<p>Can someone please tell me a little bit more about Goddard? The website does not provide me much information about what a "Residential College" is. Are there a lot of things you are obligated to do? Why do you need to apply to it? What do you do in a Residential College? How different is it from the other dorms? Does it isolate people, since it is different than all the other dorms?</p>
<p>My friend’s in goddard this year and he says that while in the beginning everyone’s enthusiastic about doing activities (going on trips, planning events, etc.) it cools down for the rest of the year b/c everyone is involved with their own work.</p>
<p>You have to apply to it but I’ve heard people were placed into it by chance, and they were not obligated to fulfill the ‘requirements’, which include 15 hours of community service per semester and attendance of an event or two every month.</p>
<p>It’s different in that you do have to be involved with the Goddard community, RA’s are more involved with planning things, and if you take writing the essay fall semester and you are put in a stream linked with a special writing the essay course (required for all freshmen in CAS) you can take the class in the 2nd floor classroom which is really convenient. </p>
<p>It doesn’t isolate people because they’re not stopping you from visiting people there and they won’t shut others out. It’s not as exclusive as it sounds, goddard people are friends with people all over the school.</p>
<p>Hey, sorry to jump into this thread but I have a question. You mentioned that certain streams are linked to the Writing the Essay course. Can you take the classes in this stream if you’re not in WtE? I’m in LSP and I’m just taking Writing I. I’m not sure what the difference is but I’m not sure if it’s pretty much the same class or something different. If I was in Goddard I’d want to do All the World’s a Stage and I think it’s linked with Writing the Essay.</p>
<p>If you’re in a certain stream linked with Writing the Essay (some streams aren’t linked) then you don’t have to take Writing the Essay, you’d take your LSP equivalent, which is most likely an easier course to deal with. Writing the Essay, no matter what environment, is not an easy class. This sounds more like an LSP issue than a Goddard one but LSP people in Goddard don’t take their linked WtE but are still Goddard resed students in all other senses.</p>
<p>Thanks a lot, I appreciate the help. What do you mean by “stream-linked”?</p>
<p>As you might know, like with other exploration floors in other dorm buildings, you can go into the resed college under a particular theme (‘stream’). There are different ones, like one dealing with politics, one about globalization, and a performing arts. For those who don’t really get what streams do, you have an RA (who may be different than your floor RA, Goddard floors aren’t separated by streams) who organizes events and sometimes even free events (I’ve been to a few myself, because sometimes they open up to non-Goddard folks).</p>
<p>Each stream holds events throughout the year, I remember going to a tour of the UN as part of a politics stream event. The performing arts stream will sometimes give out free tickets to concerts or plays. </p>
<p>Anyway to answer your question, some of the streams are “linked” with a writing the essay course, meaning if you belong to the stream you will be placed in a writing the essay class with mostly other people in your stream. Writing the Essay will still be the same, except your professor may choose readings or focus on that particular topic. </p>
<p>For example if you were to belong to CAS/Stern/Steinhardt or you need to take writing the essay anyway, and you belonged to the performing-arts-stream, you would take writing the essay with fellow stream members and your professor may choose essays/writings with a focus on performing arts. It’s sort of like themed Writing the Essays, but the requirements are generally the same (3 essays throughout the semester). It may or may not be harder/easier than the typical writing the essay professor. It’s interesting if you’re passionate about a certain topic. </p>
<p>Also, like I mentioned before if you happen to be placed in Goddard and never chose a stream you don’t have to choose a stream nor are you responsible for their requirements, but I’m not gonna lie, Goddard’s location is perfect (it’s a better location than Weinstein, because it’s right next to Bobst and Steinhardt, very close to Kimmel, and practically next to Silver). It doesn’t have its own dining hall but people don’t really complain about it, and Starbucks is on the first floor lol. People are very turned off by the idea of having to commit extra time to it but I haven’t heard many complaints.</p>
<p>Oooh, okay, I understand what you mean. So basically in LSP I could still take a stream linked with writing the essay, I just wouldn’t take the writing the essay class with the other members of the stream, right?</p>
<p>Thanks for the info.</p>
<p>Can anyone tell me how selective Goddard Residential College is in making their selections on which students can live in the dorm? Does it have to do with scores and essays, or is it just the luck of the draw when you apply?</p>
<p>@rshah14 I believe there are about 200 students selected for Goddard. My son just received his letter last week that he will be dorming at Goddard in the Fall. When applying for housing, he had to write 3 extra short essays for the Goddard application. I would assume they read over the applications and look at the student as a whole when selecting who will live there. It really is in a perfect location, and also offers a nice small atmosphere!</p>