<p>How does Eliot A (for freshmen) compare to the other modern freshmen dorms such as umrath, lien or koenig?</p>
<p>Well, I lived in Eliot res college both my freshman and sophomore years, and I loved it. It is quite new, and it is close to the post office, the dining hall, and is one of the closer dorms to the main campus. I’m willing to bet that you’ll be happy with it.</p>
<p>I can’t truly speak for Eliot A because I never lived there, but a friend of mine did. The suites consist of two double rooms connected by a bathroom. It seemed pretty nice. Eliot A was built in 2002, Koenig in 2006, Lien in 1999, and Umrath in 2009.</p>
<p>I, however, was in Eliot B my sophomore year and it was amazing. It sucked to be on the top floor but in Eliot B, you don’t need to leave the building to get to Bear’s Den which is an AMAZING benefit. As a member of the Eliot ResCollege, you’ll have priority for Eliot B as a sophomore which is awesome. Proximity to campus for these two dorms is also pretty decent. There are closer dorms but there are certainly ones much farther away, as well. You can see Eliot A/B’s location on this map: [South</a> 40 Map | Explore the South 40 Community | South 40 — A Revitalized Residential Community | Washington University in St. Louis](<a href=“Residential Life - Students”>Residential Life - Students)</p>
<p>Main campus is to the north.</p>
<p>Thanks guys!!! It sounds great! @RaVNzCRoFT just wondering, how did you not live in Eliot A your freshman year if you were in Eliot B your sophomore year? In addition, is eliot physically connected to the South 40 House? It looks like it in the map you provided. Finally, do Eliot A residents ever hang out in/have access to Eliot B? Thanks for your time guys!</p>
<p>In one of the rounds for the housing lottery near the end of the year, sophomore dorms are filled up to 60% with people from within the dorm’s respective ResCollege. In other words, up to 60% of Eliot A residents can get into Eliot B. In a different lottery round, the last 40+ percent is filled with other people from the South 40. I lived in Park my freshman year. My friends and I had pretty good overall lottery numbers so we risked leaving our ResCollege to get into a better dorm.</p>
<p>They’re kind of connected. It is in the sense that you can get from one to the other without going outside, but you would have to go from Eliot B to Bear’s Den and then upstairs to SoFoHo. In other words, you can’t go directly from Eliot B to SoFoHo but they’re essentially under the same roof.</p>
<p>As a South 40 resident, your key card gives you access to any South 40 dorm. However, Eliot A residents don’t really hang out in Eliot B. Eliot A has a nice common area on the ground floor while Eliot B doesn’t. Plus, freshmen tend to stick together.</p>
<p>Okay great thanks RaVNz! Hopefully I can get into Eliot B for my sophomore year!</p>
<p>Is the “lower level” of Eliot A the ground level, with floors 2,3,4 above?</p>
<p>The lower level is underground (it might only be partially underground depending on what side of the building you’re looking at, but I’m not sure). Levels 1, 2, and 3 are the ground floor and the floors above it. Floorplans here: <a href=“Residential Life - Students”>Residential Life - Students;
<p>Note the double red doors at the top left of the first floor. That’s the main entrance.</p>
<p>@carpediem</p>
<p>By living in Eliot A as a freshman, you have first dibs on living in Eliot B as a sophomore. In fact, if you can get 3 other people to join your group, you can actually choose which room in Eliot B you want to live (based on lottery numbers with other groups).</p>
<p>This is based on personal experience as I lived in Eliot A-2 as a freshman and Eliot B-4 as a sophomore.</p>
<p>@cosine thanks for the info! With the three other guys for sophomore year in Eliot B, would it be four singles or two doubles? If you stayed with Eliot for both years I’m guessing you were probably really satisfied with the ResCollege :)</p>
<p>Also just wondering, is the common room displayed on the ResLife website “virtual tour” ([Eliot</a> A](<a href=“Residential Life - Students”>Residential Life - Students)) the main lobby area when you walk in or is it a common room on a particular floor?</p>
<p>I’m pretty sure that all suites in Eliot B are singles. The common room on the tour is a room on each floor that is open to hang out in / have floor meetings in. So yes, a common room, not the lobby.</p>
<p>Yeah, Eliot B rooms are singles. Cosine, I was also on Eliot B4 my sophomore year and I notice we’re both class of '14…interesting.</p>
<p>Thanks again guys for your help! Can’t wait to be on campus!</p>
<p>RaVNzCRoFT - or anyone else with an opinion - you mentioned that you were in Park for freshman year but wanted a better dorm. What sort of things did you not like about Park?</p>
<p>To be clear, we wouldn’t have stayed in Park anyway–we would have been in Mudd, Park’s res-college counterpart for sophomores. But Park and Mudd are pretty similar, as are most buildings within the same res-college (though there are a few exceptions).</p>
<p>Park wasn’t so bad; I didn’t really have any big issues with it. The biggest advantage would probably be the large rooms. The biggest disadvantage would probably be distance from campus. My friends and I wouldn’t have had a problem being in Mudd, but our lottery numbers for the res-college lottery round weren’t that good. We weren’t sure that we’d even be able to get into Mudd and if we did, we thought for sure we’d be on the fourth floor. Considering our general round lottery numbers were pretty good, we tried to get into a better dorm and it worked.</p>
<p>Eliot B was essentially brand new at the time, closer to campus, and (as I mentioned earlier) you don’t have to leave the building to get food. You really don’t know how amazing that feature is until it’s available to you. In college, a heavy workload may mean you want to head over to Bear’s Den for a box of chicken strips at 1 AM. For some of the dorms, you’d have to walk 5+ minutes to get there…and it could be 20 degrees and snowing. In Eliot B, you walk down the stairs and you’re at Bear’s Den without ever leaving the building. Nothing is more convenient.</p>
<p>So to answer your question, Park was okay. But we considered our chances and weighed our options, ultimately deciding to leave our res-college and try for another one. If you and your friends really do care about where you live (size, quality, distance from campus and food, etc.) then I’m sure you’ll go through the same thing next spring. If not (and some people really don’t care where they end up as long as it’s with their friends), then that works too.</p>
<p>I will second the claim that there is nothing better than getting food during a blizzard wearing a t-shirt, shorts, and flip flops.</p>
<p>Just one point to add about Elliot B - you will pay approximately $1,900 more per year than Elliot A (assuming you are in a double in Elliot A).</p>
<p>My son is going to be in Eliot- he wants to buy a TV for the room- what’s a reasonable size based on the room?</p>
<p>I think anything too big to sit on top of a desk as a dual-purpose TV/computer monitor is probably overdoing it. Better to get a large TV sophomore year when you have a common room.</p>