<p>Can anyone comment on the process for Dorm selection at Mudd? It seems like much of the social life revolves around the specific dorm you're in and some, like West, have particular personalities. Do students get into the dorm they are interested in? Are many stuck in a dorm they don't fit? Also, is there an ant problem in some dorms (saw it referenced on another post)?</p>
<p>The pre-freshmen fill out a 3 - 4 page personality questionnaire and the school places students in the dorms and with the roommates that they think will work the best. They try very hard to avoid putting freshmen in singles, so they’ll have a built-in support group. I’ve heard many very good things about the process. My son got placed in his favorite dorm with a roommate who was totally unsuitable, but they were mutually respectful of each other so overall, no harm done.</p>
<p>The campus is very small, and people often go to other dorms, but a lot of the social life does revolve around the dorms. If you’re outgoing, you should have no trouble finding friends anywhere by forming study groups in your classes, joining in any of the many clubs there are, sitting with people at meals, etc. As I understand it, most of the dorm personalities really aren’t that strong anyway. I would assume that if one dorm repulses you, you could say so on your questionnaire and they wouldn’t put you there.</p>
<p>I hadn’t heard about an ant problem, but Facilities & Maintenance has been pretty responsive for my son, so I imagine any problems would be dealt with rapidly.</p>
<p>I think Mudd does a pretty good job of matching student to dorm (stress to your student the importance of answering that questionaire really honestly). In addition to not putting freshmen in singles, they don’t isolate them by class either. Rooms are reserved for freshman and they are mixed in with all the other classes. I think it really helps keep the anxiety down – there are built in mentors and people to ask questions just down the hall – and I think it helps to increase the maturity level on expectations and handling the workload. There seems to be a real community ethic for the upperclassmen to look out for the new arrivals. For my son, they did a great job of matching him with a roommate. They continued to room together after freshman year. I do recall that one year my son mentioned something about ants, but it must have been taken care of because I don’t remember it being mentioned much after the first comment. I think he would have mentioned it if it had continued to be a problem. </p>
<p>But the prior poster is absolutely correct, that Mudd is so small that if you aren’t crazy about your roommate or dorm, you don’t have to go very far to find somewhere else to make friends and hang out.</p>
<p>I just want to stress the importance of the rooming questionnaire; please, please, please fill it out seriously and honestly. A couple of my friends complain about the noise at their dorms because they didn’t fill the form out seriously. However, on party nights and stuff, it’s fairly easy to find a friend’s room/suite to crash in. Also there are singles for freshman in South. But seriously, just fill the form out seriously and you’ll be in the right place. In the rare case that you aren’t, switching is totally possible and actually happens if the problem is serious (talk to your mentor/proctor/Dean of student life/etc).</p>
<p>Most of these have been answered, although I disagree with GeekMom63 in that the dorm personalities aren’t strong - I think some dorms have really strong personalities, but all the different dorm personalities coexist with each other relatively peacefully and most everyone knows each other and are friends between dorms.</p>
<p>But anyway, I just wanted to say that there definitely is an ant problem in the dorms (at least in Sontag and Linde, where I lived), but that it’s confined to just the tail end of August and September - all the ants are gone by October. People come back to ants swarming all over their stuff. I don’t know if there’s much Facilities and Maintenance would be able to do about it considering it’s seasonal and HMC is located in a desert full of ants, and it’s definitely not something major, more like a minor annoyance.</p>
<p>When you’re filling out the form, be sure to indicate that you’re not interested in drugs/alcohol/loud music if that applies to you. If you say you’re indifferent, you may be placed in a dorm that is a bit rowdier than you’re expecting. The people who place the freshmen are actually the orientation directors, who are rising juniors. I’d say they did a pretty good job of placing people this year. I can only think of 2 or 3 people in my grade who are unhappy/didn’t fit in with their dorm. And of course, you could always be a “third floor” resident of another dorm, meaning that you always hang out there.</p>
<p>Ants were a small annoyance a couple years ago. This last August though, F&M did a pretty good job killing them before we got back to campus–as far as I can tell from my dorm.</p>
<p>Really should not be a factor in deciding which dorm you’d like to live in. The people and quiet hours should matter a lot more.</p>