<p>how are the dorms at davidson?</p>
<p>o and are freshmen allowed to have cars ?</p>
<p>Dorms are wonderful. Watts and Richardson have both been redone this past summer; Watts, Cannon, and Belk have very large, spacious rooms. My room here is larger than at home (I'm in Watts). Every room comes with (for each person) a swivel office chair, a bulletin board, a desk, a set of drawers, and a closet. There are several outlets in the room, overhead lights, and a vanity (sink+mirror). There's phone, internet (wireless everywhere; cords if you need 'em), cable, etc.
It's wonderful. You can bring fridge, microwave, and so on. My friends who have visited me thus far this year have been SO jealous. They say compared to their dorms, our rooms are luxurious and their own are closets in comparison.</p>
<p>Freshmen can have cars and parking is quite close.</p>
<p>I'm not a student at Davidson, but I visited, and I can back up that the dorms are relatively larger and newer than any dorms I have seen.</p>
<p>So freshmen are allowed to have cars: are they necessary?</p>
<p>They are not necessary, in the truest sense of the word -- if you don't have one, you'll always find a friend who does -- but I'm always really glad to have my car. It's convenient. If I need to drive to Moorseville or Berkdale (both about five miles away in opposite directions) to go to Target or Walmart or Staples, etc. it's much easier to be able to go on my own time instead of asking a friend. Also, if I need to get away from campus -- just to escape -- or if I'm craving alone-time, all I have to do is hop in the car and drive. </p>
<p>Plus, I live in Charleston. So only four-ish hours away from Davidson. Fall break is this weekend and I've saved my mother from having to drive all the way up here and all the way back with me; and then having to drive me all the way back to Davidson and all the way home by herself. </p>
<p>Necessary: not really. Convenient: Oh, hell, yes.</p>
<p>haha. it sounds like if you're a serious biker, it would actually be a viable option to be able to do almost anything / go almost anywhere youd need to.</p>
<p>Haha - serious being the operative word in this instance. Five miles is still quite a ways, and in areas where you're crossing Lake Norman, the only via is I-77 ... so it would be biking on the side of the interstate.</p>
<p>A lot of people have bikes on campus, though, for the campus and the TOWN of Davidson.</p>
<p>On that note, I should probably mention the community bikes, because I don't think I have yet on this discussion board, yet.
Davidson College Outdoors owns more or less one hundred yellow, numbered bikes (ten to twenty are always in the shop at any given time) that are for anyone to use. After First Night Down, the bikes are placed around campus. If you need to get somewhere, all you have to do is hop on. The only rule is you can't "save" the bike by hiding it or marking it with your name -- once you dismount, it's up for grabs, even if you're just making a quick stop.<br>
The only catch to the community bikes? Gravity.
Let me explain. Those of you who have visited know well that Davidson is very hilly. Those particularly keen observers would note that the hill goes in one direction from the edge of town ... down. So, if you ride a bike from the church all the way down to Patterson Court (frats/eating houses/sophomore apartment area), you'll barely have to pedal because gravity's bringing you down. On that note, it's a serious pain to bike back UP the hill, so everyone always jokes that the bikes go down and are never seen again (ie. people are too lazy OR too drunk to ride them back up). Once a month or so, Davidson Outdoors drives a truck of them back up the hill from down.</p>
<p>Lake Norman = Heaven on Earth? Charlotte, North Carolina = most livable city in America? Regardless of the answers, Davidson College is a nice place to spend four years. Not even considering that Davidson--like Bowdoin College in Maine--is one of the best academic institutions in the country. My point is that even if the accommodations were in a yurt. a tent or an average dorm room, it is a great place to attend college.</p>