<p>I'm a biomedical engineering major and have been accepted to the engineering honors program at UT-Austin. I filled my housing contract after my admission, which was pretty late (around early-mid February). I'm wondering what is the better choice for me between the honors dorms and jester.</p>
<p>First, will the honors dorms be as available as jester is for someone who applied mid feb?
I'm looking for a good social scene where there will be a lot going on, but i still want it to be quiet so I can get sleep when i need to.
I'm also concerned about my roommate, would it be better to find a roommate first and then take the dorm they are in? is that possible?
Which dorms have a better location for daily classes as an engineering student? </p>
<p>Lastly, if the honors dorms are the better choice, which one should I chose? I have no real preference to live alone or with someone. Could someone give me an overview of all the honors quads?</p>
<p>You’re NOT required to live in the honors dorms.</p>
<p>I’m an honors student and I prefer to live in Jester because, ironically, I am more productive when I’m away from other honors students. Many of my friends who live in the honors quad try to “study” with other students in the study lounges, but actually just goof off. Plus, you can’t beat the convenience of having Gregory Gym right across the street from Jester!</p>
<p>How does the social scene differ between the two? I do want a quiet place to sleep, but I don’t want to left out of the party/social scene. If I need to study I could easily do that in a library, so I’m mainly worried about being able to sleep and being able to have fun.</p>
<p>Jester is very quiet. Because it’s so big, people rarely make noise in the hallways (mostly because people don’t know the other people in their hall). </p>
<p>You can be as social as you want regardless of where you live.</p>
<p>I should add one more thing – I visited Blanton (in the honors quad) to study with my friends recently, and we were in a study lounge that was literally right outside people’s doors. I felt really bad making noise at night… I’m sure those people had trouble sleeping! This is definitely not an issue in Jester.</p>
<p>If you decide to go with the honors dorms, you don’t get to choose which one you get. I was at a UT honors event with my D this past weekend, and that was what they told us. Several students on the various panels talked about how much they liked Jester for the convenience and the sense of community.</p>
<p>If the ability to sleep and study is about the same within the two dorms, which has a better location for an engineering student? </p>
<p>I also heard that the honors dorms were going to be receiving a complete makeover. Is this true? Will they be larger? newer?<br>
How does the Air conditioning / heating differ among these dorms? Which one has more square footage? Are the beds pull out / bunkbeds?
Lastly, would the party scene at the honors dorms be less than that at jester? I’m just being stereotypical now, but do the “honors” kids still party hard like those at jester? And don’t get me wrong, I’m not just worried about being able to party, but i would like to enjoy my college experience to its max, and don’t want to end up stuck in a dorm where its as quiet on a friday night as it is the night before finals.</p>
<p>^^^I have an “honors” kid and let me confirm that for you. Much harder than even the people in her sorority. They have an extreme work hard, play hard mentality. And what’s worse is when you gather extremely intelligent “bored on a Saturday night kids” together. The things they come up with…</p>
<p>As an engineering student, you will be significantly closer to your engineering classes if you live in the honors dorms (though your first year you’ll likely have classes all over campus anyway). And the social environment of the honors quad is great, so as long as you reach out to other people, you have nothing to worry about. It’s pretty diverse, with a nice mix of fratty business majors, nerdy engineers, pensive Plan II-ers, etc (sorry if I’ve offended anyone :P). People don’t just sit around studying all the time and where I lived it could get pretty crazy on the weekends. It IS kind of far away from “the action” (i.e. Gregory, PCL, etc), but let’s face it, campus just isn’t that big. You can get anywhere in just a few minutes. I live in North Campus now and a walk to the PCL still doesn’t seem all that long. </p>
<p>The basic rundown is that Blanton is the biggest dorm with the smallest rooms and is mostly freshmen. No sinks in the rooms. New-ish floors and furniture and paint and such, compared to the other two. Blanton is the dorm no one wants to get “stuck” in, but I lived there and in the end it was fine. Andrews is the next biggest (I think), it’s older and it has larger rooms. Floors are separated by gender, laundry on every floor. And Carothers is very similar to Andrews. Both are much quieter than Blanton and both have really large, beautiful piano lounges. All three have community bathrooms. Beds in Blanton can be lofted or put on the ground, dunno about the other two. </p>
<p>But none of this really even matters because you don’t get to choose which of the three you’ll live in, unless they’ve changed it.</p>
<p>I lived in Jester West my freshman year and the first semester of my sophomore year (I studied abroad second semester). Because I put Jester West as my first choice, I got a room on the first floor both years, making getting to/from my room/classes very easy. I had my first class of the day in the auditorium in Jester three days a week for a year and a half - it was fantastic. I also never had to walk outside for food on rainy or scorching days because J2, JCL, Wendy’s, Jesta Pizza, etc. are all right there in the building. The PCL and Gregory Gym are also right across the street, and the football stadium is right down block.</p>
<p>Any dorm is as social as you want it to be. I propped my door open for the first few days and some people will walk door-to-door on their floor to meet everybody. I would recommend both, even if you feel really shy or awkward. It’s the best way to break the ice and actually talk to people instead of just saying “hi” as you pass somebody in the hallway.</p>
<p>A lot of my friends lived in private dorms (Dobie, Castilian, and Towers), and they all said their amenities were pretty great. I think it even came out cheaper than the public dorms. I know there’s a website built by UT students called ■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■.com that has some pretty good info on each dorm of both types so you can compare.</p>