<p>Sorry about your experience with the beer bottle, that is awful! My son has lived there this year and loves it, and has made many friends there. The only thing seedy we’ve experienced is that the elevators smell like stale beer. </p>
<p>As for his best friend, I know that he is extremely happy there. He was at our house alot over the holidays and he talked quite a bit about school and life. He is very close to us and believe it or not, I do understand his point of view. He decided not to go “greek”, but is not anti-greek; his roommate and suitemates are all in fraternities, but because he is going on a pre-med track, he didn’t want the added time committment of a fraternity. He joined the frisbee golf team as a way to make friends beyond the ones he brought with him from high school. </p>
<p>I think that dorms will be what you make of them. Of course there are “personalities” of each dorm, but they are not absolute. The plan should not be to hole up in your dorm room for a year -there is a huge college with many opportunities for friendship and fellowship, it’s up to each individual to find their niche.</p>
<p>2 of my friends lived at GW last year, and I hanged out there with them a lot. I admit it is old, the room is a bit crappy, but it is ok imo unless you’re really picky. There’s room service every week who cleans the restroom and vacuums floor. I sometimes play poker with them, although stakes are low (like $5), it’s still fun. They have a Dreamcast downstairs and we’d get like 8 people down there in the lounge playing Marvel vs Capcom 2 lol.</p>
<p>If you wanted to live on campus and had the luxury of choosing among:</p>
<ul>
<li>One of the honors dorms</li>
<li>Residential FIG - that College of Communications one (are Res FIGS only at Whitis?)</li>
<li>San Jacinto</li>
<li>Duren</li>
</ul>
<p>What would you choose?</p>
<p>Let’s say the stars and planets aligned and you got into both the College of Communications and either Plan II or Liberal Arts Honors.</p>
<p>My daughter applied in the first few minutes housing applications were possible and chose honors dorms. She loves being in the honors quad. Fun kids around to hang out with and a great location on campus. A social place to be, but people study. A studying place to be but people are social.</p>
<p>The res FIGs sound very nice too.</p>
<p>Many people love Duren and San Jac. More expensive. A bathroom to keep clean. Newer, spiffier.</p>
<p>The Castilian is where I live now and I just can’t say enough good things about it. You really need to visit The Castilian before making any decisions. It’s by far the cleanest and safest dorm around.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t suggest living here. A friend’s experience there sounded awful. (Very late timing on repairs…apparently they went most of the year with only on functioning light in their room and holes in the ceiling…)</p>
<p>Alicat8318, have you heard any complaints like that at the Castilian for the 2008-2009 school year? They seem to have corrected that kind of problem. New management or something. It sounds like it has been okay this year.</p>