<p>any advice from current students on what housing to try for for freshman year? im pretty social so I probably wouldn't love a super quiet dorm that is out of the way but other than that I really don't know how to narrow it down!</p>
<p>check this site out: [Dorm</a> Guides - Student Assembly](<a href=“http://sa.dartmouth.edu/assembly/serendipity/index.php?/archives/3-Dorm-Guides.html]Dorm”>http://sa.dartmouth.edu/assembly/serendipity/index.php?/archives/3-Dorm-Guides.html)
i’m figuring out housing myself as well!</p>
<p>Of all the schools my kids have gone to, Dartmouth allows the least input into housing. You can request substance free and tell them how many (or no) roommates you prefer 9DS got 1 fewer than requested) and that’s it. You can’t ask for a specific dorm.</p>
<p>You said that you wanted advice from current students, but here is some from the mother of a current sophomore- try not to worry a lot about housing! My son got the “worst of the worse” as a freshman- not only was he in the River Dorm which is old, out of the away, and dreaded by everyone, but his dorm room was in the basement! Across from his room was the “trunk room” where suitcases, etc. are stored. I was very upset and sad for him until we drove him up to the campus. It all turned out to be fine. His room was called a “three-room double” or something- he and his roommate each had their own room with a bed for sleeping and they shared the third common room where they had their desks, a small refrigerator, a futon they rented for the term, and assorted other things. He had a good enough year there, made lots of friends from the dorm, and fell in love with Dartmouth anyway.</p>
<p>Well, there’s a space on the form for additional comments. I’ve heard of people requesting a specific dorm, but there’s no guarantee you’ll get it. The SA guide you guys dug up is primarily for upperclassmen – some of the dorms listed are mixed-class, but the bulk of the freshman class is housed in the Choates and the River, which are two of the worst places to be on campus (well, if you like the frats, the Choates is right next door to frat row – which is a mixed blessing). There’s also something about the architecture of the Choates which makes them very social, even if you don’t frat hard. The hamster chutes definitely make it easy for lots of people to hang out in the lounges. I’d say it’s hard to go wrong with staying in the Choates, although getting to anywhere other than frat row will be a bit of a hike (but you can still count your blessings, noting that the River denizens have a far worse trek to endure).</p>
<p>The Russell Sage cluster is the best a freshman can hope for. It’s right next to frat row, and also central enough to be close to pretty much everything else as well. The Fahey and McLane buildings in the Russell Sage cluster are some of the newest on campus, so if you’re going to request any building, go for these two. There’s no guarantee you’ll get them, though. As long as you don’t get placed in the River, be grateful.</p>
<p>The choates seem pretty fun and the lounges are nice and the location is far better than the River Cluster which is really far away/</p>
<p>I don’t think you should even worry about being put in the River. My D was a UGA in the River Cluster and she thought the freshmen had a really wonderful experience there. There are very happy kids in all of the freshmen clusters.</p>
<p>… and there is a bus if you don’t feel like taking the long walk, which is really not that long.</p>
<p>You are also right next door to the Maxwell-Channing-Cox aparments with upperclassmen who are mostly seniors.</p>
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<p>Couldn’t be any less than Harvard, which allows none.</p>
<p>Dartmouth the same as Princeton, Harvard and Yale on first year assignments, to my knowledge.</p>
<p>My S is a freshman in the River, and he seems to be having a perfectly fine time. The major problem is that the walls are so thin that you can apparently hear everything, like it or not. Not great for students who want to play instruments in their rooms, rather than trek to the Hop practice rooms, for example. Or snorers. :)</p>
<p>From the point of view of a non-student, the distance seems to be greatly exaggerated. I guess it’s just that everyone else is closer.</p>
<p>why hasn’t anyone mentioned the East Wheelock cluster?</p>
<p>“why hasn’t anyone mentioned the East Wheelock cluster?”</p>
<p>cuz it sucks</p>
<p>“cuz it sucks”
how so?</p>
<p>It depends on what kind of person you are. But personally, I think a lot of people who stay in East Wheelock are just plain…weird. Which is not necessarily bad – they’re just quite different. People speak of the Dartmouth Bubble, but I think there’s also the EW Bubble which is itself quite self-contained from the rest of campus.</p>
<p>I would not recommend applying for housing in EW as a freshman unless you are absolutely sure you don’t plan on socializing a lot and are very, very nerdy. That’s not to say you can’t have a healthy social life as an EDubber – just that it’s a lot easier to live there if you don’t want an active social life.</p>
<p>johnleemk, they used to have a space for additional comments, but not anymore.</p>
<p>how social is the russell sage cluster compared to the choates?</p>
<p>The non-East Wheelock and non-Sub free floors are all the same in terms of how social they are. Russel Sage has a reputation for being ‘the most social’ only for the fact that you can flip the first two letters and call it Sussel RAGE.</p>
<p>this may be a slightly stupid question, but which dorm is the best combo of social (but not like so wild ill never get any work done) and nicely done?</p>
<p>@caronant: It doesn’t matter because as a freshman you have no say over which dorm you will be placed in except for whether you want sub-free or to live in the East Wheelock Cluster. I live in East Wheelock and my guess is that it’s quieter than other dorms. We all have fun… my floor is quite tightly-knit and I know many other floors here are similar, but with the exception of the occasional loud music blasting, it’s pretty quiet. I don’t know much about sub-free. Many dorms have embedded study spaces, and if that doesn’t work, the library is never more than a short walk away and has some parts that are open 24hrs.</p>
<p>The nicest dorms are generally the newest dorms. Fahey/McLane in the Russell Sage Cluster (different from the Russell-Sage building itself, which is ancient) and the McLaughlin cluster are newest for freshman dorms, built in 2005/2006ish. McCulloch in the East Wheelock cluster was built a few years before that and the remainder of the East Wheelock cluster was built in the late 1980s. Choates/River/etc. are older.</p>