<p>I keep hearing that page is awful, and that one should everything they can to avoid it…but for what reason?</p>
<p>how are dorms deceided anyways? Do we show up the first day and they just give us a random house?</p>
<p>how about chem free dorms…which are chem free and which are not? what about “quiet dorms” what are those?</p>
<p>If there are any Bates students who can give advice, please do so. I am sure everyone on the Bates forum will find this very infomative</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>In about mid-May, you will get a piece of paper that will give you a chance to describe your living habits and where you would like to live. There will be about six choices or so and you get to rank them according to your preference. They usually do a pretty good job of putting people where they want but if you want a really popular place you may not get it. </p>
<p>They are switching around some of the designations for dorms next year so freshmen will no longer be in quiet dorms. I'll try to summarize all the housing options for freshmens as best as I possibly can.</p>
<p>Smith- all-freshmen quads, with about 60 kids in each section. You will have a large number of people living in relatively small spaces. Great for meeting lots of different people and for having parties, not great if you want to work in your room or have a quiet night. Some people love it, some hate it. It just depends what you are looking for.</p>
<p>Page and Parker - these dorms are pretty similar so I'll discuss them together. Both have rooms for all classes although freshmen make up the majority of inhabitants. Both have a fair number of loud parties, I know that page often has some bands play in the common room that can be heard across the other side of the puddle. Parker has a nice central location, Page is more removed but some rooms do have views of the puddle. Parker has 143 students and Page has 131.</p>
<p>Hedge- all-freshmen dorm with about 60 kids, decently sized rooms. I don't know what it was like in the past but this year there are some loud parties on the guys' floors but the girls' floors are not too loud. Hedge also has a really good location between the library and p-gill. If I had to live in a dorm as a freshmen again, this would be one of my top choices.</p>
<p>Milliken - all-freshmen house with about 30 kids. Its located a bit farther away from the main area of campus but its definetely one of the closer houses. There will probably be a fair number of parties there but since its so small it really depends on the people who are living there each year. all in all a pretty nice house</p>
<p>Clason- all-freshmen chem free house with about 30 kids. This is where i currently live and although its not perfect, I like living here a lot. Since its chem-free, its generally quiet and clean, which is great sometimes but other times I wish we could have a few parties as a house. To me its seems more diverse because there are less stereotypical kids, but we also got a handful of weird guys as well. Generally, most people are pretty social despite living in a chem-free building, and a house most of us get along pretty well together. Clason is great for some people, but not a good choices if you want a very active social life involving lots of parties.</p>
<p>Rand- right now rand is the upper class party dorm but next year it will be "low-chem" filled with about half freshmen. They are supossed to be cleaning it up a lot, and I suspect they will some, but I'm not sure how much. I'm also not exactly sure how low-chem will be enforced so the designation may just be completely ridiculous. I think on paper it is supossed to have no kegs, no blueslipped parties, and no more than a thirty pack on each floor but it may not be enforced. I guess if you want to have a beer or two with your friends this may be a good place to aim for. I really have no idea how it will turn out but I'll discover it with whoever ends up living there because I had bad lottery numbers and will be stuck living in Rand next year.</p>
<p>I think I described them all pretty thoroughly but check the bates website and the daily jolt for more info, although some of the information maybe not be updated for the changes next year.</p>
<p><a href="http://bates.dailyjolt.com/housing.html%5B/url%5D">http://bates.dailyjolt.com/housing.html</a>
<a href="http://www.bates.edu/x47280.xml%5B/url%5D">http://www.bates.edu/x47280.xml</a></p>
<p>wow! thats a great write up! thanks!</p>
<p>those houses seem to be the perfect balance..."semi-chem" was kind of what I was looking for. Do you know if parking is an issue outside of those houses?</p>
<p>maybe we can later discuss with other first years their choices.</p>
<p>...still waiting for others to join.</p>
<p>I'll be a first year also. I have no idea what house I want next year. Thanks for the write-up, that helped. Does anyone know when we sign up for classes? Thanks.</p>
<p>Milliken sounds like a good balance to me</p>
<p>Miliken sounds nice indeed. I am trying to make up my mind, too, although I actually don't know how much my choice will matter in the end. But it's a really difficult decision to make, and most students say that it sometimes depends on those who live there. So it might all be a matter of luck eventually. I think there will be more to be said by the end of May. I can't wait to get my "Getting Ready" package.</p>
<p>Hedge or Miliken are my top choices. Ramona, I can't wait for my package to come either! I have been anticipating this since like, well, December. :)</p>
<p>Hedge and Miliken for me too. Does that mean that everyone on this thread wants to live in Miliken? BTW, what are quads? I wouldn't mind Smith but it really depends on how loud 'loud' is...</p>
<p>If I am not mistaken quads are rooms with four beds inside... only one dorm has such rooms, which I think I'd rather avoid since they tend to be really noisy...imagine trying to make your schedule so that it somehow suits that of other three students. Although it would be more like the camps I've been on, which was real fun. Still, this is a no for me, hope I don't get to be surprised!</p>
<p>Have you seen 'the village'? it's simply wonderful. I just have the bad feeling that no freshmen gets to be housed there. Still, I love it. Maybe I'll stick to the small, warm style of the houses in the end; large dorms? I don't know, kind of risky, I guess.</p>
<p>Just to add some to what Rachie said - </p>
<p>The Village is for upperclassmen only - they have awesome suites, and are really nice. </p>
<p>The rooms in Smith are "2 room quads", where a living space is divided into 2 rooms - you go through the first one which is the study area where everyone has their desks, then the second room has 2 bunk beds. Smith is a great place with a lot of awesome people to hang out with and a chill atmosphere, though you won't really be able to do any work in there and it can feel really crowded at times. It can be kind of gross too, especially on weekends. But, really, so can Page, Parker, and Hedge too. </p>
<p>Page has really awesome dance parties every once and a while, the hallways are kind of dark and sketchy looking, but the rooms are pretty big, it overlooks the Puddle, and there's a lot of people to hang out with, but it doesn't feel as crowded as Smith does sometimes. </p>
<p>Parker is pretty much the same, with good sized rooms and wide hallways, but has ridiculous stairs and an elevator that, this year at least, was in a rank and nasty state. People there are fun with parties within the dorm often and just chill with one another, but they also have a lot of parties with everyone hanging out in the halls which are open to everyone, and once in a while they have a kegger.</p>
<p>Rand has huge kegger parties in the common room with bands, but that will definitely change next year - I think it's a thirty-rack in each room, and no more huge parties, but still a great place to live. Only thing is if you want to go to other dorms, you have somewhat of a walk ahead of you. </p>
<p>Milliken is a nice house, the hallways are kind of close quarters and the rooms aren't too big, but it is homey feeling with hardwood floors in the rooms and stuff. The top floor has cute rooms with sloping roofs. The people there are really chill, they hang out with one another in the dorm a lot, especially because they're kind of a walk away from the other dorms.</p>
<p>Hedge is nice too - fairly large rooms, especially in "The Penthouse" which has really tall ceilings, and almost all the kids that live there are known for being pretty tight with one another ("Hedgecest" is a popular term used; but seriously, Hedgies are really a great group of friends) They have parties often, a lot of the time it's amongst themselves but anyone can go and chill, and there's usually a lot of music playing/guitars and drums going on.</p>
<p>I don't know much about Clason, really. It's the only house/dorm I haven't been to.</p>
<p>Rachie gave you guys a lot of information; I'm just trying to give you guys a feel for the dorms. I have good friends living in all of them except Clason, but the feel of each one can change. Anyway, good luck with all those forms!</p>