Living in Patterson?

<p>My son, an incoming freshman was assigned to Patterson Hall. This was his 1st choice hall if I recall correctly. He's not into the vegan or vegetarian lifestyle, but is into recycling, the green club and outdoor activities (not sports, but hiking, rock-climbing, rafting etc). He's very easy-going, and liked the fact that it was smaller with kind of an unique layout. I will say that the freshman dorm choices at Tulane, do seem a little outdated compared to options that were available at other schools he was considering, but he's a guy, he's certainly not choosing a school over the dorm choices and they're about the same as what was available in my day and I survived. That said, I've/We've looked at the floor plan and photos and are still missing some information. I will call housing of course, but thought maybe I could get some insight here. Patterson was not open during orientation and we were unable to get a chance to see it in person. </p>

<p>Son is on the first floor, in the side that uses the rooms with the community baths, not the rooms w/suite bathrooms (I told him at the start freshmen would most likely not get the suite bathroom rooms)</p>

<ol>
<li><p>It says the beds are adjustable height, doesn't say bunk-able, will raising work for fitting storage containers underneath? Is this what most people do? </p></li>
<li><p>I can't get the room pictures to enlarge, is the bookcase moveable or is it attached to the wall? And is it one bookcase shared by both students or is there one for each student? </p></li>
<li><p>Can shelving be attached to the wall? In the dorm he stayed at during orientation there were shelves attached to the wall, but I'm not seeing any pictured. </p></li>
<li><p>Is there room to add an additional shelving unit if they can't be attached to the wall? These rooms don't appear to have the desk that extends the full wall, the desk pictured looks extremely small, and son is a computer nut w/all the gadgetry this entails and I really don't want to have to replace his desktop just because we can't get it to fit on the desk. </p></li>
<li><p>The community bath on the first floor in the floor plan is labeled women's. I'm assuming this is a misprint or old and my son will not have to go upstairs in the middle of the night. Which leads to my next question, son is a hard sleeper and I'm wondering how long it takes to adjust to having to navigate a lot space to reach the bathroom in the middle of the night. I forsee him trying to open a lot of wrong doors on his way, good thing they're locked at night, (lol). Son normally doesn't wake thoroughly until he's out of the shower and dressed. (which means, for all practical purposes, anything I tell him right after he wakes, is just a waste of my breath). Luckily this first semester he has no early classes. At home, some mornings I thought the only reason he was awake when he got to school was due to the 45 minute drive he had to make everyday. I used to feel very guilty about putting a half-asleep driver behind the wheel, but luckily the first 20 to 25 minutes were very rural and he assured me he was fully awake by the time he hit traffic. </p></li>
<li><p>Anyone know the dimensions of the room itself, I don't find them listed on the Patterson page. </p></li>
</ol>

<p>Thanks in advance.</p>

<ol>
<li><p>Yes, you can raise and get plenty of storage underneath.</p></li>
<li><p>Not sure</p></li>
<li><p>There is probably some shelving attached to the wall, but there is likely a moveable bookcase as well. As I said in #2, I am not sure, but that is what my D had in JL and it looks to me like the Paterson scheme is similar. They would not want you to attach your own shelving to the wall, if that is what you meant.</p></li>
<li><p>There should be enough room to have a small/medium table or extra bookcase with shelves if that is what you want, although it will be a bit tight.</p></li>
<li><p>Tulane is terrible about updating those blueprints so I am sure the labeling is old. Applies to #6 as well, it drives me nuts they don’t show the scale in their drawing. Hard to answer the rest of your question in #5, except to say I am sure there have been many students like your son and they seem to have all survived. Kids adjust, he will be fine.</p></li>
</ol>

<p>Fallenchemist, Thanks and I did call housing yesterday they confirmed it was adjusted depending on each year whether it was a guy or girl floor, they just don’t update the floor plan.</p>

<p>Also, nothing screwed or nailed into the walls, ie those hooks w/adhesive to hold towels or such were fine. </p>

<p>Yeah, I know he’ll adjust, thankfully he’s a very adaptable, laid back kid, he was the one at camp who was willing to tent/room with the guy no one else wanted to (made some good friends that way too), just imagining the various scenarios. </p>

<p>He’s really looking forward to fall.</p>