As a rising senior, I am thinking about applying to Brown ED. When I went on a tour there, I fell in love with the school. However, I was not able to see any freshman dorms. How are they? Also, how do they compare to other university dorms?
Honestly, dorms shouldn’t be a big part of your decision. At Brown, they’re…dorm-y. You share a reasonably-sized room with someone. You each get a bed, a dresser, a desk, a closet (or wardrobe if the rooms don’t have closets). Floors are generally linoleum in freshman dorms, from what I remember. Bathrooms vary by freshman dorm - some are one-room bathrooms shared by a few rooms on the hall, some are more typical “hall bathrooms,” with multiple toilet and shower stalls. I wouldn’t call them particularly nice, but they also aren’t terrible. Everything is perfectly functional, and facilities is good about fixing things when they aren’t.
@bruno14 good to know! I was just wondering about the dorms… I’m definitely not going to pick a college based off of them. As of now, I’m most likely going to apply to Brown ED.
E.g. my roommate and I in Wayland had a couch in our room. Had just enough space to walk to our beds/desks/around the couch.
Frankly the dorms are mediocre, but that didn’t stop the majority of campus social life from taking place in dorms.
Agree, the dorms are not the best aspect of Brown. My D is there and had a smallish place in the Keeney quad, where a lot of first years are housed together in doubles. The room did not compare well to residences at LACs, like Bowdoin Amherst et al., which generally have posher living arrangements. The bathroom facilities are inadequate as well for so many messy students. The less said about the housing at Brown, the better.
If you search around, you can find photos and videos of Brown dorms.
I agree that one does not attend Brown for the dorms, but based on all the dorms I’ve seen, I’d put Brown in the middle. Yes there are some colleges with gorgeous old dorms with fireplaces, etc. And yes, there are some colleges with modern dorms with swimming pools and climbing walls. But there are also colleges with small doubles that have been turned into triples or even quads, that are very institutional looking with no character or amenities.
Brown’s dorms are functional. They are neither amazing nor horrible. What makes them great are the kids who are inhabiting them.
Does anyone have any pictures of freshman dorms? I’ve looked, but can’t seem to find any
There aren’t many and they might not be freshman dorms but here are some…
MODERATOR’S NOTE: Deleted link; not allowed. But really, it’s a dorm room; they all pretty much look the same.
You can’t see much of this room, but my daughter’s closet in Keeney freshman year was exactly like this, with a built in shelf in front. It also had a small safe in the closet, like you would find in a hotel
MODERATOR’S NOTE: Deleted link; not allowed.
This picture is labeled “a room in Andrews Hall”. Andrews has a lot of freshman doubles: http://www.brown.edu/Student_Services/Residential_Council/lottery/rooms/index.php
This article has several 360 degree views of sophomore dorms. It’s not freshmen and some of the rooms are bigger, but I think the feel of them being Brown dorms is the same:
http://blogdailyherald.com/2015/04/03/an-inside-look-into-every-sophomore-dorm/
Clarification to the above: The Residential Life website states that room safes can be rented, but are not provided as part of the room as when my daughter was a freshman in Keeney three years ago. http://reslife.brown.edu/Index/policy/safes.html
^I wonder how recent that is? My room in Keeney last year came with safes.
If the safes were still there last year then they are probably still there now. I’m pretty sure they were installed with the renovations three years ago. Perhaps what Res Life is saying is that students shouldn’t expect a safe as part of the standard room furnishings. My daughter’s subsequent two dorms did not have room safes.