<p>You are allowed to write in a roommate preference, who you WILL be paired with (I mean, assuming they write you in too, I guess). </p>
<p>This dorms question is a bit of a sore subject, because we just got our assignments for next year and I had a TERRIBLE lottery number, so I had to take what I could get, but I’ll put my feelings aside and answer anyway :). First thing you should know is that first-years don’t get any input into their dorms–they are randomly assigned. So whatever info you glean is basically the-more-you-know territory–you’re just going to get assigned a dorm over the summer. You’re not totally stuck–you can change for the spring semester if you really want–but you’ll have your own ideas about dorms by that point.</p>
<p>But anyways, I would say that the Tower-Severance-Claflin complex and Stone-Davis are the two most popular complexes (technically 4 different dorms). Both complexes are on the lake and have their own dining halls. I think Tower is the prettiest complex, and my room in Tower was the overall nicest room I have had so far at Wellesley. The Tower complex has hardwood floors, and the rooms have window seats. However: Tower is one of the dorms where the singles and doubles are essentially the same sized room (the room directly below me that shared my room’s footprint was a double). My single was quite a lovely size–but twice the people, twice the stuff, and twice the furniture doesn’t give one a lot of elbow room. I don’t think it’s a “must bunk” situation, but it you probably won’t be turning cartwheels in your room. One of the more social dorm complexes; many of the students who belong to the societies attempt to live near each other in this complex. The Tower complex is the furthest away from the town of Wellesley, and is also I think the furthest away from the Science Center. </p>
<p>Stone-Davis I know the least about, but it is considered one of the harder dorms to get into (we do these things by lottery, as I alluded to above). </p>
<p>The next most popular complex in my opinion is the Quad (sometimes called the Quint, which I’ll explain). There are four dorms in close proximity (though not all connected): Beebe, Cazenove, Pomeroy, and Shafer. The fifth that makes it a Quint is Munger, which is very close to the Quad but kind of typifies the fifth wheel expression. All of these dorms have hardwood floors, but only Pomeroy has a dining hall. The Quad is the closest complex to the campus center, however, which also has a dining hall. These are also very old dorms, along with the Tower complex, and also have very small doubles. I lived in a double in Beebe, and we didn’t bunk our beds or kill each other, but it is somewhat close living–our beds were about 5 feet apart parallel to each other, for example. It also feels a bit closer than it might otherwise because you have so much furniture–you each get a dresser, a bookshelf, a bed, a desk, a chair, and a lamp (everybody in the school gets these same things). So that times 2 is a lot of furniture in a modestly sized room. That said, I don’t want to scare people–I gave tours and while no one thought my room was very roomy, most people also found it an imaginable space for two people to live in. Also, the bathrooms were renovated last year (after I left!), which made for a big improvement. This is another sociable dorm complex. </p>
<p>Munger is a bit of the red-headed step-child, and is the dorm I scraped my way into with my terrible lottery number. It is unpopular because it isn’t really in a complex (if you looked at a map of the campus, you would see that it is rather more tacked on to the Quad than a real part of the complex) and isn’t really near to anything (one side backs up on the main road that runs on the border of campus, although this is also true for Pom and Caz). That said, I’ve been in singles (no experience with doubles, sorry), and they are reasonably nice. A bit smaller than either Tower or the Quad, but nothing terrible, and with hardwood floors. The dorm also isn’t especially far from anything, and is said to have a good community. We’ll see!</p>
<p>The least popular dorms are the new dorms, Freeman, Bates and McAfee. They were built in the fifties and are the least scenic of the dorm complexes in terms of architecture. The rooms have carpeting. The dorms are very near the science center, making it popular for those type of majors, and they are also the shortest walk to the town of Wellesley, which was very convenient. The pluses are that the doubles are much larger than the doubles in the other complexes. I lived in Freeman my first year and my room was probably 50% larger than my room in Beebe (or it felt that way, at the very least). The dorm complex has a dining hall, and the bathrooms are pretty up-to-date. Each floor also has a kitchen and a common room, which is very nice for hanging and talking/playing games/whatever. Of the other dorms I am familiar with (again, primarily Tower and the Quad), none have a common room on each floor and none have the sort of kitchens that they have in the new dorms, which are actual rooms big enough for a table. The other dorms just have kitchenettes. Also, it should be said that singles in the new dorms are not that large. They aren’t shoeboxes or anything like that, but singles in the Tower complex and the Quad are definitely larger. By reputation these are the quiet dorms, and this and their distance from the academic quad and the campus center are some of the reasons for their relative unpopularity.</p>
<p>Near the new dorms is also Dower, which is primarily for first-year students. I’ve never been in the dorm, but it is known for having a strong community, which can be both good and supportive or bad and stifling. </p>
<p>As far as being a vegan, the meal plan allows anyone to eat at any of the dining halls (Pomeroy, Tower, Stone-D, Bates, and the campus center). Pomeroy is kosher and vegetarian, although it tends to get cited as one of the least favorite dorms. There are at the very least salad bars in every dining hall. They usually try to have a vegetarian (not sure about vegan, sorry!) option at every meal, but beyond that I don’t know too much about being vegan at Wellesley.</p>