside and everyone eats together in the main dining hall, although there are plenty of other places to eat for variety. My son made lifelong friends in Mistletoe who he still lives with in year 4.
I think most Case students remain friends with whoever they meet the first year. Its a good system that promotes strong friendships over the four years.
As a sophomore, my son and most of his friends did not get to live on South Campus. Its a lottery and they pulled a low number. They lived with freshman in the tall tower on north campus. The majority of sophomores live on the hill called South Residential campus. Its suburban and quiet up there, and you can see Lake Erie in the winter, if its clear.
Some 3rd and 4th year students live in suites on 115th Street, north of Euclid They are plain jane as all the housing is.
Be sure not to put holes in the walls. CWRU will charge you several hundred dollars for any thumb tacks in the walls.
If you pledge a frat or sorority, you may live in the Greek House, or you can just live in the regular dorms if you prefer. At least one fraternity does not yet have a house for its members and doing a lot of fund raising. Some fraternities and sororities cost extra money even if you live in the dorms. Greek Houses are spread across both north and south campus.
Its easy to find rentals in Coventry and other safe off campus locations if you work in Cleveland for the summer. Off campus housing will be a little less expensive in some cases, depends on how many you share with, and the sublet arrangements. Students can choose to live in Case housing in the summers too.
@SoCcErTrAcK2016 , is Taplin air conditioned?
@Winky1 None of the dorms are air conditioned. Except for maybe The Village, but that’s for Juniors and Seniors only.
A couple of my friends got AC window units from the university for medical reasons. They had to fill our paperwork and then pay extra for it. It honestly isn’t that bad without one - it’s only hot for a couple weeks and you can survive with fans, especially since it cools off at night.
Air conditioning is not that necessary given the weather but here are all the newer housing units that offer
airconditioning.
Stephanie Tubbs Jones Residence is the second newest housing and offers air conditioning:
https://students.case.edu/housing/facilities/newhall/
My son had air conditioning at The Village , which is the third newest housing on campus:
https://students.case.edu/housing/facilities/villageat115/
The Triangle Apartments are the newest housing on campus:
https://students.case.edu/housing/facilities/triangle/
Most freshman live in the older dorms, in the middle of campus. Great location and safe. All the other dorms are
a bit more of a walk but still safe.
Clarke Tower, I thought it had air conditioning. Floors 1 and 2 are freshman. Floors 3-11 are sophomores.
I think its just floors and no suites and some sophomores will get a double if they are in Clarke Tower.
http://residencelife.case.edu/org/syenorth
Thank you both for the information.
FWIW, most freshman dorms at most colleges in the north don’t have A/C. Bring a fan and it will soon get cool.
If you have medical needs, make sure the college knows.
Hmmm, @bopper , we’ll have to explore with the dr. what some “medical needs” could be that warrant a window a.c. unit …
Like if you had asthma or something