<p>Could anyone give me an overview of upperclassmen housing? What are the best dorms, apartments, etc? Does anyone know where transfer students are usually housed?</p>
<p>Thanks</p>
<p>Housing on the North Side of campus is typically apartment-style, as far as I know. The Millbrooks have apartment suites for various numbers of people. Village East is the nicest/most expensive; Lopata House is pretty nice, too. Village House has a lot of bloc housing, so I’m not sure how much of it is used for regular groups.</p>
<p>Off campus Wash U-owned apartments can generally be found in two areas: North of campus via the Overpass and northeast of campus in the blocks near Kayak’s. These apartments all have different pros and cons so it’s worth checking out the ResLife site to see what suits you best. Greenway is pretty decent and it’s not too far from campus past the Overpass. If you’re in the engineering school, the apartments on Rosedale would probably be convenient due to the reasonably short distance.</p>
<p>If you want to, you can find a group and search for privately-owned apartments and houses. You’ll need to do a bit of research for that and work everything out with your landlord, but it’s a path that quite a number of people choose.</p>
<p>Will this be your first year at Wash U? I don’t think transfer students tend to live in one particular area. I’m sure they find a group they want to live with and decide on housing accordingly, just like everyone else.</p>
<p>It will be my first year, but I will be entering as a junior. I’m just looking to live in a place that is social with a lot of students because I don’t know anybody there. Thanks for all the information. Is the apartment-style less social? At my current school, suite-style and apartment-style housing are much less social than typical dorms, so I am wondering if this is the case at WashU too.</p>
<p>
If anyone has questions regarding non-WashU housing, feel free to pm me on how to get started with this. I’ve lived off campus for quite a while and know most (if not all) of the ins and outs.</p>
<p>ASAPtransfer - if you want social, your best bet is going to be either Village House or Lopata House. You are right in that the apartment-style dorms are less social - the people who live in those tend to already have a solid “group” and don’t branch out within their dorm. </p>
<p>Actually, transfers in general aren’t going to be able to get the automatic community feel that freshmen floors give. Your best bet is to sign up for a dozen clubs, see what people you gel with, and go from their - ask them what their weekend plans are and if you can join in. I know a TON of transfers (and engineering dual degree students) and they all seem to have found their own group, so it’s certainly easy to fit in. Everyone here is quite friendly - don’t be afraid to strike up a conversation!</p>
<p>I think I will most likely live on campus because I’m scared off campus housing may not be a great idea for transfer students. Is South 40 for freshman?</p>
<p>Also, do you know what meal plan people typically choose? I’m thinking the Bronze will be good, but I am not sure. Are there a lot of off campus restaurants nearby? I’d rather spend money at those than have to use meal points.</p>
<p>^I don’t know enough about how they place transfers for housing, sorry. One year they had a “transfer house” (SAE’s house when they were still banned from upper row) but I don’t know what the current plan is for next year.</p>
<p>Regarding meal plans, always alway always go with the smallest you can.<br>
If you run out of points, you can add more. But if you have any leftover it’s lost money (you don’t get refunded).</p>
<p>And on that note, the food on campus is quite good and it will be much cheaper for you to buy food on campus than to consistently buy food from restaurants.</p>
<p>Also, here’s a clause I found on the ResLife site that mentions transfer students…ASAPtransfer, do you know for sure if you’re even allowed to live on campus/in ResLife-owned housing? This sentence, if it truly does apply, seems to indicate not:</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>via [noparse]<a href=“Residential Life - Students”>Residential Life - Students;
<p>I would recommend contacting ResLife and finding out what options are available to you.</p>
<p>I am fairly certain transfers are allowed to live on campus because there is a housing application I have to fill out on the online portal. The options are: modern residential college single/double, traditional residential college single/double, Millbrook apartment single/double, The Village, Greenway apartment, Pershing, Rosedale, University Terrace, Waterman, Horseshoe, 520 Kingsland, and 6665 Washington.</p>
<p>So, having these options, which one/ones would you guys recommend?</p>
<p>Thanks for all your help btw!</p>
<p>Ok, that’s good. In that case, I’m not sure what they mean by that sentence I posted because it specifically says “incoming transfer students,” which you certainly are. Oh well.</p>
<p>You’re starting in fall 2013, right? To be honest, I’m not really sure what your options are because all of the housing selection has already taken place and many of the locations you listed are likely to be filled at this point. As I mentioned earlier, you may just want to call ResLife and find out what the situation is.</p>
<p>I agree that your best option is probably living on campus. If you choose to do that, you would be choosing between Millbrook and The Village. Modern and traditional residential colleges are all on the South 40, which is fine on-campus housing, but you would most likely be living with sophomores.</p>
<p>All of the other places on that list (Greenway, Pershing, Rosedale, UTerrace, Waterman, Horseshoe, Kingsland, and Washington) are off-campus apartments.</p>
<p>@RaVNzCRoFT</p>
<p>I interpreted that simply as meaning they won’t be part of the same “lottery” as those currently living in ResLife. I would have to believe that they can still get ResLife housing, and what ASAP says seems to back that up.</p>
<p>Yeah, that makes sense. I don’t know why I didn’t think of that.</p>
<p>Good to know. I will definitely put those options towards the front of my list. And yes, I’m fairly positive I will be attending for Fall 2013 (waiting on a few other transfer decisions though).</p>
<p>Do most people live in the dorms for 3-4 years?</p>
<p>It depends on what you mean by dorms. Do you truly mean dorm-style housing? If so, the answer is 2 years because the South 40 (underclassmen housing) is all dorms but the North Side is mostly apartment style. Males who choose Greek housing after their freshman year will move out of the South 40 and very few others will be able to get into the North Side. Therefore, almost everybody will stay on the South 40 in dorms for their first 2 years.</p>
<p>By dorms, do you just mean on-campus housing? If so, here’s my understanding of the splits for on- and off-campus housing: For non-Greeks, if I had to guess I’d say on average, people tend to live in dorms for about 3 years. Probably about half move to off-campus housing after their sophomore year while the other half stay on campus. Off-campus people are likely to stay off campus for their senior year and on-campus people are probably more likely to stay on campus for their senior year. Hence an average of 3 years, assuming about half of the people will stay on campus for 4 and the other half will only stay on campus for their underclass years. This isn’t entirely precise, but I think it’s a pretty close approximation.</p>
<p>After re-reading that, I realize it might be kind of confusing, especially for someone completely new to how housing works here. [Here’s</a> a link](<a href=“http://i.imgur.com/HWQ9yaE.jpg]Here’s”>http://i.imgur.com/HWQ9yaE.jpg) to a flowchart I made which hopefully will do a better job explaining the paths people take and the approximate percentages (based on a guess) of people who choose each option.</p>
![http://i.imgur.com/HWQ9yaE.jpg]Here’s](http://i.imgur.com/HWQ9yaE.jpg%5DHere's){kind=link}
<p>Some of the people who go to the North Side after sophomore year are in blocs, which have dorm-style housing. I’m not sure if any non-bloc residents can get dorm-style housing on the North Side. Regardless, I would say that most of the housing on the North Side is apartment-style.</p>
<p>Wow thank you so much that was very helpful! And yeah, by on campus housing I guess I wasn’t clear. I basically meant campus-owned housing (so dorms, on campus housing, and off campus but campus owned housing). It is so foreign to me that people live in campus owned housing for 3 or possibly 4 years. I guess that is typical at a private school.</p>
<p>You mentioned Greek life housing, and it reminded me of another question I have (though it doesn’t really relate to housing). How big of a deal is Greek life? And if it is a big deal and you are not a part of it, is it an exclusive part of campus?</p>
<p>I am looking to move to a school where Greek life does not rule campus. If you aren’t part of a frat or sorority, what other kinds of parties are there?</p>
<p>Greek life has a pretty decent presence on campus but it really depends on what you make of it. If you choose Greek life, you’ll have a great time with your brothers/sisters. If you choose to go to the frat parties, you can do so and have fun. But if you have no interest, Greek culture will not impact you in any way. There are plenty of non-Greek parties all the time and as long as you have some social connections, they’re not too difficult to find.</p>
<p>Good to know. Are there fraternity and sorority houses?</p>
<p>There are fraternity houses but not sorority houses.</p>
<p>You guys are so helpful. Want to help me out by taking my finals? ;p</p>