<p>Hi, </p>
<p>I'm considering going to McGill next year and was wondering if anybody would be willing to share their experiences with residence (for example, what residence, would you recommend it or not etc.). As well, any personal info. on admissions to residence would be helpful. </p>
<p>Thanks</p>
<p>McGill offers a big variety of res options. Those on the hill (small, cinderblock single rooms mostly in coed hallways with coed washrooms) which attract a very social partying crowd. The Harry-Potteresque Douglas partway up the hill which is smaller and its cohort seems to bond well most years and it attracts a fairly ambitious yet likeable group. </p>
<p>The two “new” residences (New Res and Carrefour) which are converted hotels with decently-sized mostly double rooms each with their own washroom (think hotel room–some love and others loathe the idea of staying in a hotel room)–some people claim these new res’s are full of rich snobs, some claim they are havens for drug users, some claim they are partying places and some claim they are isolating because the rooms are large enough that people tend not to hang out in the halls and common spaces the way they do up on the hill. </p>
<p>Royal Vic is the closest to classes and is mostly single rooms, but it is coed for the first time this year (formerly exclusively female) so it has no tradition yet. Then there’s Solin which is a couple of metro stops away and has suite-style rooms as opposed to hallway-style. Also the MORE houses which each have a distinct character which changes each year. Also Greenbriar in which you get an apartment for one or two people.</p>
<p>All of the residences (except those with kitchens: Solin, Greenbriar, More) have mandatory meal plans. Royal Vic has the best food and the best location. New and Carrefour require that you eat almost all of your meals in them and given that they are off-campus, that isn’t terribly convenient.</p>
<p>You will get a variety of opinions on each residence and the character of each residence does change from year to year because their entire population changes. Every person’s experience of res is different. </p>
<p>McGill guarantees housing to all first years and some years has to rent extra space to fulfill the guarantee. You rank your residence choices from about 1 to 15 or so and then a June lottery determines which res you get into. Some people get their first choice and others get a res near the bottom of their choices.</p>
<p>Douglas hall first choice!!!</p>
<p>Given that Royal Victoria is now co-ed that would be a great option. Large single rooms (a few doubles) and dining hall on-site. Can’t beat the location (no hill to climb), especially during those cold winters!</p>
<p>Douglas and RVC definitely sound like the best (for me). On the app it says to apply for housing at the end of February. As I understand…we get to rank our choices, but it’s basically pointless because they use a lottery system for res assignments?</p>
<p>True. Daughter got placed in rez ranked last.</p>
<p>The ranking is not pointless: When your name comes up in the lottery, you get your highest choice that still has space. If your name is pulled near the beginning, then you will get one of your top choices. If your name is pulled last, you may still get one of your top choices as long as it is not popular.</p>
<p>Most of son’s friends got one of their top three choices and several got their top choice.</p>
<p>Son’s friends that are in RVC claim its singles are small, but everything is relative.</p>
<p>Ah, okay. Thank you! </p>
<p>I’d probably prefer a single. Do you get res offers with offers of admission (March/April) or later?</p>
<p>new rez is by far the best rez…and trust me im in douglas</p>
<p>IAmPOS: Read my previous post: Residence is guaranteed for all first years. After acceptance, you submit your rankings and will be notified in June as to which residence you have been assigned to by the lottery.</p>
<p>Ah, okay. Thank you violindad!</p>
<p>how’s rez on McDonald?</p>
<p>Sorry I don’t know anything about the rezs at MacDonald campus.</p>
<p>Douglas is the most popular choice because of its size. Douglas people tend to bond closely, and hey it’s nice to have your own dining hall. Douglas hall tends to have a lot of scholarship kids because they get their first choice of rez.</p>
<p>If I could go back and do it again, I would have lived in Solin, the rez most people list last. I wish I had gotten out of the McGill bubble more. I also got really tired of being on a meal plan, even though the food wasn’t bad. I would have enjoyed cooking and the apartment life while still being in a building of McGill students. It also seems to attract a more interesting crowd.</p>
<p>I hate the feel of New Rez. It just feels really snobby to me, both inside and out. Carrefoure sherbrooke has a better location if you want to live inside a hotel.</p>
<p>Now that RVC is coed, it’s probably the most logical choice. It has a really nice dining hall and and a stellar location.</p>
<p>I am currently a first-year in Carrefour Sherbrooke (C4, or New New Rez) and would like to give some personal insight on Mcgill’s famous “suite life of hotel residences,” especially about Carrefour since we are the newest rez so far and there’s not much info out there about us.</p>
<p>First of all, in terms of facilities, New Rez is better than C4 in practically all aspects. New Rez has a great games room, convenient mailboxes, a quite big study room, cool-looking (luxurious, one might say) lobby, a caf with more variety and a nice piano in the lobby, among other things.
Also, it is conveniently connected to an underground mini shopping area where you will definitely get most of your stuff (Dollarama, Metro groceries store, electronics store, cinema, and others)</p>
<p>In C4 we don’t have any of those.
What do we have, then?
<ol>
<li><p>Our location is just great. Though we don’t have ‘necessities stores’ right next to us like New Rez, we are within very short walking distance of campus, downtown, groceries stores, etc. I assure you it’s great to be able to walk up to Tim Hortons at 4am for a Hot Chocolate to keep you awake studying and also walk up to the Redpath library (24/7) in just a couple mins. I find this especially beneficial now that winter is here.</p></li>
<li><p>Being so close to downtown makes nightlife extremely convenient. It is really easy to just walk up to the ‘clubbing street’ in just a few minutes. This means that if you like studying in your room, noise won’t be a problem as party-ers are out; and if you like ‘having fun’, you have a variety of options to avoid the monotony of partying in your residence.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Tl;DR - You can be ‘solitary’ or ‘make lots of friends’ easily. You are close to all important places. Nightlife is convenient. </p>
<p>Though at the beginning I felt my residence was inferior to New Rez’s ‘cool stuff’, with time I have learned to love the convenience of C4 much much more. </p>
<p>Anyone else interested in the hotel residences are welcome to post questions. I will try to answer from experience.</p>
<p>C4 represent!</p>
<p>I’m in Douglas right now.</p>
<p>Insights:
Good…
Individual houses mean microcommunities within the larger group.</p>
<p>Common rooms (1 or 2) on every floor in every house are REALLY REALLY great (unless your room is attached to it and you want an early night). Everyone on the floor got to know each other on the first night and it really helped bonding. It’s great to have a place to hang out while getting to know everyone.</p>
<p>Coed floors: I find this softens up both the men and women, better dynamic; better social-learning environment (better insights into women=more women later in life).</p>
<p>Own cafeteria means we get to know each other better, know our caf staff personally, don’t have to leave in the winter!</p>
<p>Lots of single AND double rooms so it appeals to anyone in this respect.</p>
<p>Building is gorgeous, rooms are much nicer than the other upper rez’s (aesthetically, vary in size a lot), hardwood floors, stone exterior. Nicest building for sure (unless you don’t like the classic look, the hotels are nice in terms of modern-ness)</p>
<p>Courtyard! = drinking outside legally (since it’s private property). Nice place to relax, trees and lawn are great. If you’re lucky, (ie: H-house, top floor, side facing city) you get a pretty kickass view of the entire city. </p>
<p>A lot of friendly people. I can’t speak for every rez but the people in New rez have a reputation for being really snobby and entitled.</p>
<p>Bad…
Right next to the Molson Stadium, Allouettes games are annoying as hell. (only a few during the year and only on Sunday afternoons so not THAT bad)</p>
<p>This year there has been construction ongoing so you’d often hear the drilling during the morning. How long can that last, right? Right…?</p>
<p>Small floors mean good bonding and community but also mean the annoying people stand out and can’t be ignored.</p>
<p>More expensive (a tad) than the other upper rez’s.</p>
<p>Any questions, just ask.</p>
<p>Hey TheUnspool, </p>
<p>You said that the rooms in Douglas vary in size by a lot. Is this bearable? Or could you potentially get stuck in toooo small of a room?</p>
<p>hahaa
most people tend to really like their own residences. after almost a year, you really grow tight with the people and the place. =)</p>
<p>I live in Solin. I’m absolutely in love with it. We have skyhigh ceilings (i’d say maybe 1.5 times higher than how ceilings are normally) and large apartment rooms. There’s a games room in the basement with TV, foozeball, couches, vending machines, microwaves and 2 old pianos. The Lachine Canal is about 2 blocks away, and it’s utterly beautiful there. I think there’s currently public artwork there on displace too.</p>
<p>there’s a marketplace a few blocks away, with many cute little bakeries and shops, a church, and an IGA one metro stop away.</p>
<p>some people worry that it’s far, cuz it’s off campus. However, the metro is literally one block away and doesn’t take much time at all to reach campus. If I leave my room at 8:10, I can make it to a class at ~8:30. And campus is only 2 blocks from the metro stop. =)</p>
<p>You may think that 20 minutes is still a lot of time, but remember you’re basically standing there not moving on the metro for most of it. If you get assigned to, say, New Rez, which is REALLY far from campus, that’s literally like a 15-20 minute WALK to campus.</p>
<p>hope that helps. =)</p>
<p>Probably a dumb question, but are all the students integrated in the housing system? Like do they give priorities to Canadian students, or do US and other international applicants get the same opportunities for housing?</p>
<p>Freshman housing is guaranteed for all students, no preference to Canadians. Major scholarship recipients get first priority to choose but otherwise it is a a lottery sort of based on preference as to which rez you are assigned to.</p>