<p>Can anyone shed a little light on this program for me? Is it exclusively for freshman? Will incoming freshmen receive anything about the program? Do you recommend it?</p>
<p>It is mixed-class housing. Some of the floors are only for first-years though.
The program: really whatever you make of it. They have a lot of cultural/academic enrichment events that are hosted in Brace Commongs (a large common area shared by all four of the dorms in the cluster, a very nice space). By being in East Wheelock it is expected that you will participate in these activities, but you don't have to. I know a few people who are there only for the nicer dorms and its location near the gym.
You will receive a bit of information about it (about a page) when you get your package that includes dorm information. You will be asked to write a few short answers in an application (but I don't know of any first years who were rejected).
The only downside to East Wheelock is that it has PAPER THIN walls. Luckily most people are relatively quiet there so it's not really an issue, but you can literally hear someone a floor above you talking on the phone (and in a normal voice).
I hate to inforce stereotypes, but EW seems to attract those who don't go to frats that often (which can be good or bad), and a few of my friends there have expressed their upset that there isn't much socialization with their floor/dorm mates. This is deffinately not everyone's experience (there are plenty of outgoing, social people in East Wheelock), but that seems to be a common theme.
I'm sure I'll be yelled at for this post, but I'm trying to be as objective as possible and these are based on real stories. My vote: if you are going to be going to the frats a lot, no EW. You'll find a larger group that will go with you and it's a shorter walk if you're not in EW. If you like home to be a quiet place for study and sleep and have no trouble taking the initiative to make friends, EW is great.</p>
<p>I won't yell at you- it's generally true. I think EW kids are, in general, a little less "partyish" than the rest of campus, but maybe it's just the location. Having lived my freshman year within stumbling distance of frat row (literally 200 feet from the closest frat, which can be done in a matter of seconds, or hours...depending on one's level of inebriation)- I tend to know more Choates and River people, but I do have friends from EW that go out and party. In general, however...I really would say EW students are a quieter crowd. Not necessarily more academic, just academic in different ways.</p>
<p>Hi Compscidad,</p>
<p>My daughter lives in East wheelock in a 3 room quad with bath (2 double bedrooms and a sitting room) the room is great. You must apply to live in East wheelock. She feels that it is far away from everything (it's right across from the Gym) and it has a reputation for being on the quiet side though she says that it is not true.</p>
<p>EW is definitely quieter than living in Choates and River dorms and they are definitely nicer. My daughter is a lot of things but nerd isn't one of them. I think that everything is relative because I am quite sure that there can be a horror story or 2 told about any dorm. A lot of the dorm experience is also highly dependent upon the dynamics of the people living in them and to that end there are really great people and knuckleheads everywhere. The rooms are definitely amongst the nicest rooms on campus, where the doubles are a pretty nice size.</p>
<p>Where she lives their floor is a very social, cohesive group and they are all friends and she has told me that they definitely get along much better than the other freshman floor in her dorm. They are a pretty lively bunch; her biggest complaint is sometimes when she needs to study if she doesn't feel like going to the library, that she does use one of the lounges in McColloch because they are quieter. There hasn't been any horror stories on her floor. Their floor can get a little loud due to my stereo can out blast yours (which is pretty common every where).</p>
<p>But she has a lot of friends in the river, Choates, Russell-sage. Her friends that live in other buildings tend to visit her especially when they need a quick getaway because she has more space (futon in the living room so someone is always crashing there). She also has a nice cross section of friends who are 06's and 07's (right now she is thinking about going in to the housing draw with them to get a crack at a senior apt.)</p>
<p>She does admit that one of the drawbacks is that they are a little far away from everyone else (with the exception of the gym) and she "feels" it every morning going to class. Her roommate (who is from MA brought 2 pikes to campus from home so weather permitting they do ride from place to place. She said that the views from the balconies are amazing.</p>
<p>Here is the ew link</p>
<p><a href="http://www.dartmouth.edu/%7Eewc/index.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.dartmouth.edu/~ewc/index.html</a></p>
<p>The application will come in the housing forms.</p>
<p>apppro,</p>
<p>I missed you again! Came up last weekend to pick up some of her stuff. So the big question is how did room draw treat you and where will you be living? D is a UGA in the Treehouses (you should have seen me closing my eyes as I typed that, but shes cool with it)</p>
<p>Ha ha, I would love to meet up with you for coffee or something at the Dirt Cowboy or something. Room draw worked out very very nicely for me- :) thanks for asking! I'll be living in a <em>very</em> spacious two room triple in Mid Fayer. It's exactly what my two friends and I were hoping for. Two huge windows, tons of space (I mean, I'm planning a couch with a coffee table and a tv along with all of our desks and everything in one room, with plenty of space)- and our beds don't even have to be bunked in the bedroom part. We also have a half bath. We had our choice between a smaller room in North Mass and that one- and I think we made a good choice. I had number 4692. You may know that the last number was 4700. Ha ha ha, but one of my roommates had 3551- so...I got really lucky....</p>
<p>I'm sorry to hear she's in the treehouses...wow. I hope she has a great time...I have only been to Elm house a few times, but it seemed pretty cool and very social.</p>
<p>Now- you mentioned that there has never really been any big issues on your daughter's hall. I can tell the opposite story. My hall is really antisocial. I never even go to my hall because there are like 4 guys there who never leave the room with an X Box. I hardly ever talk to the girls on the hall, and I never see them anyway....</p>
<p>The guys on my hall are ridiculously rowdy. They hit their peak at 2 am and I've woken up to them shooting BB guns in the hall and having screaming contests. At the end of every term they also have an orange throwing contest in which they pelt the end of the hallway with about 60 oranges. It's a really immature bunch, and I can't say I'll be sad to be leaving them.</p>
<p>But....my single was really big and nice...ha ha, and I hear they're renovating my building this summer (thanks, now that I'm leaving...)</p>
<p>I am glad that everything worked out and you got a really nice place to live. One of the girls that my D lives with now got waitlisted. </p>
<p>So the 09's will have renovated rooms in the choates, that's good.</p>
<p>Had D gone into the room draw she would have ended up living at Lodge as the friend she was going to room with had the better number. She told me that they literally sent people home after 4000, D had 4070.</p>
<p>I think she found out this past monday who she would be living in the treehouses with but I haven't spoken to her since sunday evening. i can't beleive that it is soo far.</p>
<p>we went to Yama's for sushi on saturday because D said they had some of the best sushi she has ever eaten. My best friend is in heaven after she drank margeritas at Mollys she said they were really smooth (maybe it was because they were $2, but she hasn't missed a step in throwing them back like they were $2 drinks).</p>
<p>Hey, it's time to wrap things up have a great holiday weekend, all the best on your finals. It's really been great sharing this first year with you.</p>
<p>I'll try to catch you in the fall. Hey now that you know my daughter, if you are ever in NYC pop in on us.</p>
<p>take care.</p>
<p>Appro, (not that it matters, because the group living on that hall next year could be entirely different) what dorm were/are you in? DD is an 09,and is debating EW vs subfree vs taking her chances.</p>
<p>Whoops Sybbie and I crossed!
Hi Sybbie, haven't spoken in awhile!</p>
<p>So you were in the Choates? It truly is luck of the draw about how a hall gets along, and how rowdy vs quiet the residents are. I've encouraged DD to join a couple of ECs - that's how I made friends frosh year in college, then naturally gravitated to other friends drawn from major classes during the jr/sr years.</p>
<p>Hey C,</p>
<p>Yes, I have missed you. I know that you have been busy with the school year winding up, graduation etc. In a minute you can sit back and take a deep breath because you now have one down, one to go.</p>
<p>I did not realize the girls had accumulated so much stuff . I am suprised they were not embarassed to let some one stay with them in the mist of all of their junk (S told me not to call her stuff junk because I paid for it). E's parents will started taking some of her stuff home parent's weekend. </p>
<p>Since S wasn't close to being packed I came to get her stuff last weekend (she did her laundry because she knew I would not take home dirty clothes. However, she said she had enough clean clothes with out doing her laundry to take her until the end of the term). She will end up placing a trunk and a couple of boxes in storage (or shiping it home) because I am done.</p>
<p>My words of advice to first years, think about if you really need all of that stuff . I saw just how much shopping she did over the course of the year.</p>
<p>I shopped soooo much this year, ha ha ha. But, I still think I need it all. I'm a clothes horse. Yes, Cangel- I was in the Choates. I was in Bissell. Brown and Little were a lot nicer because they had been previously renovated. I think I lived in the most disgusting building on campus this year, but next year it should be really good. I really think the choates are a great location. Close to the library, close to frats, good for building relationships with other people in the class. I had the rowdiest floor as far as I know. I considered applying to EW for this year also, but if I had to do it all over again...I'd definitely want to live in the choates again. They were a really great place to experience my first year.</p>
<p>apppro,</p>
<p>I LOVED fayerweather when i stayed there on my swimming visit...nice proximity to the pool, too...oh well.</p>
<p>If I were to apply to EW, what would my chances be of getting a single?</p>
<p>Here are the EW floor plans. I beleive that there are 2 first year floors in each building</p>
<p>There are a number of ways to get a single:</p>
<p>You can get a single room </p>
<p>You can live in a 5 room quad- 4 bedrooms and a sitting room</p>
<p>there are single rooms in each building. EW takes approx. 130 first year students</p>
<p>Hey Sybbie,</p>
<p>Do you have any good tips for the application process for getting into East Wheelock</p>
<p>Appro - maybe you can answer DD's question. On the housing website it says that Cohen and Little are subfree - is that still true or is all the subfree in Fayerweather, or does it vary depending on how many first years request subfree. DD liked the quiet and camaraderie of EW, but was concerned by what Sybbie was saying - one freshman floor got along great, but the other was not as close, and if you are on the not so friendly floor, then there aren't too many other frosh to mingle with in EW. I think her ideal would be a subfree floor in the Choates or River, so how to get the best shot at that? She doesn't care as much about double vs single.</p>
<p>I'll answer IvyH20 and Cangel-</p>
<p>Ivy: as far as I know, I've never seen a room in EW where you actually have two beds in one room. You may have a door connecting to another room and one of the rooms gets walked through- but the chances of actually ever having to share a room I think are 0. I may be wrong, that's just from what I've seen.</p>
<p>Cangel- As far as I'm aware, Cohen and Little are both sub free. I wasn't aware that the Fayers are considered sub free. As far as living on a not-so-friendly floor...I mean, sometimes it just doesn't work out, and that will happen anywhere, but I do agree she will have a better chance of meeting people in her own building. At the same time- none of my closest friends live in my building, so friends don't have to be based on that. I think it was you that previously mentioned you met your better friends in your clubs and activities, and I find that was the best for me as well.</p>
<p>Back to the substance thing. Substance Free really means nothing. I mean, Cohen and Little are each attached by a walkway to Bissell and Brown, which are not "sub free." But I've definitely seen and consumed alcohol in every one of the buildings, and the fayers as well. They're just termed that way, and granted they are often a bit quieter....people don't really adhere to that policy. </p>
<p>As far as "her best shot..." at getting a sub free floor in the choates and the river, I would say it is to write on the housing application straight out: "I want to live on a substance free floor in the choates or the river." (I really recommend the choates for their proximity to campus in comparison to the river). My friend really wanted to live in the choates and wrote that on his application, and he now lives in Brown. I think double vs. single is pretty random and I don't know how to go about suggesting a way to get a single or double in the choates or river. River rooms tend to have walls dividing doubles- whereas in the choates that is never the case. It's either a single, or a room with two beds. I hope that helps.</p>
<p>Daughter currently lives in Morton in a 3 room quad 2 double bed rooms, sitting area and bath the other 3 room quad on their floor is all male and I think everyone else has a single that has a bathroom which connects to another single. But each building is different.</p>
<p>One of the friends lived in a 2-room double on the River (I think Hinman) the rooms were really not that big. She had the smaller of the 2 rooms which was really tiny (6 x 9)</p>
<p>yah, the river rooms are SOOOO small. And Sybbie, sorry- I guess I was wrong about double beds in EW. I've just never seen those rooms I guess....but then again...I really haven't been to EW many times.</p>
<p>If I was to be assigned a three room triple (one double, one single, one living room), would I also be told whether I'd be getting the double room or the single room? Or would it be something that me and my roomies would need to decide among ourselves?</p>
<p>Thanks, Appro, if she doesn't apply for EW, she may just try writing in what she wants.
As a parent who also so went to college back in the Stone Age, I have to laugh - does anyone else see irony in proclaiming one floor of a freshman dorm subfree? Aren't "substances" illegal for all inhabitants of the frosh dorm except the advisers? How do you enforce it anyway when the floors are connected openly like a hamster maze? I understand that there is a certain amount of nod and wink involved in how things aork out in the real world, but it is comforting to know that those floors are possibly somewhat quieter.</p>