Unfortunately, Brown makes students live on campus for three years, and I’m wondering if that means I will have a roommate for most of those years. Of course you can’t get one freshman year, but is it difficult to get a single dorm after that? Also, does Brown have any rooms with dividers in them (for freshman as well as for upperclassmen) to allow for more privacy? If so, are these common?
Thanks for your help.
Your first hurdle will to get admitted. Not wanting to live n campus indicates that you do not understand what a residential college like Brown is all about.
Pretty sure housing in Brown is random but don’t quote me on that
Singles for freshmen only with a note for psychological/medical necessity, essentially.
After freshman year, it depends on how motivated you are. If you really absolutely want a single, you can get one, but you might not end up living near friends or in one of the more desirable dorms. Totally up to you, though.
I suspect that most colleges are looking to for students to foster relationships, not distance themselves from others. Nobody will expect you to become BFF’s with your roomie (although it can happen), but dividing the room beforehand sends the wrong message, IMO. But you can always buy a divider, I guess.
That said, all the answers are totally moot until one actually gets accepted.
After first year there are a variety of rooming configurations available from doubles, singles and suites with singles/doubles off of a common space. Sophmore year my daughter lived in a double but had one group of friends that took a big suite with doubles and singles off the common space, and another group of friends blocked together and took 4 singles in the same dorm together. They had a low number and really wanted the singles, so it was not a great dorm - but they got the singles.
Junior year many students live off campus, but its tricky because you need to “petition” to be allowed to live off campus. According to my daughter, everyone she knows who asked to live off campus junior year was able to. However, you need to sign the leases for the off campus housing in advance of when brown officially lets you know that you may live off campus, so there is frequently a gamble there.
I think first year you will have a double, but the majority of them are renovated and some quite large. There is a lot of randomness to the housing.