I haven’t been accepted or anything… I just started looking at housing options and I got curious.
Can any current students tell me what the pros and cons of each first-year housing option are?
Hey, current freshman here. I’ll try to give you a good rundown of things.
Donlon -
Pros: The “social” dorm (everyone leaves their door open), music playing and an overall wild/fun atmosphere; people love this dorm
Cons: Confusing floor layout; on the older side; no overhead lighting
High Rise 5 (basically a twin building of Jameson) -
Pros: Amazing views of Cornell from the 6th floor sky lounge; each floor has a lounge with an outside deck; you should be able to bond with your suite and/or floor very easily; located right next to RPCC (a dining hall and community center); location next to RPCC bus stop
Cons: Bathrooms need a serious makeover (the showers are bathtub showers… gross); triples feel forced and smaller than doubles; you have to take an elevator to get to your floor (no access to stairwell on the way up) can get very annoying
Court-Kay-Bauer “CKB” -
Pros: This is the most sought-after dorm on North campus; AIR CONDITIONING; NEWest buildings; plenty of spacious study lounges; gives a pleasant hotel-ish vibe compared to other dorms; located near Appel (dining hall) and bus stop
Cons: Some people say no one in these dorms are social (I disagree, it’ll be largely dependent upon your “pod” and rest of the floor); you have to swipe your card to get access into the building and then swipe again to use the elevators or get access to the stairwell on the way up (can be annoying when your friends are trying to come over)
Mews -
Never been inside but it is fairly similar to CKB
Low Rises -
Pros: None (universally known as the worst housing on North)
Cons: Really confusing floor layouts; crappy facilities similar to the highrises without the nice views
Dickson -
Never been inside, but I know that it’s the oldest building on North Campus and one of the oldest dorms in the Ivy League.
Townhouses (secluded housing, a lot of athletes tend to live with teammates) -
Pros: Anti-dorm lifestyle with your own “community” (pro or con depending on the person --> onus is on you to make friends and reach out to other Townhouses); relative freedom from RAs (they are around but don’t have as big a presence as they do in the dorms, naturally); essentially hotspots to smoke/drink; has a community center; near bus stops; huge living areas (each townhouse has two doubles, a bathroom, a kitchen, and a lounge area)
Cons: Farthest away from Central Campus (you have to budget a lot of time to get to class in the morning); RAs are naturally suspicious that students will be up to no good here so they do checks a lot at the beginning of the semester; kind of excluded from the dorm lifestyle of other dorms (you’d probably have to reach out to a lot of people to get to other pregames)
JAM House, Ujamaa, Latino Living Center, and International Community Living Center are all program housing -
I think they’re similar to the Low Rises
Hope this helps!
Just realized that I forgot about Balch Hall. It’s an all-girls dorm. Girls typically dread a single in this dorm because there will be no contact with boys. Just make sure you get out and socialize in different dorms.
@CGZoo42 Do you have a choice of which dorm?
Have you ever used any of the micro-fridge units? Is the rental company responsive if you have a problem with the unit.
What do you think the chances are of a freshmen getting into Court-Kay-Bauer? From what I was told today, initially, the only options I have is to request a single, double or triple. She said the rest is done by a computer-match type of system.
Not really, you can preference which type of dorm you’d want to live in (for example: (1) Townhouse Community (2) Residence Halls or you can pref one of the program houses) Other than that, which specific dorm you end up in is randomized.
Your chances of getting into CKB are not high as there are so many dorms and CKB doesn’t house as many people as you would think. The best way to get into CKB is to claim dust allergies (seriously lol). I didn’t rent a microfridge because my floor in High Rise has a fridge and i don’t need it that often. Many of my friends do and they haven’t had any problems.
DD and her roommates chose Balch on purpose (!) and like it there. Quiet, huge lounges, one with a grand piano, and they’re happy to not be running into random guys all the time. So not every girl dreads it! I will say that the kitchens are a bit sad, though.
Can’t believe someone at Cornell could say they have never been to Dickson. 
It is the biggest dorm at Cornell. My kids lived there freshman year. If you select single, you will most likely end up at Dickson, and because a lot of rooms are single you won’t feel isolated. The dorm is old, so the rooms can be irregular, some rooms are bigger than others. One of my kids had a single on the top floor. It was smaller, but it had a nice slanted roof with window seat. One of my kids had a handicap room on the first floor and it was huge.
The chance of getting into one of those newer dorms is very slim. Housing will deny it, but they tend to give those rooms to “very legacy” students and students with medical needs.