<p>I was wondering what your opinions are on joining a living learning community your freshman year?</p>
<p>I've heard from some it helps to make friends with similar interests, but I've also heard the it takes away from the freshman experience and restricts your interactions with other people.</p>
<p>I suppose it depends on the community and the school.</p>
<p>At my school, a lot of people (the majority probably) on campus live in Learning Communities.</p>
<p>I lived in the Spanish House and the International Community my freshman year. (The whole building was International, my floor was Spanish.)</p>
<p>This year, I live in the Business Community.</p>
<p>I didn’t choose either one and most people I know also didn’t, so the communities were kind of pointless because it was just random people placed in a specialized community.</p>
<p>Only one person in the Spanish House chose to live in the Spanish House, so very little Spanish was spoken. I’m not a Business major and didn’t know that my building was the Business Community until several weeks into the school year this year.</p>
<p>Then again, I also have friends who lived in Living and Learning Communities who LOVED it. I never saw where it really alienated a group of people from others.</p>
<p>I loved it. At my school, the majority of the communities are for freshman only, so if you pass up the opportunity, it’s gone. I applied for the pre-law community (my major/career interest and it was located in the area I wanted to live in). I was happy when I got in because it guaranteed me housing in my preferred area and made it likely that I would not be placed in a temporary triple. </p>
<p>I did meet a lot of people who I’m still friendly with years later, but there were also a lot of people I didn’t like very much. </p>
<p>The best part (besides the housing) was taking the classes with specialized sections. I loved the classes and the fact that it was easy to hold group study meetings for them.</p>
<p>I would say they are helpful, but if you go to outside clubs from the learning community with the same people then you might find yourself not as open to meeting new people. I would suggest going to clubs you want by yourself unless another member is interested in it too.</p>
<p>I can say this is my experience. I lived away from all my FIG, freshman interest group, most were on my floor, but not my wing. So those who lived by each other quickly became friends. They did everything together for the first 24 hrs without inviting other members. I wasn’t invited to any of the outings until after the first meeting. At the time I wasn’t doing to well medically, constant headaches. Some of them even got roomed with each other by sheer luck, it wasn’t the case for me. I really didn’t get a chance to hang out with them outside of class, and meetings because I never knew when they were doing things, and never got an invite. It hurt, but I moved on and went to meetings which were quick. When I could I did stuff with them, but if I wasn’t up to it medically I didn’t.</p>
<p>Every experience is unique, but I would say on average that these communities are positive. I guess it also depends on how your residential living runs them. I had an older student leading us.</p>
<p>I am currently in the LLC at my school. From what I have experienced so far, I am not benefiting from it other than housing. The issue with my school’s LLC program is that it was only introduced a little over a year ago; this is the second year. They have expanded exponentially from last year. Of course, this would be specific to my own school, go ask the LLC alumni at your school. On paper, it sounds great. In practice, it is lacking. </p>
<p>It’s beneficial up to a certain point, but beyond that point, it really is pointless. The tutors only tutor up to a certain class level. For me, being in higher level classes, I really reap no benefit from the program. In fact, I see it more as a hindrance than anything. That’s just because I am taking classes Sophomores and Juniors generally take. At least at my school, there are much better resources outside the LLC. I can get help from grad students and professors. The LLC tutors are undergrads who have taken the class they are tutoring; not sure if that’s the best resource. Due to restrictions, I have to take certain classes to be eligible for LLC. They are classes which I could have just skipped, so I am taking a year of really easy classes other than my non-major classes. </p>
<p>Again, this is specific to my school. It has a lot of problems, but once it gets going full speed, I think it’s a great program.</p>
<p>I lived in a LLC community freshman year and I LOVED it. Ours was may be more relaxed than what you’re thinking of, because it didn’t restrict my ability to have the normal freshman experience at all. Everyone in my core group of friends lived in that dorm freshman year, and whenever we meet someone we didn’t know who lived there it’s like making an instant friend. But I think that has more to do with just having a great dorm of people than the dorm itself restricting friendship options.</p>
<p>I’m not sure if what you’re talking about is the same as the Residential College program at my school (we don’t have tutors affiliated with the program like davidthefat is talking about), but it sounds like it might be similar, at least.</p>
<p>I lived in my school’s International Studies Res College for a few years. I really enjoyed it, but it was not everything I expected it to be. There were some things they advertised that simply were not true in practice (for example, that each suite picked a language to study and that members could then practice that language together).</p>
<p>A big part of the problem was that many of the people living there had not asked to live there; as is the case with a lot of our RC’s, not nearly enough people had requested to live there to fill up all the space, and there wasn’t room in the other dorms for everyone else, so a lot of people were assigned to live there who had no interest in being there. The result was that many people were unenthusiastic about the dorm’s theme and participation in dorm events was lower than it should have been.</p>
<p>However, overall, it was a very positive experience for me. I don’t think it restricted my interactions with other people any more than living somewhere else would have. The reality is that you’re most likely to become friends with the people you live with, so in that sense, it kind of pre-determined who my friends would be. But that’s true no matter which dorm you decide to live in. And I have made friends outside of my RC.</p>
<p>Hope this helped. Good luck!</p>