<p>My son, a junior at Carleton, feels the biggest mistake he made at Carleton was not applying to live on a chem free floor his freshman year. He was afraid it wouldn't be fun, that he would be missing out. He chose a quiet floor . . . but still had roommates/friends who drank. My son said he would be happy to answer any questions prospective or admited Carl's might have . . . he is in his second year of serving as Resident Assistant on a chem free floor. The next month would be a good time for questions due to the long break Carleton is starting tromorrow.</p>
<p>Sub-free floors are definitely very popular here at Carleton. However there are definitely people who drink that live on sub-free floors and there are also people who don’t drink that live on non sub-free floors. They both have their advantages.</p>
<p>And also, a lot of people branch out onto other floors. Each residential hall typically consists of a sub-free floor. There are rumors saying that sub-free floors are much closer, I don’t find that to be completely true as I am a freshman, currently live on a non subfree floor and find that we have quite a close and good floor life.</p>
<p>But def. as Onakim said, don’t be afraid to choose sub-free as option to live.</p>
<p>Sorry about my fragmented response, it’s getting late and I’m on my way home for winter break. I’m an international student, looong flight.</p>
<p>But feel free to message me if you want any specific answers.</p>
<p>I’m going to agree completely with eyevand.
I’m also a freshman living on a non-sub-free floor, and I find that I have a wonderful floor life. Yes, the room directly next door to my own is inhabited by a group of seniors and is considered to be somewhat of a party room, but this (usually) only happens on Friday or Saturday nights and doesn’t really present any sort of issues. Again, this is just my personal experience, but people tend to be very respectful of study needs, and are happy to turn down their music a few notches if you go complain that you have a test at 8:30 the next morning or something.</p>
<p>On the other hand, if you know that you don’t want to even run the risk of being near alcohol or parties, don’t be afraid to choose a sub-free floor. It doesn’t mean that you won’t have a social life, nor does it mean that, should you so choose later on, you won’t be able to drink. Essentially, living sub-free just guarantees that you won’t have a party room next door and lessens (but does not completely eradicate) the chances of having to deal with a drunken roommate in the middle of the night.</p>
<p>If you have any specific questions, feel free to message me. Carleton’s break just started, so I’ve nothing to do for the next five weeks or so.</p>
<p>Onakim, out of curiosity, why is it his biggest regret? Did he have a bad experience living non-sub-free?</p>
<p>For the record - I don’t live on a sub-free floor, and I definitely do go out. However, I was barely able to actually drink all fall because of athletics anyway, and a few of the kids on my floor don’t drink. None of us have ever gotten any crap for it. On the other hand, two of my good friends also live on sub-free floors and they love it as well (ironically, both are drinkers, just not frequently), so it ends up being the type of environment you want.</p>
<p>I am SO very happy to be on my floor. They are truly my best friends and I always have someone to talk to if I need it. Carleton really matched us up well.</p>
<p>I am a high school senior looking into Carleton and I did an overnight this year. I was wondering if you guys could answer some of my questions about Carleton. I already know it’s a great school academically, but now fit and happiness are my concerns.
Is it fun? When I visited it wasn’t very fun, but it wasn’t a weekend so that may have contributed.
Is the food good? I was only there for 2 meals so how is it usually?
Do a lot of people date at Carleton?</p>
<p>1) I’m not really sure what you mean by “fun,” but in general Carleton has a reputation for loving fun. Things like silent dance parties, breaking the world record for most people spooning simultaneously, all of the crazy ways Schiller shows up, and millions of other bits of joyous randomness make up the school’s character. Carls tend to have a great (and shared) sense of humor…look up some more traditions and pranks on the website to get a better idea of that.</p>
<p>At the same time, Carleton is an academically rigorous school. You’re not going to get a 4.0 here (virtually no one does), and you’re probably going to work harder than you’ve ever worked for your classes, but you’re also going to get a fantastic education. I wouldn’t call it “fun,” but it’s incredibly important. If you visited on a weeknight, yep–people are going to be doing homework.</p>
<p>2) The food is okay. The dining halls do a lot of things well (particularly desserts), and the rest is definitely edible. I do get sick of it by the end of the terms, but that’s because I tend to get into a pattern of eating the same three meals every day, so that part might be my fault. There are also some good restaurants very nearby in Northfield if you want a break from the dining hall food.</p>
<p>3) Depends on what you mean by “date.” There’s a moderately-sized faction of people in committed relationships, but I think the majority of people have a much more casual approach and tend to do a lot of “hanging out” as opposed to “dating.”</p>
<p>Hello,</p>
<p>This is Onakim’s aforementioned son. There was a post asking why I regretted not living on a subfree floor my freshmen year, and so I’ve been recruited to explain. As a general introduction, I agree almost completely with the posts by other Carleton students. My reasons for disliking my non-subfree experience are likely not typical; nonetheless,</p>
<p>My freshmen year experience started out very well. It wasn’t until 2nd term that some of the individuals on my floor began drinking significantly, among them my roommate. This change in weekend activities precipitated a minor split in the social group on my floor between (mostly) sub-free students and those who drank heavily. I have never had any desire to drink–and after a few encounters with inebriated individuals my disinterest began to shift towards dislike. About this time, a number of incidents occured wherein inebriated individuals (from the latter group) acted in ways that I found entirely unacceptable, irresponsible, and cruel. Long story short, the floor ended up splitting mostly along the subfree-not line.</p>
<p>The experience is likely not typical; in retrospect, my freshmen floor had an unfortunately volatile mix of personalities on it. Moving to a (large) sub-free floor my sophomore and junior years, I’ve found the environment to be much more welcoming, happier, and generally more fun. Admittedly, I have never had an interest in drinking, don’t ‘party’ in the traditional sense, and had an unfortunate freshmen floor. Nevertheless, I highly suggest sub-free floors for individuals who don’t want to be around alcohol (as an, for lack of a better term, atheist, I originally feared that sub-free floors would be religion dominated–they’re not, and I’ve never met a student at Carleton who dipped to the levels of fanaticism I saw in high school) or those who want the availability of sub-free alternatives and bonding that tend to accompany sub-free floors (as a few other students have pointed out, sub-free doesn’t mean you don’t drink, just that you don’t do it on your floor).</p>
<p>As a general point for those fearing stepping onto a regular floor, many freshmen groups tend to start out as sub-free and gradually move into the drinking scene, so for those fearing being dumped into a heavy drinking scene, there’s very little chance of that occuring even on a regular floor.</p>
<p>Two things:</p>
<p>For LACLover:
- If you visited on a weekday, then I’m not surprised that you didn’t have mnuch “fun,” only because the workload is so intense that people are usually doing homework. At the same time, I generally have some fun even on weekend nights because no matter how late (early? haha) it is, there are always friends in the lounge to chat with/decompress after finishing work, or even just to take a study break. But generally, I agree wholeheartedly with mflevity: Carleton is definitely a fun place to be. Between all of its crazy traditions - Schiller and the Slent Dance Party, and also things like the Dacie Moses House and Friday Flowers. I haven’t yet experienced Rotblatt, but I’m guessing that would be on the list too.
I definitely have a lot of fun here on the weekends too - there are always parties and other events, as well as people to hang out with. As an athlete, I couldn’t drink for a large portion of the fall semester, but I still enjoyed going to parties anyway just to talk and socialize with people. There are bands at the Cave and Sayles dances. In general, the past three months have probably been some of the most fun months of my life.</p>
<p>I also think the food is fine. Yes, it gets a little repetitive, but it is generally good quality and I can almost always find something to eat. The desserts are absolutely delicious. Plus, there is a panini maker in both dining halls (score).</p>
<p>Dating - from what I’ve observed, there are definitely people in serious, committed relationships, but just as many who prefer hooking up with people at parties, or just casually hanging out.</p>
<p>Onakim - I’m sorry that was your experience. Perhaps I am naive as a freshman, but I really haven’t seen anyone who was severely inebriated acting cruel and exclusive. I got lucky - my floor is incredibly close - but that seems like it would be a unique situation. I’m sorry it worked out that way for you, though. Speaking as someone who hangs with the athletes every now and then - who tend throw a lot of parties - you really get all types. There are a few girls on my team who don’t drink at all, and no one judges them; there are others who decide to take advantage of the few times we are able to go out and get completely wasted. Either way, I don’t feel like people are very judgmental. To be honest, the most judgment I’ve felt is when I walked my friend back to his "sub-free) floor (he was very drunk) - his roommate and floormates made some nasty comments to us, even though I was completely sober. But I digress…</p>
<p>I think it is more dependent on the groups of students with whom you live than whether it’s sub-free or not. My son lived on a sub-free floor freshman year (his choice) and wishes he hadn’t made that choice. He did not drink freshman year - initially enjoyed the group of students on his floor but found, as the year progressed, that the group became increasingly judgmental about people’s choices. If he chose to hang with people not on the floor or attend parties or just about anything outside of ‘the floor experience’, he experienced sort of a floor-wide cold shoulder. He was very thankful to be on a ‘regular’ floor sophomore year - where everyone could make their own choices - and no one would be passing judgment.</p>
<p>Initially, D did not think the chem vs chem freen was too big of a deal. But after visiting a number of schools–Reed, Carleton, Bowdoin, Swarthmore & Pomona–D is seriously considering living on a chem free floor. Wants to have fun…but without the emphasis of alcohol, etc.</p>