<p>I just got back from an info session and tour at Brown, and I was wondering how current or past students feel about the housing and food options. I was told to eat at the Ivy Room by my tour guide, and found it to be a bit disappointing. Are their better on-campus options?</p>
<p>I’m eager to hear the report from other students, too – and there might be threads on it. When my son stayed over for ADOCH he thought the double room his hosts had was very large (although they had a low lottery number) and several meals in the Ratty were good. He also likes that he can go to Joe’s and use a meal credit for a late night meal or apparently even snacks.</p>
<p>There are a fair number of threads on the issue, but everyone has different opinions, and dorms are constantly being renovated.</p>
<p>Food</p>
<p>Ratty/VDub: two main dining halls. Ratty is open every day from 7:30 to 7:30; VDub is open at meals (including 7:30 to 2 straight) M-F. Although everyone has different likes and dislikes when it comes to each dining hall, people typically agree that the Ratty offers more variety, but the VDub food is better.</p>
<p>I’d say the food is decent. In the Ratty, I’m well provided for as a vegan with the salad bar, the Roots and Shoots (vegetarian) line, and the other stations (soup, sandwich, various items in the other lines). There’s also a grill, an omelet station, “Tastes of the World” (international food), a regular food line that has some name I can’t remember, and a dessert station. Also cereal. Lots and lots of cereal. You can either eat in the dining hall or get various take-out containers and eat elsewhere.</p>
<p>The VDub offers similar faresalad bar, various hot food stations, soup, fruit (leaves something to be desired, though), a lot of fake fruit (looks better than the real fruit), desserts, cereal, etc. The actual food tends to be different, though, and arguably better. They also play music in the VDub, which is exciting.</p>
<p>BUDS (Brown University Dining Services) publishes lists of ingredients, complete with nutritional information, and puts this information in a book near the food stations.</p>
<p>Jo’s: Jo’s (“Josiah’s”) is stationed beneath New Dorm, and it’s open from 6 pm - 2 am every day. Jo’s tends to attract patrons for three things: the “Spicy With” (spicy chicken; you’ll have to come here to see for yourself), the incredible salads (customizable with just about everything you could ever imagine!), and the quesadillas (served roughly every other day). However, there’s a large grill for burgers, cheese fries, etc. Most food at Jo’s is customizable, so it satisfies a lot of palettes. They also sell Odwalla drinks and bars, pastries, hummus and other Mediterranean foods, a huge variety of drinks, and so forth.</p>
<p>Jo’s also comes with Little Jo’s, a campus mini-mart that sells a lot of snack foods and random commodities. They also sell fruit leather. Buy some. I’m a fan.</p>
<p>The Gate: Personally, I think Jo’s is better than the Gate for food, but the Gate far surpasses Jo’s as a hangout spot. Any evening, I could walk through the Gate and find at least five of my friends, typically more. Food-wise, the Gate isn’t bad: pizza, paninis (good stuff!), sandwiches, Odwalla stuff, etc.</p>
<p>The Blue Room: a real café. Will be reopening in Faunce next year, and apparently, it will be better. Ask an older student about it.</p>
<p>Café carts: seen at B&H, the SciLi, and the Rock. Arguably over-priced, but makes for a good snack (pastries, Odwalla stuff, trail mix, coffee, etc.) when you’re shackled to your workplace of choice.</p>
<p>In short, Brown has decent food. Not fabulous, not bad.</p>
<p>I am a big booster for Brown, but I’m the first to say that you don’t go there for either the dorms or the food.</p>
<p>Most freshmen dorms are pretty basic – rectangular room for two off a hallway. No suites, no singles, no fireplaces. Most rooms are larger than what I’ve seen at some schools, but not huge. Upperclassmen dorms really vary, and there is a shortage of suites/apartments with singles.</p>
<p>Food: Ditto what thefunnything said. By the end of sophomore year, a lot of students tire of the dining room choices and go off meal plan.</p>
<p>I hope I am not disturbing the flow of thought, but which meal plan, according to you all, is the best for an incoming freshman? I am a hardcore vegetarian, and I fear wasting my parent’s money on the ‘20 meals-a-week’ plan. Will the ‘Flexi plan’ suit and fit my needs better? Or is it advisable to go with the former one for at least the first semester?</p>
<p>When I asked a similar question awhile ago, I was told that the “20 meals plan” offers the best bang for the buck if you indeed eat three meals/day – or apparently two main meals and a late meal or snack run to Jo’s. You could use a meal credit at Jo’s, the Gate. or the Ivy Room for dinner (which is vegetarian, I believe).</p>
<p>funnything, thanks for the great rundown on food – does the V-Dub close at 2 p.m.?</p>
<p>Oh yes, forgot about the Ivy Room! They have falafel on weekday nights. It’s excellent. You can use credits and points there at night…</p>
<p>@burry: the VDub closes at 2 pm but reopens at 4:30 in time for dinner. It closes at 7:30 (but you can usually stick around until 8:15 or so).</p>
<p>@harvard17: I’m a vegan of three years, and I haven’t had a problem at Brown. I’d advise Flex, especially because I don’t always eat regular meals, and the vegan food (and much of the vegetarian) at places like the Blue Room and Little Jo’s can’t be purchased with points. There’s also a cap on meal credits used per day at various eateries (although there are ways to get around that) but none on points.</p>
<p>As a general rule, if you are able (financially) to choose Flex 460 first semester, I would <em>highly</em> recommend it. Your eating/sleeping habits are likely to change at college, and it’s nice to have the luxury of eating however much you want whenever you want. You can switch plans (and get a refund if you drop down) at any point during the year, and whatever points and credits you have left from your original plan will carry over. For example, I went on Flex 460 because I ate regular meals in high school but didn’t always eat at the same time. However, it was way too much food/I stopped eating breakfast at college, and so I switched down to 330 halfway through the year. Next year I’ll probably be on 330 both semesters.</p>
<p>Housing is also alright. Probably average. I have complaints but I have seen far worse at similarly expensive colleges.</p>
<p>Never make your school choice based on housing or food. Base your decision on education.</p>
<p>I’m really curious, what is a “Spicy with”?</p>
<p>Spicy fried chicken sandwich with cheese. Best complemented with fried mozzarella sticks. And a heart attack.</p>
<p>I’m curious now, what is fruit leather?</p>
<p>Fruit leather: mashed up fruit that is compressed and dried to make… leather. Looks like: [fruit</a> leather - Google Search](<a href=“http://www.google.com/images?q=fruit%20leather]fruit”>http://www.google.com/images?q=fruit%20leather)</p>
<p>funnything, you can use two meal credits per day on the regular plan, right? That is probably really fine, but now I’m curious – how would you get around that?</p>
<p>@burry:</p>
<p>If your meal plan allocates you two credits per day (14 meals/week), then that’s your maximum. I meant that some eateries (Jo’s and the Gate) say that you may spend no more than two credits per day at that particular location. This policy applies more to people who don’t use up all their meal credits during the day or are on Flex. You can “get around it,” though, by waiting until card swipers switch shifts…</p>
<p>@thefunnything: Somehow I don’t think that’s right. If you’re on any of the weekly meal plans, the maximum number of credits that can be spent a day is 3, regardless of whether you’re on 20, 14 or 7. </p>
<p>Also now a meal credit is worth 6.15 points at retail locations, up from 6 points last year.</p>
<p>You mentioned you intend to be on Flex 330 next year. In fact it’s better to do Flex 460 in Fall, then switch down to Flex 240 in Spring. In all, you pay less for more credits and more points.</p>
<p>My friend switched between the Flex 460 and Flex 240 and STILL had too many credits at the end of the second semester.</p>
<p>Dorms! fireandrain pretty much hit the nail on the head. But here’s a quick rundown of where you could end up living:</p>
<p>MAIN CAMPUS/EAST CAMPUS</p>
<p>Keeney: Whatever you’ve heard about Keeney, don’t let the moniker “The Freshman Zoo” frighten you. Although Keeney is supposedly a wild moshpit of 600 freshman crammed into cramped living quarters, it’s actually not that bad. Lots of halls become really close, and many of them end up living together in subsequent years. Keeney can be fairly tame, and the rooms are quite spacious. It’s a really good way to meet people, too, because there are many fellow freshmen around. A fair number of my friends lived there and had really good experiences.
Keeney is divided into different houses: Archibald, Bronson, Everett, Jameson, Poland, and Mead. However, they are all in the same building.</p>
<p>Perkins: Perkins is famously close-knit, and some varying percentage of former Perkinites end up marrying each other. Why? Well, the dorm is about ten minutes off-campus, but it’s large enough (~180 freshmen) that a sizeable community forms. Everyone I know who lived in Perkins loved it, despite the distance and the small rooms, and they still spent plenty of times on Main Campus with other friends. Also, Perkins has an awesome lounge with flat screen TVs.</p>
<p>Littlefield: Also small and close-knit, located on Lincoln Field. High ceilings and large rooms. I don’t know too much about the dorm, but it’s supposed to be fantastic.</p>
<p>Hope: Littlefield’s cousin, situated across the Main Green. This past year, Hope bonded––they showed more community spirit than most other dorms I’ve seen.</p>
<p>Wayland: excellent location, decently-sized rooms. Wayland is small, and it’s divided into two halves, North and South Wayland, separated by Wayland arch (one room over the arch has access to the cupola!). ResLife is on the first floor, and upperclassmen are sprinkled throughout the house. </p>
<p>PEMBROKE</p>
<p>Andrews: commonly referred to as “Hotel Andrews.” Andrews is nice. Really nice. Huge rooms, a giant terrace, a lovely central area with a reading room, a gorgeous “media room” (lounge) etc. And the back garden is just as beautiful. Also, the rooms have sinks. Some of the corner rooms are “suites” (two doubles and a hallway behind a door). Andrews is a fairly large dorm: mostly freshmen but with a substantial upperclass population in the center wing.</p>
<p>EmWool/MoChamp: really “Emery-Woolley” and “Morriss-Champlin.” Built in the 60s, these four dorms are a tamer version of Keeney, housing about 300 freshmen and a handful of upperclassmen. The rooms are sizable, with large wooden wardrobes in lieu of closets and large windows. Some have balconies. The VDub (see my previous post) is in the basement of EmWool, along with a nice gym, and MoChamp’s first floor plays host to MoChamp Lounge and a pool (as in the game) room. Emery and Woolley are essentially one building with an arbitrary change at the end of a hallway on each floor. Same goes for MoChamp. However, since the buildings are really one massive structure, you can access everything through the basement (or “Lower Level,” which isn’t actually the basement).</p>
<p>New Pembroke: New Pembroke is a set of four buildings centered around a courtyard. Reflecting Brown’s concerns in the 1970s, they are riot-proof (narrow, twisting hallways). This… feature has given the dorms a reputation for being antisocial, one that isn’t true at all. The rooms, however, are decently-sized, with large windows. The dorms are fairly small (NP3 is about 60 and NP4 about 80), with mostly freshmen. NP4 also sports a huge balcony, which was prime for sledding in the winter. NP1 and NP2 are upperclassmen only. All New Pembrokes are getting renovated this summer, and the 24-hr study lounge on the first floor of NP4 will be reopening, new and improved, come fall.</p>
<p>CARD ACCESS</p>
<p>Your Brown ID card (which you will receive at Orientation) will swipe open your dorm doors. Typically, freshmen can also open neighboring (freshmen) dorm doors. However, you cannot open every dorm door on campus, freshmen or otherwise. You are given a separate brass key that will unlock your room, and, depending on where you live, you may be given additional keys to the bathroom/bike room/etc.</p>
<p>Keeney makes you a man. I can’t say that I enjoyed living there, but my hallmates were cool people, and I made friends. The bathrooms were… unlovable (except for the surprisingly reliable shower water pressure). The hallways were dirty, and on the weekend, full of loud freshmen. Even on weekdays I would need to tell people to be quiet.</p>
<p>Now, I did live next to an entrance on the ground floor facing the courtyard (i.e. the single loudest place in Keeney), so I had bad luck.</p>
<p>It was easy to complain about my dorm situation then, and even easier now (as I will STILL be living in Keeney, in a triple with my two friends due to poopy luck in the housing lottery).</p>
<p>But it wasn’t the end of the world and it certainly wasn’t the worst I saw visiting my friends at other schools.</p>
<p>I visited this spring for accepted students and was shown a small double room with no AC (Pembroke maybe). Do any of the dorm rooms have AC? How warm does it get in late August in Rhode Island? I hate the heat and am looking forward to the cold New England winters.</p>
<p>Yeah… no AC in any of the rooms as far as I’m aware. If you hate heat, you were sadly misinformed about New England. It’s really hot there in the summer, and will continue to be that way until mid-September. Then it cools down really rapidly and stays that way. I didn’t find the spring to get hot except on a handful of days.</p>
<p>The rooms are heated, however, to about room temperature and maybe then some. It will be between you and your roommate to decide when to turn on the radiator (which functions between mid-October and mid-April) and when to turn it off. You might even choose to keep your windows open to lose some of the heat through the storm window.</p>