<p>lol is denz really GoH? thats kinda cool :)</p>
<p>btw tho, the one article in the spec about soph housing is pretty good. i think the girl who wrote it was able to keep it all in perspective and realize that even the shaft in mcbain isnt as bad as trying to find your own housing</p>
<p>what shraf isn't telling you guys is that while sophomore housing can be bad, junior and senior housing can be really good. East Campus is a 20-story high rise where sophomores live in doubles, juniors live in singles, both groups have kitchens with dishwashers and 600-sf lounges, half have incredible views of morningside/harlem/central park. There are corridor-style buildings with big floor lounges and air conditioning and 14-16 floors; one of them, Broadway, has the definite feel of a hotel. </p>
<p>Seniors also have more options on apartment-style places with big living rooms, kichens, private baths, etc, some with 5-6 single bedrooms of 120-150 square feet (Hogan and EC Townhouses), some with 1-2 bedrooms and big living rooms (Watt and Woodbridge, both converted grad student apartment houses). There's a lot of really nice stuff out there. </p>
<p>Freshmen have it better than sophomores, but upperclassmen can have it pretty sweet. By comparison with the dorms at a lot of other colleges, especially inner-city colleges, you're paying less and getting more by and large.</p>
<p>
[quote]
realize that even the shaft in mcbain isnt as bad as trying to find your own housing
[/quote]
ain't that the truth. finding an apartment in manhattan is one of the most stressful things i've had to do in the past 5 years. arrogant mercenary brokers, deceptive listing practices, tremendous pressure, obscene prices. Columbia housing is a dream by comparison. Good luck to all those NYU kids who strike it out on their own with delusions of grandeur about living the life from "Rent".</p>
<p>edit: if you want to know about my connection to housing, this article (despite being terribly written) isn't a bad summary:</p>
<p>I was in the office on thursday to write a bit of code for Mark Chatoor, but to his credit he really ran the whole thing very smoothly and understood it well without much help from me. He and Joyce, they're not just competent, they're compassionate - they honestly care about students and about meeting their needs, and will go to the limits of fairness to help somebody out. Nobody gets their numbers rigged, but a lot of advice and lesser favors get dispensed. Every year there are plenty of people who are disappointed, but almost nobody gets furious or feels treated unfairly, and even those who end up in the "worst rooms on campus" find that it's not that much of a downer.</p>
<p>
[QUOTE]
The bathrooms in John Jay are cleaned regularly, so it's really not about that, unless you have some dirty people on your floor. They're just... more focused on function than beauty. In general, no one really walks barefoot in the bathroom, just for caution. Also, this is coming from the perspective of a girl, and I have seen that the guys bathrooms aren't as nice.
[/QUOTE]
I don't understand, you say the problem is they are focused on function not beauty, but also that people don't walk barefoot out of caution.. so are they clean or not?? I don't care what they look like! lol..</p>
<p>Also how regularly are they cleaned?</p>
<p>I'm so confused about which one to choose, Carman or John Jay.. it seems one is clean but lacks privacy, while the other has privacy but is quite gritty. And when people say the parties in Carman are 'wild', what do they mean? Is your room likely to get trashed? I was reading somewhere that parties at Columbia mainly appear to be drunken political discussions and occasional ones with drinking games.. how true is this?</p>
<p>Would anyone mind putting up pictures of the John Jay bathrooms in their usual state on the Wiki thing? Cunningly only a picture of the sinks has been put up so far (last time I checked anyway).</p>
<p>freshman-dorm parties rarely get more than 10-15 people involved because there just isn't that much space. upperclass parties can get a bit more involved, but even then, it isn't like something out of Animal House. There was one party in the penthouse of Hogan this past fall that probably had 300 people at it, because there was just that much space (and a DJ, and free liquor...), but nobody was breaking **** or getting out of hand.</p>
<p>In 4 years I only saw one party I'd truly describe as out of control, and that one probably had > 500 people taking over basically all of Ruggles, winding up the spiral stairs and through about 6 participating apartments. It was halloween. Serious mayhem. But that's not really the Columbia scene.</p>
<p>Can't really speak to frat parties though.</p>
<p>"it isn't like something out of Animal House"
Thank god, that would mean that we're at Dartmouth, ^^.</p>
<p>On a more serious note: How's the greek scene at CU?</p>
<p>
[quote]
Also how regularly are they cleaned?</p>
<p>I'm so confused about which one to choose, Carman or John Jay.. it seems one is clean but lacks privacy, while the other has privacy but is quite gritty. And when people say the parties in Carman are 'wild', what do they mean? Is your room likely to get trashed? I was reading somewhere that parties at Columbia mainly appear to be drunken political discussions and occasional ones with drinking games.. how true is this?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>the easiest way to answer this is just come to days on campus and see for yourself. you'll get an id that will give you access to all the freshman dorms and you can see them then</p>
<p>the cleaning schedule really depends on the custodian...they are supposed to be cleaned monday-friday with you having to rough it out on the weekends (which can get bad if ppl decide to throw up in the sinks/urinals.....) but sometimes the janitors just get lazy (or are complete potheads, like the one for my floor who i have seen smoking a joint 5 times now)</p>
<p>although, i will say that when they do decide to clean them, they do a nice job.</p>
<p>also, in NO college should you ever go barefoot into a bathroom, its just not a smart idea.</p>
<p>finally, parties vary quite a bit. sometimes they are just people sitting around drinking and talking (more john jay simply because of space limitations) or sometimes they are drinking with dancing and whatnot (more "traditional" party i guess)</p>
<p>but even then you get exceptions, like a couple of months ago my floor in JJ had a huge jello shot party in the lounge with lots of drinking/dancing...</p>
<p>Unfortunately I can't make the days on campus as I live abroad and my dad is not willing to fork out the money for a flight (fair enough..)</p>
<p>Thanks for the comments though.</p>
<p>I would like to know if the Housing application for the 2011 admits are done on a first come first served basis or do they take a look at them after the May 1st deadline?</p>
<p>Thanks...</p>
<p>I'm an incoming freshman with allergies to pollen, dust mites, and mold...I really want a single and to have friends so I was thinking about John Jay. Is there anyone with similar allergies who might give me some advice?</p>
<p>I've got a few questions about Carman:</p>
<p>1) There is an option between single-sex and coed floors-- is most socializing done on your floor, and is there a big difference between the two? (So far I'm leaning towards coed).</p>
<p>2) I haven't heard many positive things about the kitchen in Carman...is it as disgusting as people have told me, or do people actually cook in it?</p>
<p>
[quote]
I would like to know if the Housing application for the 2011 admits are done on a first come first served basis or do they take a look at them after the May 1st deadline?
[/quote]
they are all looked at at once. you can take up to may 1st to decide and file the request. they are processed in bulk, and assignments and roommate matchings are done by hand with care given to the responses you provide.</p>
<p>
[quote]
2) I haven't heard many positive things about the kitchen in Carman...is it as disgusting as people have told me, or do people actually cook in it?
[/quote]
you've got to be really committed to cooking to use the kitchen in carman. there are no supplies down there, you need to bring your own pots, oil, utensils, etc. i wouldn't say it's GROSS, it's messy because nobody takes care of it, but it IS cleaned by the university every now and then, and plenty of people bake stuff regularly.</p>
<p>if you want to cook regularly, go with Hartley/Wallach or Furnald, depending on whether you want a more social environment (HTL/WAL) or a newer, nicer building with singles and more privacy (FUR).</p>
<p>Soooo what if I submitted the Housing app and closed out of it...Do I have to fill it out again to get to the Dining app again?</p>
<p>Haha Denz, good to know you are GoH. I'm really hoping my 20/654 will get me that mid-demand Woodbridge I have been oh so craving.</p>
<p>As for Chatoor and Joyce, they helped me out a ton this past year with getting into Furnald because of a medical condition. Great people that everyone should go and talk to at least once in their time at Columbia.</p>
<p>Recommendation for housing: I lived in JJ and absolutely loved it. My roommate for next year (I will be a junior) is one of my JJ floor mates. We didn't live on the same floor this year, but you stay friends with people who you talk to on your floor and that is a really huge bonus.</p>
<p>I also had tons of friends in Carman and would go there many a weekend. Still, I liked being able to come home to a single room and just go to bed without the thought of being woken up by someone walking into my room while drunk. Carman definitely has its advantages, but I like JJ.</p>
<p>Since I live in Furnald this year, I can help out with that too. Furnald is really amazing as a soph, and for a while I was considering it as a frosh, but it is really quiet for freshmen and that could be a problem. If you like nice housing that is quiet and you want to get work done, go to Furnald. If you want to be somewhat more social, go to the other dorms.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Haha Denz, good to know you are GoH. I'm really hoping my 20/654 will get me that mid-demand Woodbridge I have been oh so craving.
[/quote]
a clarification: I'm not GoH. I was GoH before GoH. I invented (and calculated) all the cutoffs, all of the distinctions between housing types (like the mid-demand WBH), and wrote a bunch of housing systems including the online selection system. Read the Spec article I linked a few posts ago.</p>
<p>As far as freshman-year housing, most everyone who picks Carman OR JJ ends up liking it, whereas most people who pick Furnald like it but wish they'd picked something else, and people who pick HTL/WAL generally don't like it. Beyond that, refer to my post towards the start of this thread for some basic feature comparisons, maybe you can figure out where your priorities lie.</p>
<p>How likely are we to get are first choices? Is Carman single sex really all orthodox Jews?</p>
<p>i think the stat that's thrown around is that ur 75% likely to get ur first chioce</p>
<p>the single-sex options aren't that bad. the all-guys floor is actually 16 people, but maybe only 3-4 of them actually requested single-sex, the rest just got placed there on the basis of lottery. Some of the ones I met my freshman year were pretty cool people.</p>
<p>The deal with Columbia's Greek Scene is this: if you're in a fraternity/sorority, you'll love it, you'll have lots and lots of friends, you'll have a busy social calendar, etc.</p>
<p>If you're not in a fraternity/sorority, you probably won't know Greek Life exists.</p>
<p>..............what? that relates...how?</p>
<p>Oops. That was a response to post #85, I simply forgot to quote him.</p>