<p>What are considered the "best" freshmen dorms (coed)? Dupont? Yates? How is Botetourt?</p>
<p>Barrett gets rave reviews for its pretty central location on old campus and nice decorations. I’ve always liked DuPont because I thought the pit was cool, but everyone tells me they never use it. As for Botetourt, everyone makes fun of it for being so far from everything, but it’s really not that mad. It has nice spacious and A/Ced lounges, access to Lake Matoaka, near the Caf, tennis courts, the Rec, and lots of other freshmen. Yates is really the only one I would avoid. Its location is marginal (similar to Botetourt and DuPont) but it has a reputation for being run down (proximity to the Units may have something to do with it) and musty, especially in the basement. Jon Stewart lived there, however. Brown, Hunt, and Taliaffero usually form very tight nit groups of friends, and living so close to CW and the Marketplace and Merchants’ Square gives you a slightly different first year experience than the large Western dorms. Monroe is said to be quite nice on the inside, and the location isn’t bad. And yes, non Monroe-Scholars live there too. Its about 50:50, from my understanding.</p>
<p>if you look back, you can find some other threads on the dorms… this topic usually comes up each year.</p>
<p>botetourt, taliaferro, hunt are questionable. Small rooms, no AC (AC in the lounges though). Taliaferro and Hunt are near old campus classrooms, and a good location to explore CW (/spend your money at restaurants).</p>
<p>Yates and Dupont have AC and are next to the Caf, Frats, and Rec Center (Botetourt also shares this location). In Yates, you have to walk by the swamp pit to get to the UC (Sadler Center), and sometimes it smells funny.</p>
<p>Barrett and Monroe are nice on the inside, solid sized rooms, but no AC. Good locations on old campmus Monroe is across from Wawa, which is a good place to spend all of your money between 12 and 2am, lol.</p>
<p>Brown is in CW, and I’ve never been inside it.</p>
<p>W&M campus, overall, is fairly small. So a “long walk” for W&M could be a short walk to students at Virginia Tech or UVA.</p>
<p>In my semester here so far I have seen that Yates is smelly (but at least has AC), Botetourt is (imo) awful - small rooms w/ no AC, and DuPont is great and is the largest freshman hall, so you may end up there. Barrett is also very nice, but it has no AC.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, students cannot preference particular dorms. The assignments are somewhat random. Keep in mind however that the community atmosphere that exists at W&M and in freshman dorms in particular is very strong and no matter which dorm to which you’re assigned you can have an unbelievable time.</p>
<p>^ This doesn’t mean that you can’t switch out promptly (often give you choices) if you don’t like your room, so, it is actually helpful to know which dorms are good.</p>
<p>DuPont and Yates are popular for the AC, although DuPont is the nicer of the two. It also has suite-style bathrooms, which is either good or bad depending on your opinion. Yates has a more institutional feel and like HtH said the basement is particularly undesirable. Both are close to the Caf, which is way better than the UC for dining. None of the other freshman dorms have AC except in some of the lounges. Get a “medical” note and bring a window unit.</p>
<p>Brown and Hunt and Taliaferro are kind of isolated (often referred to as “Siberia”). Long walk to the Caf or the Rec Center. Brown has larger rooms, Taliaferro has small rooms, and Hunt is somewhere in the middle. CW is pretty close to all three. If you live in Brown, you may find yourself on the Aromas and Baskin Robbins meal plan.</p>
<p>Botetourt is equally isolated, although I guess it’s not that much more out of the way than DuPont. It is, however, roach infested. Rooms are a bit larger than average and so are the desks. Reasonably close to the frats for weekend fun.</p>
<p>Monroe is known as the old and pretty dorm. Has a nice location right in between old and new campuses. Not sure about the actual quality of life in the dorm though.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t recommend switching just because you don’t like your dorm room though. The people you meet are going to be far more important over the course of the year(s), and a lot of that bonding happens during orientation. Switching rooms right away disrupts that. I was annoyed because I got a smaller than average room on the sweltering top floor of the roach motel Fauquier, but when the day to submit room change requests arrived I let it pass. Best decision I ever made; I’m getting ready to graduate and am still very close with the same group of great people.</p>