Housing/Dining

<p>Did anyone check out the photos of the doubles in Carman??? They are GIGANTIC (by college standards) I know someone at U Maryland and their dorms werent half the size. Its awesome not to have carpeting too...anyone who roomed there, anything i should know that they DONT tell you on the website?</p>

<p>give us the link!</p>

<p><a href="http://www.columbia.edu/cu/reshalls/tour/jj/index.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.columbia.edu/cu/reshalls/tour/jj/index.html&lt;/a> (john jay)</p>

<p><a href="http://www.columbia.edu/cu/reshalls/tour/car/index.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.columbia.edu/cu/reshalls/tour/car/index.html&lt;/a> (carman)</p>

<p>click on "photos"</p>

<p>sry to be critical..but i personally think they're ugly...the lounges are a little blah...and the walls! but they are big</p>

<p>the dining hall and main lounge is nice.</p>

<p>i didnt know dorms were like this. i've got to investigate some more.</p>

<p>im so out of it</p>

<p>carman on the whole is rather noisy; expect to camp at butler regularly if you want to study</p>

<p>Sorry, but I have to agree with sDaLi 87. The dorms remind me of really cheap retreat house rooms (my high school is big on overnight retreats). I guess the doubles seem big, but remember that 2 people share them and expect twice the crap to fill the room. If I decide to room there (I live in NYC, could stay with family if I want to), I'd either really hope for a single or double with someone I could trust. And I only know one person really well who's going.</p>

<p>But did you notice in the pictures of the bathrooms that the toilets are uncommonly and uncomfortably long? Yeah, those pictures are stretched. Those crafty Columbians. . .</p>

<p>Anybody who rooms with me can be sure that they'll have one of the most stylish and least messy rooms on campus. I can refer you to my past room mates and RAs if necessary. I know how to live in a room. Oh yeah.</p>

<p>soul.......how was your experience in Furnald?.....I would like a nice and quiet dorm so would that be a good match for me?</p>

<p>I think I'm going to choose Carmen...I'm not a terribly social person but I'd rather have the opportunity to be social in my dorm that not...If it's noisy--just put on headphones...and i go to boarding school, going to the library is quite nice because there are less distractions. It also gets you out of your room.</p>

<p>Furnald has been exactly what I hoped and expected. It is by far the quietest dorm on campus - nobody hangs out in the halls and the parties take place elsewhere. Other than the fact that the Furnald doors open and close rather loudly, the noise level is minimal indeed. I would venture to say that you will likely find it to be quieter than Butler on many occasions.</p>

<p>So how is it like at Jay or at one of the other buildings with only 1 bathroom per floor? There's something like 40 people per floor at Jay, right? So that's what, 20 guys per bathroom? I'm sure it's even worse for girls...</p>

<p>Since no current Carman residents seem to post here, I just thought I'd add that while it attracts the more social students, and therefore is noisier, not all the floors there are the same. You will get a form that asks two questions: are you noisy or quiet, are you messy or neat. If you put quiet, you will at least get put with quiet suitemates.(Carman has suites -- two double rooms share a bathroom off a short entrance. You can close both the door to your room and the door to the suite.) I know my son does all his studying in his room in Carman -- he parties on a different floor. :) </p>

<p>Also, the square footage varies enormously and is just a matter of luck of the draw. In his suite, one room is much larger than the other, but he was assigned to the small one. If you go onto the housing site, you can click on the floor plan for each dorm. It shows the square footage of the different rooms and you'll see they vary a lot.</p>

<p>I would pay attention to what an earlier student posted about Furnald as a first year experience, though obviously it is working for Soul. You know best what kind of person you are, but if you want to make a lot of friends, it is much easier in either John Jay or Carman. Most students do seem to make their friends through the dorm during the first year -- or am I wrong about that, Soul?</p>

<p>does anyone else think that columbia's dorms are really small? especially after looking at upenn's dorm selections, columbia residence halls don't seem very appealing.</p>

<p>It is Manhattan you must remember. Large rooms are hard to come by for anybody who lives there. Columbia has to do what they can with the space they have.</p>

<p>the rooms i saw in carman when i did an overnight were a little on the small but somehow felt really tall, so i didnt feel cramped in at all. plus the floor was really social, and i met a lot of really welcoming people, i even have kept in touch with one of them. i'm pretty sure i want to room in carman, any other '09 girls thinking the same thing?</p>

<p>I am starting to lean towards Carmen now. At first it was LLC but now I really am liking Carmen. Im torn. I'll decide after Days.</p>

<p>I put Carman as my first and second choice and I'm an '09 girl</p>

<p>me too, lilsmiley...see you in august :)</p>