<p>I was accepted EA and have already visited and committed. I'm filling out my housing application and am still feeling unsure about the dorms, even though I've researched all of them.
I'm very intrigued by Broadview because of the private rooms and bathrooms as well as the proximity to transportation downtown. However, I'd like a somewhat social atmosphere. Are the people too introverted? Are there parties? Are most of the students placed there because they submitted their housing form too late?
I know that Max P is known as a party dorm but I really didn't care for it when I visited--is South my only other pick for a party/outgoing dorm?
Info on the sociability of all other dorms is welcome. Thanks in advance for your help--I know these questions are asked frequently but I still feel lost.</p>
<p>From what I’ve heard about Broadview, it’s a bit… cliquey. But this was just the opinion of one person. </p>
<p>South and Max aren’t the only social dorms. My house in BJ, Linn-Mathews, has parties all of the time and seems (I’m not particularly close to my house) very outgoing. Hitchcock people are also very outgoing and has parties at times. BJ and Hitchcock (Snell is pretty quiet) tend to be the more nerdy sort of outgoing though. The dorms that I’ve heard of being as insular are Blackstone, Maclean, and Stony.</p>
<p>Blackstone is insular and Broadview isn’t?</p>
<p>I would say both Broadview and Blackstone can get pretty insular. It’s not that they don’t get out of the dorm at all, but rather that when they do, they tend to stick together as a group. For example, a collective of Broadviewers might party hop in unity. So don’t worry about not getting out enough; the Broadview/Blackstone bubble will gladly follow you around :P.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t worry about needing to get into a partying/social dorm. Hitchcock is generally seen as nerdier, yet a solid 1/2 to 2/3 of us go out.</p>
<p>Oh, and stay away from Linn-Matthews. They’re weeeeeird . . . ;)</p>
<p>I too have heard that Broadview is cliquey, but I think more important is the fact that it is really far away - MaxP, South, BJ, and Pierce are really great just for their proximity to campus (I may be missing one…?), and believe it or not, proximity matters.</p>
<p>Linn-Mathews is not weird! And is very social.</p>
<p>Thanks so much for everyone’s replies so far!
It’s interesting to hear that Broadview seems cliquey. Do you guys think it’s a bad idea to request a single room as a first year?</p>
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<p>Concerning the first-year single, I would say it depends on what kind of person you are. Some people need a bit of a push to get out there; in that case a room-mate might be useful. Otherwise, if you leave your door open people are bound to come in, so there’s no dearth of in-dorm socialization. Either way, I would say it matters less than you think. I came in wanting a single badly (put “having a single” first on my list of preferences), ended up getting a double, and ended up pretty happy for it.</p>
<p>Well, now I’m torn between basically everywhere. At least every dorm sounds pretty good. Apart from Broadview and Max P, what are the bathroom situations in the dorms? I’ve been trying to figure out if they’re all co-ed or not…at this point that’s becoming a more important factor than I originally anticipated.</p>
<p>Pierce has co-ed communal bathrooms. Snell-Hitchcock has co-ed communal bathrooms, although there is a women’s only floor in Snell and most of the floors for first years in Hitchcock are single-sex, therefore having a default single-sex bathroom. Breckenridge has communal single-sex bathrooms. B-J has communal bathrooms, most of which are co-ed, although not on single sex floors. South Campus has communal bathrooms (unless you live in an apartment suite), most of which are co-ed. MacLean’s bathroom situation is unclear to me, although I know that they have a mixture of multi-user bathrooms and single bathrooms (although the single bathrooms are not attached to rooms) so it shouldn’t be an issue.
Also, for all co-ed bathroom situations, theoretically every house puts it to a vote as to whether or not to have single-sex or co-ed bathrooms. The majority of houses go with co-ed, as it’s usually more private than having single sex (in that to maintain purely single sex bathrooms in Pierce or B-J, for example, you would have to go upstairs or downstairs to access a different bathroom-- which really makes the idea of privacy moot if you have to go through the whole house in a towel).
I lived on both a single-sex and co-ed communal bathroom floor in Snell and, honestly, it’s not a big deal to share a bathroom with people of the opposite gender. People are respectful, and it’s really only used as a place to poop and shower-- not to sneak peeks.</p>
<p>Maclean – at least five years ago, when one of my kids lived there – had single-sex communal bathrooms (which were small, like bathrooms in a home, basically, one person at a time). If I remember correctly, each floor had basically three pods of ten singles apiece, plus one or two bathrooms, which would be designated for men or for women (two each per floor, I think). The pods were all co-ed with rooms randomly assigned to men or women. The bathrooms weren’t right next to one another, so some people might have to walk a ways down the hall to the next pod because the bathroom closest to them was assigned to the other sex.</p>