My daughter got accepted and now we need advise about which dorm. She will be majoring in engineering. What is the difference between a learning community and just a dorm? Do they have communities of engineering housed together? Please Help!
Go to the UW Res Halls Learning Community page on the UW website. Learning communities are a subset of various dorms, occupying a “house”. UW divides its dorms into houses, with a housefellow (same as an RA). Houses are a floor, two floors or an entire building in the case of Kronshage (it is a series of 8 three story buildings on the lakeshore). Around 60-80 residents per house. Some are coed- bathroom locations determine things, most dorms built before coed housing concept (UW started with one each on Lakeshore and Southeast my sophomore year and Liz remained women only until son’s freshman year).
There is WISE for women in science and engineering- it will be in Liz! They call it Waters Hall- that’s known as Liz (short for Elizabeth) or Liz Waters. Central location, top of hill overlooking the lake, largest rooms… Other years I would question a learning location of interest because of the dorm (last year it was in Sellery). See if the program details appeal to your D. Liz is a popular dorm - I looked at the Res Halls site (every year they change it, btw). They put WISE in a great part of Liz (math major son lived there 2 years- his second he chose the house WISE will be in)- all great rooms. If they had that eons ago in Liz I would have lived there. I was a chemistry major who liked the lakeshore- in my day Liz was women only and I preferred living where more men were for dining.
Her major does not matter for choosing her dorm, especially since freshman year she will be taking all sorts of nonengineering classes. Do not worry about the age of any dorm- they have updated them and all are well maintained. All have pros and cons. She does not need to be in a learning community- most students are not. However, if she wants to live in Liz she can get a great room, otherwise her lottery chances may mean she won’t get it. There will be plenty of other women in her STEM classes living all over campus. Her preferences may run to a different lifestyle than living in the WISE dorm- some prefer high rises.
PM me with any dorm, chemistry et al questions. Eventually your D will want an apartment- son then lived near Union South and the Engineering end of campus. By then she will know the campus and people.
Thanks so much for the information.