<p>hey, I’m a first year living in Hartley now (and I’ll be living here next year, too). In terms of social life, John Jay and Carman are definitely more social than the LLC–if you want to stumble down the hall and into the party, those are the places to be (actually, real talk, Carman is the place to be). Hartley and Wallach can be kind of hit or miss with respect to socializing, it really depends on who is in your suite and how well you get along. I really love living here, but I have some great suitemates and we stay up late talking a lot. Are there giant parties in the suite lounge? No, but the mess would bug me anyway (Carman is straight up nasty). </p>
<p>here’s a quick lowdown on the differences between Hartley and Wallach (keeping in mind that I’m biased): Wallach by next year will be completely renovated. The bathrooms are super nice, the rooms all have electronic locks, and everything is generally much classier. That being said, because the floors are no longer organized into suites, it’s pretty similar to living in Furnald. Hartley is quite a bit more grungy–the furniture is pretty old and beat up, our bathrooms aren’t as fancy, and the equipment in the kitchen is a little dated. That being said, I’ve found Hartley to be a lot more home-y and comfortable. Plus, not having a long trek down a hallway to go to the bathroom (which is what you’d do in JJ) is super nice. I’m also really happy about having the kitchen as the meal plan gets old, fast. Additional differences are as follows: Hartley has the hospitality desk (where you go if you’re locked out of your room), a security guard 24/7 (sometimes people who live in Wallach have to swipe in at Hartley, the buildings are connected), the computer lab, the laundry room, and a more active first floor lounge. I also think the elevators are more reliable. Wallach is closer to John Jay (read: food), has a piano in the lounge, and has the generally nicer–if smaller–rooms. You’re also more likely to get a double in Wallach as the singles tend to go to upperclassmen. </p>
<p>with respect to cleanliness, that really depends on how neat your suitemates are. Hartley bathrooms aren’t nearly as gross as JJ bathrooms and the person/bathroom ratio is much better (I share three toilets and three showers with 15 people, compared to four or five toilets/showers with 40+ people). Plus, the bathroom is literally right there, so there’s no awkward hallway trek in a towel. LLC bathrooms are cleaned twice a week, which is fine. The only times the ones in Hartley get gross are when we run out of hand soap (I have a lot of clean-freak suitemates, this isn’t true of all suites), and then we have to resort to using bar soap that people have on hand. Also if people don’t clean their hair out of the drain in the shower, but that’s true of any dorm. The rest of the suite’s cleanliness depends on the people. My suite (5C) has a kind of gross kitchen sometimes because most of the sophomores cook and we all get too busy to do dishes. Usually RAs post cleaning schedules, though, so nothing gets too nasty. We also have a common living area (I’m sitting on our couch with my feet on our coffee table as I type this), which is an advantage over the other first year dorms. JJ can get pretty gross–I have a friend on JJ5 whose bathroom had blood all over the floor for like, a week.</p>
<p>here’s one handy thing about the LLC: the best way to get a single as a sophomore is to apply to live here (all LLC sophomores get singles, but to live in the LLC as an upperclassman you have to fill out an application saying how much you like community development and first years or something), and the best way to get into the LLC as a sophomore is to live here as a freshman. While the selection is pretty random, you have a much higher chance if you’ve lived in the LLC already and gone to one or two of the events (there are tons of events, from pizza parties with professors to trips to Chinatown to ice skating in Bryant Park). feel free to message me if you want any other information about Columbia housing, I write for bwog (our biggest campus blog, we do a lot about housing/student life) and have friends/experience being in all of the first year dorms.</p>
That was really helpful.</p>