<p>My son and I are in a bit of a dorm dispute. I want him to live in the engineering dorms and he currently has the engineering community in the yellow buildings as his first choice and the red bricks as his second choice. I feel that there is a huge advantage to living amongst your classmates. Also, he is requesting a triple and the yellow buildings seems to have more room. </p>
<p>However, since attending open house and spending time with the current students at a party, he has been led to believe that Sierra Madre would be a better choice. They all told him that they “regret” not living in Sierra Madre their first year. I am worried that it would be too easy to get distracted in the other communities.</p>
<p>Can someone shed some light on what the advantages and disadvantages are of living within the engineering community and the same for the other more “social” dorms?</p>
<p>If you’re really social and like to go out a lot (or stay in and “party” while trying not to get caught lol), then you will probably like Sierra Madre. If you like quiet and time alone (like me), I’d go with a different option. All the real dorms (excluding Cerro) are basically forced to be social. You can’t really avoid seeing other people. Sierra Madre may just be considered more social because it tends to attract more outgoing kinda wild people generally. I’d say the advantages of living with people in you major are that you get to know them better than just by having class with them, you can work together and help each other out if you’re having trouble with a class, and they understand the amount of work you have since they probably have a similar amount. The only problem with Sierra Madre being more “social” is if you don’t handle it well. What I mean by that is that you get caught up with always wanting to do things with people and neglect your work and put it off until it’s too late. Then it can cause problems. But if you budget your time well and prioritize, you should be fine. My guess that the biggest issue with living in the engineering dorms is a lack of girls and a lack of diversity since you’re surrounded only by engineers. North Mountain usually has a more equal amount of guys and girls though, and sometimes they’ll put quite a few non-engineering majors in there too.</p>
<p>Thanks NTKS17 for your feedback. I think my son’s concerns are exactly what you said in your reply…
“My guess that the biggest issue with living in the engineering dorms is a lack of girls and a lack of diversity since you’re surrounded only by engineers.”</p>
<p>In North Mountain, if you requested the engineering community, will you be with other majors as well? Or are the communities in separate buildings? I think he is in a good spot to get his first or second choice since he did his housing contract early as an ED.</p>
<p>I think North Mountain is pretty mixed up, like there isn’t one building designated to engineering, at least as far as I know. North Mountain and Santa Lucia are usually grouped together (North mountain residents have access to Santa Lucia study lounges and common areas), which is why it’s also considered an engineering dorm. However, my freshman year, there was a record number of incoming students and a lot of non engineering majors found themselves in North Mountain (as these were some of the first rooms converted to triples). They are expecting a very large incoming freshman class this fall as well, but since your son did ED, I think he has a very good chance of getting his first choice. What’s nice about North Mountain is that rather than guys and girls being separated into separate wings like in the redbricks, it’s very likely that girls might be living just a couple doors down from you in North Mountain. Which means meeting a greater variety of people, and possibly majors, since I know quite a few liberal arts girls from my major ended up in North Mountain my freshman year.</p>
<p>I have an incoming freshman majoring in engineering. My husband and I have encouraged my D to dorm at Santa Lucia her first year. Original thought was that she should be with others in her major that she attends classes with. This was confirmed last week when attending Open House last weekend. We meet three female engineering students, two freshman and one sophomore. All three dormed at the towers, and regretted not dorming in Santa Lucia or North Mountain (both predominantly for engineers) for two reasons: it was noisier and more distracting at the towers with other non engineers… Their classes were further away from the engineering classes and areas where they’d study with other engineers. I have a pretty social kid and I think she won’t have any problems making friends wherever she lives, but she is wanting to live in the non engineering dorms… Likely she will stick with Santa Lucia as her first choice. She definitely did not like the layout, motel style of North Mountain (second choice) when seeing it in person.</p>
<p>I think your son may be at a competitive disadvantage in the College of Engineering if he ends up not staying with his fellow engineering students in the more studious dorms. It is harder to study where it is noisier, harder to find classmates with the same classes. Engineering is a tough major, but if he makes it through the first year, he will have 3 more years to live in the more “social” venues.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone for your feedback. He has read the thread and is starting to see the advantages of being in an engineering community. Hopefully he will get North Mountain. Will he still have a good connection with the rest of the engineering community in Santa Lucia? I think housing said their key card will give them access into Santa Lucia, but I could be wrong.</p>