<p>What are the housing options at northwestern like? Do we get to choose what dorm we are in? What types of dorms are there?</p>
<p>Thanks</p>
<p>What are the housing options at northwestern like? Do we get to choose what dorm we are in? What types of dorms are there?</p>
<p>Thanks</p>
<p>I have friends at NU and they took me to their dorms when I visited. I got to see Parc and Shepherd (pardon me for the spelling), which my friends deemed the worst and the best (respectively), at least for freshmen. I didn’t see the bathrooms, but the rooms in general seemed like normal dorm rooms to me. A bit bare, but made cozy by its occupants, lounges were bare as well, but probably better with people. Definitely no ivy league suite-style dorms, at least not for freshmen.</p>
<p>You can learn a ton about housing at Northwestern by looking through this student-prepared guide. There are dorms as well as residential colleges. You list your five top choices in order. If you are trying to get into a residential college, you have to write an essay. I have a freshman at NU, and his residential college double is ENORMOUS. </p>
<p>[Freshman</a> housing guide 2010 » North by Northwestern](<a href=“http://www.northbynorthwestern.com/2010/05/81000/freshman-housing-guide-2010/]Freshman”>http://www.northbynorthwestern.com/2010/05/81000/freshman-housing-guide-2010/)</p>
<p>One thing to think about. Students in certain majors sometimes get hung up on wanting to be on just north or just south campus. My son, an NU freshman from CA, is in a STEM major. So, naturally, he listed all north housing as his preference since it’s closer to Tech Center. </p>
<p>He ended up being assigned to 1835 Hinman, in south campus. Now that he’s experienced some of the worst winter weather that the Chicago area could throw at him, I asked him what he thought. (He’s now on spring break in CA, where it’s unseasonably raining and cold.</p>
<p>His assessment? He likes being on south campus, closest to Evanston. He said the distance to north campus became nothing once he got a bicycle. So, for next year, he has a slight preference for south campus.</p>
<p>South Campus is better, better people live there. :P</p>
<p>I’ve heard rumors that north campus is mainly for party goers and south campus for studiers… True?</p>
<p>Not really, FailSafe. Certainly Bob has a reputation for being a “party dorm” and the frats are up North - naturally, plenty of partying goes on up there and a lot of people seem to go up there on party nights. But it’s half of the student population up there in the dorms and res colleges up there, so there are plenty of “non partiers” up north and plenty of “partiers” down south. There are a lot of people in my (small) dorm way down south who like to go out and party, and they go off campus or into Evanston just as much as they’d go up north for a party. More commonly, you’ll hear north campus described as the science/engineering area, and south being the more liberal arts/film/humanities kids. That’s, again, true to a degree, but there’s still some fair overlap.</p>
<p>I agree with not getting too caught up in being close to your classes. Get a bike and it doesn’t matter. Hell, I do most of my campus travel on foot and don’t see a huge issue. I’m in one of the southern most dorms and getting to my occasional class in Tech or even more consistently my work-study job near the frat quad isn’t that bad at all. In addition, you might be interested in getting to know some people outside of your area of interest. I’m in a south campus dorm with a lot of School of Comm and Medill majors. One of our sophomores is an engineer - he lived up north last year, and said he decided to live down south because he was tired of constantly being surrounded by other engineers. It might be fun to try out different types of people!</p>
<p>Momof3sons, sounds like your son might live in Shepard or Willard? My res college is awful small and dingy…but I still <em>love</em> it. =P</p>
<p>Perididdle, that’s possible. ;)</p>
<p>could somebody compare the NU dorms with Vanderbilt dorms? It is quite lame of me to make the dorms the deciding factor, but I want to enjoy where I’m living for the next four years.</p>
<p>I’m totally with ya on that, caitl294. When so many schools have the same amazing academics, you gotta start comparing the smaller stuff. Plus my dream was always to go to Yale (I got denied), so I’m still kind of hung up on the amazing dorms there and looking for something similar.</p>
<p>Sparkler I’m in EXACTLY the same boat. Yale is my absolute dream school but I’m expecting to get rejected come March 30th so I’m trying concentrate on the schools I have been accepted to. But it’s so hard to compare NU’s dorms with the beautiful Yale suite-style colleges! But that’s okay, we’ll live :)</p>
<p>haha yeahhh, every time I ate in a Yale dining hall it was somewhat akin to dining in a palace. The suite I stayed in had a huge common room, too, and I thought it was so cool that all the dorms have fireplaces lol. Good luck on getting in! Where else are you considering going?</p>
<p>I’ve heard that the fireplaces do not actually work though, is that true?</p>
<p>Besides the ivies, my two choices at the moment are Northwestern and Vanderbilt. </p>
<p>What about you? best of luck to you as well for the rest of your schools!</p>
<p>True, the fireplaces don’t work, but it’s still an upgrade from your average dorm lol. And for me, the only schools that would beat out Northwestern are Dartmouth and Brown (and maybe Hopkins) but I’ll have to wait till next week to see if I got in!</p>
<p>compared to TV’s that don’t work in some of the northwestern lounges, I could settle for decorative fireplaces, haha. Best of luck to you!</p>
<p>caitl294 – I also chose between Northwestern and Vanderbilt! Both great options. When I visited Vanderbilt I was really impressed with the freshman housing setup – having the all-freshman dorms all close together is really cool. NU’s setup is totally different – only one dorm (Elder) is all-freshman, and the dorms are pretty scattered across campus. When it comes down to facilities, I can’t really say because I don’t remember much about the actual rooms I saw at Vandy. I can say that some dorms at NU are very nice and have been recently renovated and others are ancient and in need of serious remodeling and repair. They’re not inhabitable or anything, they just have…character. :P</p>
<p>Anyway, as a general note, it’s important not to get too caught up in the North Campus/South Campus thing. I live north and I love it, but I had really wanted to live south when I filled out housing preferences. There is a stereotype to each end of campus, but the truth is that you’ll be able to find all kinds of different people wherever you go.</p>
<p>^thanks for the input! Which dorms would you suggest to apply for if I matriculate there? I’d be studying music and engineering, although I’m not sure if distance to and from classes should be an important factor.</p>
<p>My son was in Elder for his Freshman year and loved it. He is a Chem Major so although alot of his classes are up north, he has some in South campus due to distro requirements. Then in the summer, he had a sublet in south campus and loved being close to Evanston. Now, this year he’s in Sargent and likes it as well.</p>
<p>The location of the dorm really doesn’t matter. What you really need to decide is if you want a dorm or a residential college.</p>
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<p>I know they talked about this on our tour, but I don’t remember details. Can anyone talk about the differences?</p>
<p>A residential college sounds like a more cohesive group of students, which provides more programs and group activities than the dorms. To me, it sounded like a middle ground between the dorms and the frats/sororities. To stay/get in to to residential college, students gets points for certain actvities. For freshman, the applicant fills out additional forms stating why they think X residential college is good for them, and vice versa. Another essay opportunity!</p>