<p>Can anyone help refresh my memory about the residential houses? This is what I remember distinctively from the tours....</p>
<p>1) Carmen: most social, sometimes TOO loud; bathrooms are cleaned once a week; private bathrooms for connected suites</p>
<p>2) John Jay: a lot of singles</p>
<p>3) Furnald: socially-dead, but cleanest place to live</p>
<p>4) Hartley/Wallach: no info (I didn't visit this hall)</p>
<p>Also, any opinions on the houses?</p>
<p>Carman and Furnald: have AC</p>
<p>. . . have AC that turns on May 16 after graduation, but no big deal b/c it's unnecessary.</p>
<p>Don't request Hartley. I WANT IT. Hartley is mine.</p>
<p>Hartley is the one I missed. What's special about it? Were you at Days on Campus on the 21st? If so, is that the one that dude on Student Panel talked about with the L-shape analysis?</p>
<p>I don't know what guy you're talking about and what L-shape you're talking about</p>
<p>But the dorm is mine, so I won't tell you anything!</p>
<p>Just kidding, but pretty please don't take it from me. Hartley is so good (better than Wallach even though they're lumped together on the request form). Suites over 2 floors centered around a staircase, two lounges and a kitchen. Mix of singles and doubles and mix of freshman, soph, and juniors. Soph and juniors apply specifically to be in those dorms (i.e. it's not general selection) if they want singles and if they want nice housing and if they want columbia funding to put on dorm events. If you're lucky they'll help the freshman and be cool people to live with. The different suites are connected, not entirely separate. Columbia funds projects in the dorm (called the living and learning center, LLC), like going to a concert at reduced costs because Columbia will help cover the costs if student discounts aren't automatically given by the concert venue. Find some event you want to do, can be lots of things, and submit a form and get funding. In fact, you're expected to do this if you live there. The kitchen has two stoves if I remember correctly. I want my dad to teach me how to cook this summer, because he is an amazing cook. Then maybe I can buy some steaks and cook them and have good dorm dinners sometimes. I hope that's not a hard thing to do. I saw lots of clean and dirty dishes in drying racks and counters when I was there, so I expect people do cook. You have to bring your own refrigerators. The rooms were nice and the beds were the best I'd seen by far. The beds were tall and sturdy and wooden and attractive, which is a big improvement over the low metal frame beds elsewhere. Good space underneath them, too, for some storage space. I bet my cello would fit under there, which would save a lot of space. The rooms were a good size, and you can get more than one window, too. Two lounges, one at top of stairs, one at bottom. One had a pretty good size TV in it. Couldn't see the bathrooms all that well, but they looked pretty private to me. Kitchens cleaned by students, bathrooms cleaned by Columbia. Do not request this dorm. I want it.</p>
<p>I should not have said anything. . . . . </p>
<p>Oh well, at least I can have some hope, since a lot of people request freshman-only dorms.</p>
<p>caballero, that L shape thing was referring to Furnald.</p>
<p>Also, though the LLC dorms sound rad, what some ppl said (including those on the student panel) was that the upperclassmen aren't too inclined to make friends with the freshmen, so although youll have tons of friends elsewhere, you won't become best buddies with your upperclassmen roomates. Or at least that's what the student panel person said.</p>
<p>You aren't roommates with upperclassmen. If you have a roommate, he/she'll be from your grade. The person on the panel said it depends on which older kids are in your suite. She said sometimes they become friends and sometimes they don't. I'm not really concerned.</p>
<p>oh ok, my bad then. im more of a carman person, but to each his own.</p>
<p>Columbia houses... mehhhh.</p>
<p>jono -- and all others out there trying to figure out how to store instruments in those small rooms -- you can buy risers that lift any bed off the floor. Cheap, and it gives you plenty of storage space under there not just for instruments but luggage, and bins to keep school stuff in.</p>
<p>Okay, good to know. I read that in the paper called Move-in Survival Guide. But then I read elsewhere that lofting of beds wasn't allowed any more, and I didn't know exactly what that meant.</p>
<p>This isn't lofting. Risers are fine. A very handy tidbit I learned right here on College Confidential :)</p>
<p>I have a family friend in Hartley right now. He's a sophomore. Do the suites all have staircases, b/c I don't remember that? I love the suite-style but he suggested that a freshmen shouldn't pick LLC unless they are especially independent and a bit antisocial, but that's just his opinion. I think I chose LLC 3rd.
I think lofting is raising the bed above you like it's a top bunk so you can put a desk or shelf beneath it.</p>
<p>Hartley has a staircase in the middle because the rooms are arranged over two floors. Wallach doesn't because the suites are just over one floor.</p>
<p>AC doesn't really matter. You can purchase a personal window AC for 40 bucks at the bookstore and John Jay becomes just as comfortable as Carman.</p>
<p>Although Carman is uber social and loud, John Jay is still very very social, at least for my year. Every night I go out. Most of the time, people from Carman meet up with me in my room and pregame before we go downtown actually. At Carman, you lose a lot of privacy and it kind of sucks not having your own room to chill in listening to music after a raucous/relaxing night out. Plus if you're in a relationship, having a single in John Jay is much much more convenient than dealing with a roommate in Carman. Those are the reasons why I chose John Jay over Carman, and I love having a single here.</p>
<p>Those of you worried about John Jay not being social enough, don't worry, I have a social life at Columbia. (<a href="http://www.xanga.com/SoHo%5B/url%5D">http://www.xanga.com/SoHo</a> for the pictures detailing those experiences, haha)</p>
<p>Anyways, hope that answers your questions,
C
Co-Founder & Director of
Columbia University National Undergraduate Film Festival: <a href="http://www.CUfestival.com/%5B/url%5D">http://www.CUfestival.com/</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.xanga.com/SoHo%5B/url%5D">http://www.xanga.com/SoHo</a></p>
<p>anyone have more info on Furnald? Is it really socially dead?</p>
<p>can someone who goes to columbia (or knows it really well) compare furnald and john jay? THANKS</p>
<p>furnald people are generally antisocial, especially when compared to john jay. You can still be social and live in furnald but you'll have to try harder to find a social scene since most of the happening social life is at carman or john jay.</p>
<p>furnald singles, however, are more spacious and comfortable.
john jay singles are awesome enough for me (average 110 sq ft., I got a 103 sq. ft single and i even had someone live with me comfortably for a few months--no problems) plus a great social scene and conveniently located above a cafeteria and a overnight (closes at 4AM) grocery store/chicken fingers depot.</p>
<p>C
<a href="http://www.CUfestival.com%5B/url%5D">http://www.CUfestival.com</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.xanga.com/SoHo%5B/url%5D">http://www.xanga.com/SoHo</a></p>
<p>thanks soho! how have you liked living in a single vs. double</p>