<p>I’m about to fill out my housing form and I have a few questions about the dorms for those in the know.</p>
<p>1) Which dorms are considered the best?</p>
<p>2) Is there anything I can/should put on my housing form that will increase my chances of getting them?</p>
<p>3) Why is Brown’s housing questionnaire so limited compared to that of other colleges?</p>
<p>Thanks</p>
<p>I’m not going to answer the first question because the answer to the second question is that I don’t think there is anything you can say to get you into a specific dorm, with the exception of requesting substance-free housing, or having a disability. What really matters is not where you are living, but who you are living with – the other students on your floor. And that’s pure luck.</p>
<p>I’ve known people to love, love, love the same dorm that others hate, hate, hate. What’s best depends on what you want.</p>
<p>As for number 3 – no idea.</p>
<p>1) All freshmen dorms are pretty good except Perkins. Perkins sucks because it is about a block away from the actual campus and alot of semi-eccentric people live there (I think because it is substance free or something?? ) Perhaps the best dorm is Keeney (I lived there). Keeney is great because it has so many people (which means you’ll probably be living near a few classmates… good to get homework help and etc.), a nice distance from the Ratty (campus dining) and the Main Green. The only thing I didn’t like about Keeney was that it is kind of a 3 -4 minute walk from the SciLi/CIT and was a CS student this became a hassle to go to T.A. hours. But it is close to the nicer Rockefeller library. </p>
<p>2) If you want to live in Perkins just do substance free. </p>
<p>3) Brown just doesn’t spend that many resources here. It doesn’t matter in the long run. If you end up not liking your room mate you can easily switch out. I know like 10 people that switched rooms or ended up with singles (upperclassmen switch too especially from Keeney so their singles become empty and sometimes freshmen will switch into them by chance). </p>
<p>I think the most important housing thing to consider is getting a bike.</p>
<p>Thanks for the replies. I’ve heard from many people that Perkins is awful, so that’s the only one I’m trying to avoid. My question about the housing questionnaire was only because my friend who’s going to Harvard showed me his form, and they ask about music preference, non-curricular interests, livelihood of room preference, and number of roommates preference.</p>
<p>1)
</p>
<p>I agree with this. I stayed in Keeney for my Summer@Brown experience and it was definitely the most lively of all the dorms. It’s extremely easy to make friends and even easier to get homework help or find something to do when you’re bored. The location is also very convenient if you’re trying to get to the music facilities. It was, however, far from the V-Dub dining thang. I remember I would skip meals almost every day simply because I was too lazy to walk to the dining hall. But such is life! I was also lucky enough to get a single, which was tons of fun. One thing I didn’t like was the linoleum floors :(.</p>
<p>2) Me don’t know :(</p>
<p>3) Here’s my take on it. At Yale, we had an extensive housing form similar to Harvard’s (from what I’ve seen) and I think the reason that schools like Brown and Penn lack such comprehensive form is the nature of their housing. Yale and Harvard operate in terms of residential colleges… meaning there is a dean living in the house whose job it is to run the college (and hand select suites comprising of cohesive students). As far as I know, Brown doesn’t have such employees so they just let the cards fall as they may. So since it’s random, there’s no longer any need for the extra infoooo.</p>
<p>My son just heard his dorm will be New Pembroke, 2nd floor. Does anyone have any info on how this compares to the other freshman dorms? From the campus map, it looks pretty far away from the music building, where he was planning on spending a lot of time…</p>
<p>Awww my daughter lived in New Pembroke her first year. She really liked it, but it, too, was far away from the main campus. Last year, her second, she lived on Wriston Quad, which was great and much closer. As a freshman, you have no choice, as others have said, except for sub free (which may be a part of Perkins, but not the whole thing), because it’s fairly random. So, you can’t really request the best dorm. New Pembroke is fairly old looking, by now, somewhat beat up, and in need of a paint job. But it’s warm, dry, and friendly. That is pretty standard except for the HYP schools, I think. It gets better as you get older.</p>
<p>I lived in new pembroke last year. Ignoring the distance, I think it’s one of the best dorms. Semi-private bathrooms, fairly spacious, more modern looking. Plus pembroke campus looks a lot better than main campus. </p>
<p>Keeney is a complete maze, it has halves of floors, and sometimes you have to climb up stairs in order to get down. i have no idea why people would enjoy it. I thought it was common knowledge that keeney is by far the worst? Or maybe it’s just that with age you start not liking chaotic freshman running around screaming for whichever reason…Anyway that’s where I’ll be living next year :D. ****** housing lottery. And I had the 1st number for my year! why oh why did we take a freshman in the group…</p>
<p>Keeney was, for me, the best dorm freshman year. What an exciting time! Roommates and room assignments are out!</p>
<p>How’s Hope college?</p>
<p>The best dorm thing is completely subjective. Before I actually got the housing assignment last year, I WANTED Perkins, but my first priority was anything other than Keeney.</p>
<p>I wound up living in Hope, and I could not have been happier in retrospect- I got the dorm community feeling that I wanted on top of amazing location. I knew I couldn’t get that in Keeney, and I knew I could get that in Perkins.</p>
<p>@supportivemom
It’s going to be hard for your son. The music building are already by Perkins (the tell-tale really far away dorm). I estimate that it’d take 15 minutes to get from NP to the music building at a normal pace. At Brown, that’s as far as any student might have to travel in one go.</p>
<p>Right on the Main Green. Literally on top of classes. If you came for an info session and had it at Manning Hall, you were next to Hope.</p>
<p>Rooms are medium-sized, but location is basically unbeatable. Maybe Wayland is better because it’s just about as close to the Green and closer to food.</p>
<p>@supportivemom-- I’d get on Craiglist and buy a bike. It’d be a 6 minute bike ride, and a 15 minute walk.</p>
<p>@eagerdad,</p>
<p>Hope College is AMAZING! We’re most well known for our central location on the Main Green, right next to Faunce House. For the next 2-3 years though, this might now be such a good thing, because Faunce is under construction. However, nothing beats rolling out of bed at 8:55 and still being early to a 9AM class.</p>
<p>Hope kids also get really close. It’s a group of 40-60 kids (depending on whether or not you count upperclassmen), so no matter how small it is comparatively to other dorms, there’s always someone that’s not doing something when you’re just looking to hang out.</p>
<p>The rooms are also a lot bigger than most freshman dorms- you’ll be surprised. The corner rooms are bigger than the normal ones, but the middle rooms (anything ending in -12) are twice as big as a corner room! It’s ridiculous.</p>
<p>Hope College is also in the 2nd oldest building on campus- it’s pretty badass knowing that my DORM was older than most of my friends’ colleges. 
(But the oldness does have its drawbacks- no elevator and the insides kind of look like an insane asylum). And we’re also Unit Wars (orientation “Olympics” event) champions 2 years in a row. I think that speaks a lot to how quickly Hope is able to bond and really build that team mentality.</p>
<p>Last year they were dishing out singles to freshmen in Hope. Apparently the yield was higher than expected. Is that still going on I understand? One lucky ■■■■■■■ I know got a single bigger than my freshman double. But it’s ok, he’ll quickly pay for it by living in keeney this year.</p>
<p>But I can’t understand why they show the tiny doubles in Hope on the tours. I went on tour last week with some peops from my country who were visiting (and btw I totally convinced them to choose brown over *<strong><em>ty ass pton and mit), and they showed this tiniest of rooms on 1st floor Hope. Smaller than my single in New Pembroke! Almost everyone in the tour was *</em></strong>*ing owww i’m not coming here to these crappy rooms. When almost 99% of other doubles are at LEAST 50-75% larger! Even the ones in Perkins…Mine in Littlefield was at least 2-2.5 times larger. Seriously what’s up with that?</p>
<p>There was only one freshman in Hope with a single last year, as far as I know…</p>
<p>In regards to the dorm room that they’re showing, I guess it’s the most convenient one to show. Honestly, I don’t think showing the oldest dorm on campus is a good idea either (because the inside honestly reminds me of what I imagine to be a mental asylum). Unfortunately dorms are just not one of Brown’s stronger suits…</p>
<p>"1) All freshmen dorms are pretty good except Perkins. Perkins sucks because it is about a block away from the actual campus and alot of semi-eccentric people live there (I think because it is substance free or something?? "</p>
<p>Interesting how some people think substance-free people are eccentric…lol </p>
<p>Anyway, I got Perkins this year, What are the rooms like? Is it bigger or small than those at Keeney/</p>
<p>Rooms in Perkins are smaller than Keeney, although there is one ginormous room. The furniture is built in, the beds are pretty high off the ground (so you can put lots of storage underneath). </p>
<p>One benefit of being in Perkins is that the people who live there tend to become pretty close, since they are so far away from everything.</p>
<p>I was looking at the map, and Perkins actually looks closer to Barrus and Holley than any freshman dorm except Littlefield and maybe Wayland. (most the Freshman Science/Math/Engineering/Computer Science classes are either here or in the GeoScience building, I think). Not saying it isn’t far (if by far oyu mean 5-7 minutes walking) from the Main Green and REALLY far to the bio-med center.</p>
<p>I also remember the quality of the rooms being better. Am I wrong? I also remember Perkins being more brightly lit that Keeney.</p>
<p>I got Perkins too. so far :(</p>
<p>I have a couple questions for anyone who knows anything about Perkins.</p>
<p>1) I read that the lighting is brighter than some other dorms, would you still recommend buying a floor lamp?</p>
<p>2) Are there microwaves in the kitchens or do some ppl have them in their rooms?</p>
<p>3) Are the closets like wardrobes?</p>
<p>Thats all for now.</p>