<p>Hey! I will be an incoming freshman next year (at least that worry is over) yet now is the challenge of housing! </p>
<p>I am a Weinberg student looking to major in Economics and maybe Political Science or History. I am quite nerdy and like hanging out with goofy people. While I don't mind going out to parties, I don't have to live near the Frats. I really like the idea of living on South Campus near downtown Evanston and the community of the Residential Colleges.</p>
<p>Here are some I was looking at:
Willard, Chapin, Public Affairs (PARC), Shepard, Elder (not a Res college but better than Bob I think) </p>
<p>Any tips on applying to res colleges? How many freshman typically are in a res college? Thoughts, discussions, and tips for applying for housing would be greatly appreciated!</p>
<p>If you’re Weinberg, it will be much more convenient for you to live South Campus, as the majority of your classes will be south campus. Plus is downtown Evanston, like you said.</p>
<p>Tips for res colleges… the popular ones are pretty hard to get into. Slivka, Willard, are the common ones. As for the residential communities, Elder and Allison you need high priority numbers in order to get a room. And speaking of, the NU room selection process is very biased towards having a roommate. If you don’t, they essentially make you choose what’s remaining after all the people with roommates have chosen. </p>
<p>Try to get a dorm that’s close to Sheridan (which is the main artery of NU campus) so it’s convenient to walk around. Trust me, walking will get really tiresome after a while. </p>
<p>You don’t really have to worry right now. Btw. Don’t fret too much.</p>
<p>Thanks so much! What is the age distribution in the RCs? Does Chapin seem too small?</p>
<p>Res colleges are mostly freshmen. I live in Shepard but I think a smaller res college like Chapin is actually desirable because they’re very tight knit. Just be aware that a lot of south campus (Chapin, Shepard, and Jones particularly) are pretty dominated by theater and music majors</p>
<p>I appreciate all the responses so far! Does anyone know when the Res College application comes out?</p>
<p>That will be after the RD decisions are out…</p>
<p>The housing process (and RC app) happens after all the students are committed, so after May 1st. Don’t worry about it for a while. 
</p>
<p>Ha! I got pretty excited a little too early :D</p>
It definitely sounds like Willard might be a good fit for you. Not many people will mention this, but their master (A professor who lives in the building) is probably THE most popular professor on campus, Saul Morson.
Sadly the ‘residential college community’ idea sounds much more than it actually is. Don’t limit yourself by that…
If I were to rank South Campus (dominant) dorms, it would probably be like Allison > Willard > ISRC > Chapin > Hinman > PARC > CRC > Jones > Shepard > SMQ/NMQ. That’s my preference and I’m a nerdy econ major too 
ivyleaguefan- My D is a 4 year ResCol Alum, and son is 3 year Res Col current student - and obviously they both enjoy the experience. As it has been explained to me, Res College is like a smaller group within a larger group - and give’s you an opportunity to have a “base of operations”, as you expand your outlook and friend base throughout the college years. You can be pretty involved if you want - and both my kids picked up valuable “return-points” by participating in IM and Fireside events. But every year their are some kids that just don’t participate - and thus get dropped.
Both kids also mention the study groups as a positive and my D still flys every year to East Coast to meetup with her ResCol group. So the Res Cols can be a VERY positive experience.
Res Colleges will either act like a regular hall would and it’ll be normal, or it will be a great experience. You can’t really lose out either way. As for Ivyleaguefan’s comment, I would rate them differently for different people, since certain things appeal more to some than others.
Thanks for all the advice so far. If you are applying to a residential college, do you need to find a roommate before you fill out the application? If you do pick a roommate beforehand, what happens if only one of you gets accepted and the other does not?
cat19 - Neither of my kids had a roommate prior to doing the res coll app. You should email your question someone at NU, if that’s important to you.
The rooming situation seems to change every year, so this might be totally wrong, but for res colleges I don’t think you need a roommate. For regular res halls not having a roommate caused you to get the last pick our year, so it wasn’t a great idea, but it’s fine. I’d still suggest trying to find someone to room with though. There will almost inevitably be a rooming page made for your class where people will post possible places they want to live, lifestyle habits, music tastes, etc. so you can find someone you hopefully will like, or at least not hate.