<p>I know we all have roomates, but how does housing work? What kind of questions do they ask?</p>
<p>Super excited for this housing situation!! I heard it’s legit.</p>
<p>Meh, NYC, living situation taken care of for you…ya know, no big deal.</p>
<p>EVERY other school has that, you know.</p>
<p>Probably your interests, how you like your room to be, how clean you are, that sort of stuff.</p>
<p>yea but every new yorker doesn’t.</p>
<p>Oh no! I meant that in sarcasm! XD hahaha!</p>
<p>The singles were small when I stayed in one of them, but the doubles, triples, and quads seemed like they were nice. Are the dorms suite style in the quads?</p>
<p>So, from what I remember from those info session, and from emailing a girl I know at Barnard, all first year students live on the quad. Sometimes you can live with your first year seminar classmates in special seminar halls, I think. You’ve got a roommate, and I think maybe occasionally two? I’m not really sure. </p>
<p>After the first year I think you can live in housing that’s off campus and further out, and get apartment style living and stuff. Which the girl I know said is pretty nice, at least in her opinion. She says it’s nice to have a real kitchen, which I guess the first year housing doesn’t really? </p>
<p>You guys probably know all this stuff already. But I guess we’ll see soon enough!</p>
<p>I read somewhere that you’re unable to get a single in your first year, but I could be very incorrect on that stance. I definitely want a double! Once we log onto ebear, I hear we’ll get a questionnaire! I wonder if we’ll know before we get there on move-in day.</p>
<p>Freshmen must live in the quad but after that it’s pretty much whatever you want. Hewitt is mostly for upperclassmen if not entirely, and has singles. Freshmen can only live in a double, triple, or maybe quad.</p>
<p>According to **************, Sulzberger Tower is the best. I hope to get in there!</p>
<p>I heard the lottery for it is fierce. I would love to live there.</p>
<p>According to the FAQ on the back of the acceptance booklet, no singles for first years.</p>
<p>Frosh live in suites with young women doubled in the rooms. If I remember correctly (D graduated in '09) there were six young women in the suite, so three rooms. There are kitchen facilities on the floor I think I remember, but the meal plan is mandatory.</p>
<p>D elected to be in one of the seminars that involved her entire hall. It was great fun, and they got to go places together (plays) funded by Barnard because it was part of their seminar. They really did get close.</p>
<p>DD has four BFF from Barnard; one was in her frosh suite. </p>
<p>Yes, Barnard does have buildings in the area that are not on campus. Some Barnard housing is in mixed buildings that have civilians, grad students and profs as well. But first years are definitely on the Quad.</p>
<p>DD lived in Sulzberger (not Tower – lower floor) first year; 110 sophomore year (an apartment with friends – women from first year suite), by herself in Hewitt junior year (and abroad one semester) and a single in Sulz Tower senior year.</p>
<p>If I can answer your questions I will.</p>
<p>seminar hall sounds funnnn!</p>
<p>To reiterate what Mythmom said:</p>
<p>First years do live on the quad. But the questionnaire they send you to “match” you with roommates is pretty complete. Things like study habits, sleeping habits, etc. My D LOVED getting to know her roomies first year. You will know who they are some time this summer…you will get the housing questionnaire some time late spring/early summer, I think.</p>
<p>After first year, you enter the housing “lottery.” It’s a kind of complicated system, or seems that way from this perspective. You get a group together and your “priority” will be determined by the seniority of that group. Then you get a lottery number and go, according to that number, and actually select your suite/room according to the time that is given you by your number. High number = less selection. You never know, year to year, if particular rooms or suites will be more in-demand or not. </p>
<p>My D lived in a five-person suite in Plimpton, which is on the other side of Columbia’s campus from Barnard, in years 2-4 with her very best friends. Five singles with a common kitchen and bath. Her senior year they had a renovated suite which was on a higher floor and the kitchen was more open with a big counter/“bar” area. It was GREAT.</p>
<p>The dorms at Barnard are not luxurious or big compared to many college campuses. But they ARE in NYC and are, by those standard, very, very nice.</p>
<p>Word to the wise, the upper floors of D2s freshman dorm were sweltering during the last three weeks of September before the weather cooled. To be compliant with the New York City bulding code and the Multiple Dwelling Law, windows of Class B Multiple Dwellings must have openable area of at least 5% of the floor area of the room. However D2s room had a window guard permitting only a 4 inch opening. Apparently due to some theoretical concerns of students falling out the windows.</p>
<p>I hope one of you will take some legal action about this, it was intolerable for those three weeks.</p>
<p>I’ve been looking at dorms, and I think Brooks looks really nice. Can any current or past students give some insight into the good/bad aspects of the first-year dorms?</p>
<p>In my first year I lived in a tiny double on the seventh floor of Brooks. There was no air conditioning and the windows didn’t open very far. Yes, it was hot early on. It also did get a little cold in the late fall before they turned the heat on. Some people would say this sounds miserable, but I loved my roommate and I loved where I lived and never felt sad that I had the room that I had. More space would’ve been nice (and now that I have it, I appreciate it), but if you have a good relationship (not necessarily close friendship, though that’s cool too) with your roommate the space shouldn’t be an issue. Living in the quad in general did get a little claustrophobic, but every first year has to do it and it’s really overall not bad at all. The quad/quad lawn is a beautiful little oasis from the hubbub of the rest of campus and the outside world. I think the key is how you feel in the room you live in, not necessarily what it is.</p>