<p>My home school is Brooklyn College (it's within the NYC CUNY system), and I got accepted into Carnegie Mellon's NSF-REU program. Super psyched, but somewhat nervous and was wondering if any current/past students could help alleviate my fears by answering some basic questions.</p>
<p>1) I'm apparently going to get placed in Stever House...how the heck does a communal bath work?! The dorms at CUNY all have private baths with each room, so I don't understand how you can go across the hall to shower. Seems...weird and invasive. Might seem like a stupid question, but most dorms in NYC don't do this.</p>
<p>2) Atmosphere? Is everyone super competitive and cut-throat, or is the student body friendly and open?</p>
<p>3) Surrounding neighborhood? Is there anything to do during your free time? Is there any public transportation? I don't have a car and depend fully on the MTA, so I'm worried that I'll be severely handicapped and stranded on campus all summer.</p>
<p>Again, sorry if I sound like an idiot. Any and all help would be greatly appreciated!</p>
<p>I don’t think as a summer student you’ll be given a free bus pass, but you can pay to ride on Pittsburgh’s buses if you want. CMU is located on Forbes Avenue, which is one of the main thoroughfares through the city. From where you’ll be staying, Oakland, the part of the city where the University of Pittsburgh is located, is only a few minutes of walking away. To get downtown is only around a 20 minute bus ride. Once down there, there’s tons to do including ultra-cheap Pirates tickets if you’re into baseball.</p>
<p>For a communal bathroom you’ll just want a shower caddie to carry your soap, shampoo, and other things you might need as well as a pair of “shower sandals” because the floors can get a little nasty. You can either wear a towel to/from the showers or carry a few clothes with you. I know guys that did both. There will also be individual stalls or curtains between each shower, too, so you don’t have to worry about them being fully open.</p>
<p>Student body should be friendly and open. Try to meet people in your program ASAP, so you don’t wind up being labeled that guy nobody knows and winds up not ever asking to do stuff with them because you never did stuff with them in the past.</p>
<p>You should be 100% – make that 150% thrilled you’re being housed in stever in the summer (emphasis summer).</p>
<p>It’s one of the only two dorms on campus with A/C which is controlled in each room by the occupant. The other dorms used for summer housing are older and while they have larger rooms, they have no A/C and IMHO (see older threads), Morewood has the most disgusting filthy bathrooms I’ve ever seen (15 layers of dirt for grout between the tiles) and toilets without a lid. The charm of the bay window is outdone by the bathrooms of Morewood (either tower- I’ve been in both- see my threads in Spring 2010 to the class of 2014). </p>
<p>Stever -for the 8 to 10 weeks of your REU, you’ll be packing light, but will be in a relatively new and spanking clean air conditioned bathroom. Pitt in the summer is super duper hot and humid-- with many air quality alert days. You will be happy! Trust me.</p>
<p>(Don’t worry- community bathroom doesn’t mean that everyone has a community shower each night at 10 - it’s still private enough to take a shower in peace – you’ll be fine)</p>
<p>Thanks so much! That really answered my questions, I really appreciate it.</p>