Kinsolving

Colleges and Universities A-Z The University of Texas at Austin
1

<p>I just received my room assignment. I will be living in Kinsolving next semester, but my original choice was San Jacinto. I'm not really interested in wait listing. However, I wanted to know the advantages and disadvantages of living in Kinsolving. </p>

<p>I will be living in connecting bathroom (not sure if this was a smart move) on the second floor. I am actually really scared to share one bathroom with four people. I was supposed to live on the third floor before my room assignment changed for no reason. Would this sudden change make a huge difference?</p>

2

<p>I can’t speak much about the bathroom, but I can say that you’ll be as close as you can possibly get to food! Also, you’re pretty close to the Drag. All in all, living in Kinsolving isn’t bad at all, or at least I think so. San Jacinto is kind of far away from a lot of things (except for the stuff in Jester).</p>

3

<p>Kinsolving is actually a pretty good dorm. I really wish I had lived there instead of Jester last year! The cafeteria is much better than Jester’s, and it’s right next to The Drag, FAC, and The Union. Some people complain that it’s too far away from the PCL and Gregory Gym, but you can take the 40 Acres Bus that goes around campus to get there pretty quickly. Even if you walk, it’s not really too big of a deal - most of my classes were around Kinsolving, and I didn’t have any trouble walking to them from Jester every day.</p>

<p>As for connecting bathrooms: they seem to be a hit or miss, really. It really just depends on what your suitemates are like. I was desperate to get a connecting bathroom last year, since the idea of community bathrooms sounded awful, but my suitemates ended up being huge slobs who never cleaned and treated the bathroom like it only belonged to them. Hopefully you’ll have better luck!</p>

4

<p>On connecting bathrooms. As long as one person is clean enough to care about keeping up with a bathroom, all should be fine. </p>

<p>Kinsolving is really quiet, clean, and 60s. The bathrooms are alright. Showers though might be a little tricky – you’ll probably favor one since some of their shower heads are weird. The stalls are little small and I’m pretty sure theres this super gross communal tub in each of the bathrooms that nobody ever dares to use – don’t do it! lol</p>

<p>It has a small work out room!!! A computer room thats really useful. And the sundeck… not much good for anything other than suntanning. Too bad there isn’t a pool there. It looks like the landing zone for a helicopter. </p>

<p>The front desk girls tend to be super nazi about having friends/guests over but you’ll soon learn to sneak them in.</p>

<p>If you get a parking permit – your best bet is 27th street Garage. </p>

<p>I lived in Littlefield and my best friend lived in Kinsolving. Still favor LTD over Kins, but it’s still gonna be nice!! :)</p>

5

<p>@jess1012 I’m also living on the second floor of Kinsolving with a connecting bathroom!
I wish they would have told us who was in the adjoining room so we could plan to buy stuff for the bathroom. Does anyone know if they would let me know if I called the dorm and asked?</p>

6

<p>@sasha2014: hi there I’m assigned to Littlefield, second floor, could you tell me a bit more about Littlefield? Anything would be appreciated. Thanks a lot.</p>

7

<p>@hanboka</p>

<p>Ah, I miss Littlefield so much.</p>

<p>It’s a very cozy, classy, and old 1920s dorm. There’s a ton of traditions. It’s the dorm with the most home-esque atmosphere. The living room actually looks like a living room and isn’t all sterile looking like the other dorms with big industrial classroom-type lights.</p>

<p>The rooms are rather small. I lived on the first floor in 121 and that room was extra-extra small compared to the rest. I wish I would have had a nice walk in closet like everyone else, but nooo and my roommate and I had to share what looked like a broom closet. Eventually she moved to a different dorm with her friend and having one extra-extra small room to myself was better than having to split it. </p>

<p>It’s ALWAYS clean. There’s a super big shower in the shower room that’s located in the middle of the 2nd floor main hallway. lol the more you know!</p>

<p>Simkins is the brother dorm traditionally but I think they only came over as a group once for a dance. </p>

<p>Dance, yeah. Littlefield will have dances. lol
And tea parties! Lemon Day!! Aw. It’s got so much tradition and history that alumnus come to visit on Lemon Day and tell stories.</p>

<p>There’s pictures of the people in the dorm from the last 70 years. And the library!! I miss the library too. There’s old books and yearbooks from the past. </p>

<p>I guess I didn’t appreciate that dorm as much as when I lived there but it really is one of the nicest dorms, I think. Regardless of how old it is. Best place to spend my freshman year. </p>

<p>If you ever want to sneak a boy or friend in after hours, there are plenty of sneaky ways to get around it. Down with the system! haha because there’ll be a desk attendant every night in the commons. </p>

<p>And you’re lucky to have Littlefield Patio Cafe right at your fingertips, also the SSB – if you ever get sick, the doc is just across the street! And Kins Market. I really prefer that side of campus. </p>

<p>The dorm haunted by Alice Littlefield. Major Littlefield’s wife. They’ll tell you all about that when you get there! </p>

<p>Also, good piece of advice - you can access Blanton and Andrews only through the doors that lead to the Q between those dorms – which is the big door to the left of Andrews when you’re looking across the courtyard from LTD – they have a computer lab area, another living room, and you can use it all – also a sundeck.</p>

<p>In the winter people will occasionally roast marshmellows out there which is always nice.</p>

<p>Enjoy it though! It was like my fourth choice when I picked dorms, but things turned out for the better!</p>

<p>You’ll have RA’s like there are in all the dorms on campus but then you’ll also have SA’s, which are former residents from last year. They’ll be the ones in charge of all the traditions and the RAs will be in charge of the normal things. You’ll get to know them if you get involved in the Littlefield Residence Hall Association. </p>

<p>Anyway, yeah. If you have any other questions, feel free to ask!</p>

8

<p>@sasha2014: wow thanks a lot for the information! Is it weird to live in an all-girls dorm?</p>

9

<p>Nah. I mean it would have been to cool to have lived in a co-ed dorm. But in all girls dorm, the good thing is you can walk around looking like whatever and not have to worry about looking nice. haha</p>

10

<p>Kinsolving is a great dorm. I was fine living with a community bathroom. It gets cleaned everyday and we set bathroom rules in our wing, where basically if your hair is in the shower, you get it out so that no one has to touch another person’s hair in the shower. It wasn’t a big deal for me, honestly. There was never a line for showers. Never had a cold shower. Water pressure was fine. I loved my wing mates and my RA. </p>

<p>There are lots of places to study, although the 2.5 floor often has people in all the private study rooms. There are 2 study lounges on each floor and it’s an open area, but I find it quiet for the most part. You can also study on the first floor in either of the two large lounges there. They can get loud, but it’s only when the residential hall study groups are in session (Sun-Thurs 7-9pm, I believe). They have study groups for calculus, intro bio, intro chem, and for engineering majors. And yes, the computer lab is handy if you don’t have a printer and it’s just 6 cents to print a page. However, there are plenty of ways to get free printing, like if you are in a math or chemistry class.</p>

<p>There is a wing decorating contest every Halloween and it’s so much fun and it’s great if you want to bond with your wing mates. Every Halloween, people take their little kids to go trick-or-treating in Kinsolving. </p>

<p>The food is better than J2 Dining Hall. J2 may be renovated and apparently the food has gotten better, but in my opinion, Kinsolving’s dining hall is the best. Of course, the food will get boring to you after eating it everyday. Toward the end of the year, I had Dine-In Dollars to spare so I ate at JCL more often. The food there is really good, but of course, it’s overpriced. However, depending on what you get, you might get a good deal on a meal after all. I went to Kin’s Market often and they have really good wraps there and they have entree plates and pizza too. Basically, all your college food and drink necessities are there and plenty of good late-night snacks. It’s a basic convenience store and super handy. </p>

<p>The 2.5 floor has a pool table and a ping-pong table as well as a TV, a small exercise room (two treadmills, two ellipticals, some weights, a small TV), and a little kitchen. Mainly people go there to study. There are 3 or 4 private study rooms (there is another one for RAs and you can’t use your ID to get in) as well as a conference room and another big meeting room. The meeting room is for people who want to study in absolute silence.</p>

11

<p>This is sort of off-topic, but I feel like the food at JCL and J2/Kinsolving is all the same, but JCL charges more for the same quality food. I can’t prove this for all food that they serve, but I know that a lot of breakfast items that JCL serves were also served in J2 for the “breakfast-for-dinner” days (identical foods).</p>