<p>Hi, my S decided to go to Bienen School of Music and will visit soon.
We want to see several housings at that time.
Now we are considering Hinman, Jones, Allison, Willard.
Important factors are distance (must carry big instrument), substance free (if possible),
food, practice (if possible), cleanness.
Would you give me any advices?
Thanks!</p>
<p>Congratulations! Winning a Bienen audition is quite an accomplishment.</p>
<p>Jones has practice rooms. Substance free is in Hinman. Unfortunately, both are farther away than the other two. Willard is closest; Allison is not that much farther. Have you looked at Chapin? I think it’s the closest of all.</p>
<p>Cleanliness will depend on the particular group of students that are in the dorm in any given year. Willard, Allison, and Hinman each have their own dining halls; Jones has a reserved area in Hinman (Jones is across an alley from Hinman). My S lives in Jones but has eaten in most of the dining halls, I think. He doesn’t say a lot of good things about any of them, but has managed to put on a little weight in spite of that. Go figure. :)</p>
<p>Thanks, SteveC,</p>
<p>My son is majoring string and will study at Regenstein Hall which is next to New construction.
What I am confusing is that I think Hinman and Jones are closer than the others. Does dorms which is not substance free allows to have substances?</p>
<p>You’re right. I was thinking proximity to the Music Admin building and “the beehive” (practice rooms). Regenstein has its own practice rooms and is very near the lake, closer to Hinman and Jones.</p>
<p>The “substance free” question is a good one. No, “substances” aren’t really allowed in the other dorms, but I would imagine enforcement is less strict there. These are college students and “where there’s a will, there’s a way.” I think the idea is to gather together students who want a substance free environment in the hope that they will create it for themselves.</p>
<p>I’m not in Bienen, but I’m a musician. I like all 4 of these for different reasons. All of south is pretty close (The whole campus, overall, is only 1 mile long), so I wouldn’t worry too much about that to be honest. Substance free is only in Hinman, but it’s up 5 flights of stairs, and I believe the elevator only works during move in. The substance free, I believe, is mostly for people who all want to be substance free so they can hang out together (Although in the roommates group I’ve seen plenty who don’t do drugs, or drink, and even then, there are plenty of good people who drink some). All 3 with dining halls have pretty good food as far as I’ve heard, and Jones is close (I mean like 30 seconds) from Hinman. Jones is the only one with practice rooms, I believe, although you can check the housing website for information. Willard has a piano. All of them would be clean as a college dorm can be (Bathrooms may get a little nasty), the only real one I’ve heard of that’s bad is Bobb-McCullogh and that’s not one you mentioned.</p>
<p>Congrats on the acceptance! Putting two and two together, I imagine S is a cellist or bassist, right? Regenstein has lockers for all instrumentalists, so carrying instruments is not a necessity, making a lot of distance issues irrelevant.</p>
<p>That being said, pretty much any dorm on south campus is decently close to part of Bienen. Hinman, Jones, ISRC/CRC are all a short walk from Regenstein and Pick Staiger (practice rooms, lockers, private studios and ensemble rehearsals). However, Allison, Shepard, NMQ, SMQ, Chapin, and Willard are all a couple minutes from MAB (Theory, Aural Skills, Piano classes) and the Beehive (more practice rooms, but no lockers).</p>
<p>Allison, Hinman, and Willard have dining halls in house, which is convenient when it’s the middle of winter and you don’t want to go outside to eat. But since all of the south campus dorms are close to at least one of these dining halls, it’s a small benefit at best.</p>
<p>As far as practicing, Hinman and Willard have pianos, Shepard and Jones have actual practice rooms. However, they’re just as likely to be taken up by non-majors, as far as I know, there’s no way to sign them out/reserve them, and the proximity to real practice rooms again makes the benefit a small one. I have plenty of music performance friends who live in Shepard, but I know none of them who do a significant amount of practice in that building, let alone a majority.</p>
<p>Substance free and cleanness are relative. No matter where you live, there’s a full spectrum of people doing a full spectrum of things. You can luck out with your floormates, or have horror stories for the future (I’ve been on both sides). Ultimately you just learn to deal with the situation.</p>
<p>Bottom line, there’s nothing that sets particular dorms above one another. Providing you’re living on south campus, all of the dorms are decent for music students. The people you end up living with will have a much bigger impact on your experience than where. Personally, if I had to be close to Regenstein, I’d rather live in Hinman, and Shepard if I wanted to be close to MAB, but honestly I’d be fine anywhere. Hopefully this helps you in making your decision.</p>
<p>Sources: Senior music performance major, lived in NMQ and Hinman</p>
<p>For a music student I think Hinman is the best. Suite style, really close to music buildings, food in the dorm, close to other music kids in Jones, etc. But that’s a personal opinion.</p>
<p>SteveC, Crimsonstained7, theBaron19, you all got a point!
I really appreciate your advices and glad my S will study at NU together with such kind ppl!</p>
<p>Crimson, I think a clarification is needed. Despite the fact that Jones is the performing arts res college, there are not that many music students in there. In fact, I would guess that there are more music students living in Shepard right now than Jones. Generally speaking, even though some of the res colleges have themes (e.g. engineering for Slivka or international studies (the “IS” in ISRC), these are mostly in name only.</p>
<p>The residential colleges with themes require an essay as why you are a “fit” for the colleges in order to live there and a points system often involving some aspect of the theme in order to stay there (e.g., points for performance night at Jones). There are always non-majors who just have an interest in the theme, and I can see some of the less-popular-themed RCs taking all comers. This will vary by year, but my son says that the two largest groups in Jones are actors and musicians.</p>
<p>There may be more musicians in Shepard, but what percentage is musicians? If they want other musicians a higher concentration is better than a higher number.</p>