<p>What are the dorms like? i.e. general layout.</p>
<p>Which ones are the best for incoming freshmen?</p>
<p>Check out [Housing</a> - Oberlin College](<a href=“http://new.oberlin.edu/student-life/housing/]Housing”>http://new.oberlin.edu/student-life/housing/)</p>
<p>If you drill down, you can get floor plans that show the approximate size and shape of the rooms. I can’t say which one may be best for you or for an incoming freshman in general.</p>
<p>@nwgolfer321 If you are accepted and decide to come to Oberlin, you will receive the Big Book of Forms in late May, which contains forms about housing. You’ll be able to rank the types of housing you’d prefer: first-year experience, traditional (read: all four year housing), program housing, and co-op housing. Program housing requires an application (these are decided by program housing folks, I believe), co-ops require you to rank your choices of each co-op (these are decided by OSCA’s lottery), and the other two will place you in a dorm that closest fits your choices. (The exception is the sustainability first-year dormitory, Kahn, which will first place students who express an interest in sustainable living, and then students interested in first-year experience.)</p>
<p>Any dorm you are placed in will have a community of some shape or form, of first-years or otherwise. Because of the early arrival of first-years, even if you’re in traditional four-year housing or a program house, you will have a few days to meet and get to know other people in the space you live in, which will most likely persist once the dorm is filled with all students of all years.</p>
<p>From a personal perspective, I lived in a co-op my first year, and loved the community there, but I also spent a great deal of my social time in the nearest first-year dorm, Dascomb, but that didn’t define or shape my friendships for my whole time at Oberlin. It was just a great jumping-off point.</p>
<p>If you want to read a bit of personal perspectives on living options in Oberlin, there are a few posts on the Oberlin blogs I’d recommend:</p>
<p>Ida Hoequist '14 wrote about her fabulous first roommate experience: [“It’s</a> a Beautiful Day in the Roommatehood”](<a href=“http://blogs.oberlin.edu/living/housing/its_a_beautiful.shtml]"It’s”>http://blogs.oberlin.edu/living/housing/its_a_beautiful.shtml)</p>
<p>Karl Orozco '13 wrote about living Barrows, one of the north campus first-year residence halls: [“Cribs.”[/url</a>]</p>
<p>Eli Goldberg '12 wrote about living in Harkness, one of our four living co-ops: [url=<a href=“http://blogs.oberlin.edu/living/housing/hark_is_where_t.shtml]“Hark”>http://blogs.oberlin.edu/living/housing/hark_is_where_t.shtml]"Hark</a> is where the heart is”](<a href=“http://blogs.oberlin.edu/living/housing/cribs.shtml]“Cribs.”[/url”>http://blogs.oberlin.edu/living/housing/cribs.shtml)</p>
<p>Zoe McLaughlin '11 wrote about living in Asia House (program housing): [“Housing</a> (or, new methods of procrastination)”](<a href=“http://blogs.oberlin.edu/community/life_culture/housing_or_new.shtml]"Housing”>http://blogs.oberlin.edu/community/life_culture/housing_or_new.shtml)</p>
<p>@BassDad The floor plans are great for knowing room placement in the buildings, but the drawings are not to scale and doesn’t show the placement of built-in parts of the room, like closets, windows, or doors. They’re great for “where am I in this building in relation to the bathrooms/laundry rooms/exits/friends?” but not for room-planning.</p>
<p>Agreed, maayanplaut, but they do give a general layout that demonstrates that the rooms can vary quite a bit from one another.</p>
<p>You can also live in a COOP, which my daughter did, she LOVED that experience!
She lived in KEEP.</p>
<p>Don’t worry about the size of the rooms. Worry more about the building. Barrows is old as ancient Rome, Dascomb actually has a first floor cafeteria, looks slightly newer but has a different vibe (so they say) than Barrows. If you’re lucky, you’ll get the brand new (as of last fall) freshman dorm. I can’t remember the name but It’s supposed to be environmentally green too. It’s right next door to the main dining hall, Stevenson.</p>
<p>Does anyone know if it is hard to get into Barnard? Anyone live at Barnard?</p>
<p>Does anybody know the bathroom situations? Are they floor, hallway, etc? And are they cleaned by staff?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Students take weekly turns scrubbing toilets and scraping gum off hallway floors. </p>
<p>Just kidding. I’ve never been inside a co-op, but in the dorms I’ve visited with my Oberlin kid, there are numerous bathrooms on every floor of every dorm. The number varies depending on the size of the dorm/floor.</p>
<p>@physicsdude1992: First of all, congratulations on your acceptance. Regarding your bathroom question, I have no answers for you but I do recall one bathroom/shower fact. At some place on campus, at least in the recent past, but possibly in present times, there are co-ed bathrooms and showers. I’ll let you find the thread where that’s discussed, but it’s right here…on College Confidential…and I figure anyone whose second post on this site is to learn more about bathrooms right after being admitted would want to know about co-ed bathrooms (even if it’s just a curiosity thing).</p>
<p>Good luck with the rest of the decision making process.</p>
<p>krich - I’m the current RA in Barnard. What would you like to know?</p>
<p>I am currently hoping (patiently) for my acceptance into the Conservatory and I indicated interest in the Substance Free Dorm, on my application. I read there are only 40 students, and wanted to know my chances to become one of the 40. Is there a long line of students wanting this type of dorm? I don’t really know what type of questions I have, I was hoping you could tell me more about it.</p>
<p>I also have a question about Barnard. What is the community like on the floor?</p>
<p>The community in Barnard is amazing. It is the one dorm where you will always find people. I was on rounds last night and every dorm was deserted (it’s spring break) except for Barnard where 10 people were watching a movie in the lounge. I also know that a lot of the residents from this year want to return because of the community. </p>
<p>We haven’t decided how many spots will be open to freshmen yet because we just started going through the applications of current students. This year I have 42 residents and 21 are freshmen.</p>
<p>Coloratura_as, to see the word coloratura next to Location:Oberlin makes me so relieved. I thought I had to go to college and still suffer from not being able to share my musical interests, just a few minutes ago I got my Oberlin acceptance, and I am so, so, so, so, so happy right now! xD</p>
<p>Drelnis, were you accepted at the Conservatory or do you plan to declare a music major in the College? If so, we would like to include you over at the <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/1045522-master-list-music-school-acceptances-fall-2011-a-42.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/1045522-master-list-music-school-acceptances-fall-2011-a-42.html</a></p>
<p>Oh sorry I plan to be a student of Musical Studies over at the College not the Conservatory 
I’m much more interested in the history and the theory behind music rather than actual performance 
Although I do love to perform and just can’t wait to see Oberlin!</p>
<p>In order to live in Kahn how environmentally friendly must one be?!? Also is dascomb all program/theme housing or do freshman who have made no preferences live there too?
Thanks so much!!</p>
<p>I cannot address your questions about Dascomb. However, regarding Kahn, my D lived their her freshman year. I don’t think you need to be particularly environmentally active. Certainly aware and conscious.</p>
<p>We’re there any sort of regulations that needed to be followed in Kahn?</p>