<p>Does anyone know enough information about freshman housing to know which dorm is the best? What are the pros/cons of Anderson, Letts, and Hughes?
Thanks!</p>
<p>My son is in Hughes, and from what he tells me, Hughes is definitely quieter and calmer than Anderson or Letts. Hughes also has less residents on each floor, so it’s easier to get to know everyone on your floor (although that has both positive and negative ramifications). Only Honors students can live in Hughes (although that will probably change in Fall 2014), so if you didn’t get into Honors then you really don’t have too much choice. If you read the AU Public Safety crime log:</p>
<p><a href=“http://w.american.edu/publicsafety/dailycrimelog.pdf[/url]”>http://w.american.edu/publicsafety/dailycrimelog.pdf</a></p>
<p>you will see that there are more incidents in Letts and Anderson as compared to Hughes. AU says that that’s only because there is a higher volume of students living in Letts and Anderson (that’s what they told us at Eagle Summit when trying to dispel the “myth” that Anderson and Letts are rowdier than Hughes), but I’m not convinced that’s the only reason. Ever since we first started visiting the AU campus, we were always told by AU tour guides that if you want quiet you should live on North side (Hughes, McDowell, Leonard) and that if you want more rowdiness then you should live on South Side (Letts, Anderson, Centennial). Personally, as a parent, I’m very happy that my son has been living in Hughes for his freshman year.</p>
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<p>I am not sure this is so. Someone on another thread who is in the new PPL 3-year program said he/she was “placed” in Hughes, which makes it sound like that Living/Learning Community will be in Hughes. (Global Scholars is there but all Global Scholars participants are also Honors students. It wasn’t clear to me that was true of either the PPL scholars or the Public Health scholars.)</p>
<p>Even this year, the second floor of Hughes was opened for non-honors freshmen. I think they didn’t have enough honors students to fill the floors so consolidated them on 3-7. Much to the chagrin of students who had already chosen rooms on 2!</p>
<p>However, this didn’t happen until room selection was well underway.</p>
<p>My daughter is a very happy freshman in Anderson. She was in University College the first semester, so she lives on the same floor as the other kids in her UC seminar and the students in 2 other seminars. All the UC students live in Anderson this year. Her best friends are many of the kids who live on her floor. Is it rowdy in Anderson? Yes, it is full of 18 and 19 year olds away from home for the first time 
However, there are rules about noise after certain hours and she maintains that those rules are enforced. The first week or two, there were a lot of rowdy partiers, but she said that really calmed down once classes started. While she enjoys socializing, she is a serious student and always studies in her room and has not found that to be a problem (she made a 3.7 her first semester.) For the most part, students at American are there to work hard and the rules seem to be in place to make sure that playing hard doesn’t interfere too much. I tend to think that those statistics are probably largely due to a larger concentration of students (Letts and Anderson are connected) and possibly the fact that most of the freshman (perhaps a little less mature) are on the south side of campus. </p>
<p>OliviaM41, I would definitely recommend checking out University College, if you are not in the Honors program. A GREAT way to meet like minded students and get to know a small group in your first weeks on campus. Good luck to you!! You will love American!</p>
<p>Thank you all so much for the advice. Kelly - I know if you are in UC, you live with other UC students, but do you know if your roommate has to be in the same seminar as you are? Thanks!</p>
<p>No, your roommate does not have to be in the same seminar. My daughter does live with someone in the same seminar, but her best friends that live next door are in different seminars. As I said, there are 3 different UC seminars on each wing, so your roommate would be in one of those 3 seminars. </p>
<p>By the way, the other advantage to being in UC is the older student who is the “teacher’s aide” for the seminar. This student mentor also lives on your floor. My daughter found him to be the absolute best resource for her on any questions that she had…even better than her RAs on her floor.<br>
Best of luck!</p>