<p>How are the dorms in duke?</p>
<p>I think in general that Duke's dorms are pretty nice on East campus. In general, the sizes vary. Randolph and Blackwell have the smallest rooms, but those dorms are air-conditioned. I would take a bigger room over air-conditioning any day because the air conditioning is really only needed the first 2-3 weeks of school. After that, you won't use it again except for perhaps a couple of days right before you go home in the spring. </p>
<p>The six classic Geogian buildings on the main quad (Alspaugh, Pegram, Brown, Basset, Wilson, and Giles) are my personal favorites perhaps because I lived in Alspaugh this year. The real estate of these dorms is what makes them so great - they are right in the center of all of the activity. All of these dorms have very similar living arrangements except for Wilson, which is suite-style living. The downside of Wilson is that you have to clean your own bathrooms instead of them being cleaned everyday. Consequently, it may work out great if you have good roommates who contribute and are clean but it could also work out quite the opposite. </p>
<p>GA, Southgate, Aycock, and Jarvis are all the older dorms. The rooms are generally big. GA and especially Southgate tend to be more isolated than the other dorms. </p>
<p>Last, Bell Tower or "Belle Tower: Resort and Spa" as their bench says - this is the newest dorm on East. It's air-conditioned, good-sized rooms, looks like a hotel, plasma TV's on each floor, and supposedly a 50 seat multimedia room. The one-downside of Bell Tower is that it is like Southgate in that it is further away from the main quad than the other dorms.</p>
<p>In general, you'll end up happy whereever you get placed. Certain dorms obviously develop certain reputations - some apparently have had the same reputation for years. I don't know exactly how this works out - perhaps because some of the RA's who stay create similar environments and FAC's also will sometimes let freshmen know that it's important to keep up a certain reputation. The other way of course is by institutionalizing the repution - i.e. Brown - substance-free.</p>
<p>In defense of Blackwell and Randolph - you definitely get used to the small rooms, especially if you loft. My roomie and I (in Blackwell) managed to make our room incredibly cozy and warm with two chairs, standing lamps, about 9 extra sets of drawers, and lots of pillows. If anyone gets put in either of these dorms, PM me and I could send you a pic I have of our room to let you know the size/what you have to work with/how you can make it work. I was a huge fan of how our room actually turned out - I loved it, and actually cried when I saw it emptied out at the end of this year. Plus, I remember desperately searching the internet last year when I found out my dorm to try and find pictures of Blackwell and see how big the rooms were so I would have some idea to work with.</p>
<p>Oh, plus the AC is so worth it. I spoke to people near the end of the semester (during finals) who couldn't work in their rooms because it was so sweltering hot. I never noticed the heat and didn't even think twice about it. Soooo worth it.</p>