<p>At last, the wait will soon be over! After calling a Duke University Admissions today, and one "Let me connect you with someone who better informed" I was told that rooming assignments will be dispatched through email either Monday or Tuesday. Along with the notice will be our official PO Address, so that we can start ordering those magazine subscriptions (or maybe that's just me).</p>
<p>In the wait, why don't we try to compile as much information as we can about every dorm, so that when we do find out where we will be living, we can just come back here and read a bit. Any of you guys personally lived in a dorm, post the experience. If you've visited Duke and have an opinion on certain dorms, post here. If there are already some informative posts that provide great information on certain dorms, post the link here.</p>
<p>In posting information, it would be great if you did so in such a manner:</p>
<p>(Dorm Name):
Info, etc.</p>
<p>This will insure that skimming will be made much easier.</p>
<p>I've lived in a dorm! But I'm already a college student...</p>
<p>The dorms themselves don't vary that much, to be honest, what makes the difference between the dorms each year is the type of people living there.</p>
<p>Yea, like Joe said, almost all the Dorms on East Campus are basically identical. All the one's on the main quad basically have wooden floors, no A/C, radiator heating, and walk-in closets. The one's on what you will soon know as "the backyard" (adjacent to the main quad) are Gilbert-Addoms (affectionately known as G-A), Randolph, Wilson, and the newly-minted Hotel Bell Tower. Bell Tower is really nice, but in my opinion has kind of a cold, manufactured feel that the others don't have. Randolph and Wilson are nice in that they have A/C, but are all cement block rooms and have these weird "nooks" instead of closets. </p>
<p>Now, G-A...Well, I'm a bit biased in my love for G-A as I lived there. I loved it! It may not be pretty, but its alot of fun. It's the only dorm with two really large decks on the 3rd floor, has a hidden old elevator, has the G-A Down Under (w/ a comp lab and print station), and most of all it has Ms. O! Ms. O is a great lady who works on the maintenance staff there. Alot of people just call her "Mom." She's a great lady, who even brought my friend home-made chicken soup when he had the flu. Also, G-A has a tradition of being one of the most social, fun dorms on east. I'm not sure how that happens, but you hear it every now and then. Anyway, I could go on and on about G-A, but it would last forever.</p>
<p>Just 1 quick thing...chuckleybob means Blackwell, not Wilson. Wilson's on Main Quad. But other than that, yeah he got it down pretty well (aside from the obvious G-A bias...)</p>
<p>The Chronicle student newspaper talked about Giles and Alspaugh as being problematic drugs...last year there were a bunch of marijuana charges in one of those and one of them even got put under probation...the student council funds were frozen and stuff as punishment</p>
<p>As you can see, having a very social dorm might equal massive drinking which in turn equals problems for everyone, whereas on West campus everyone is allowed to drink so its fine</p>
<p>heh, yeah, that would be Giles. As a resident, I can talk a bit about this. The reason we were put under probation was because our commons room and kitchen were severely damaged, and no one was singled out and blamed for it. The RC (residence coordinator... the boss of the RAs) thought that if she punished all of us, we would tell her who actually did the damage. Well, the truth was that we didn't know who had done it, as most of us had actually stayed in that night and were asleep well before the damage occurred (I believe it happened sometime around 4 a.m. on a Saturday night. Plus, a picture had been pulled clean out of the wall without tools, and no one on my floor (AKA the most troublesome floor on all of East Campus) is strong enough to do that. Anyway, we did end up all getting charged 10 dollars for the damages, which sucks (due to the whole principle... I don't care about the 10 dollars, but rather the fact that they're making me pay because they couldn't pin it on one person).</p>
<p>As for the marijuana charges... yeah, that would be our dorm again. My friends had the brilliant idea to do it indoors because it was too cold outside. Long story short, the smoke ended up making it out into the hallway, a resident told an RA, and the RA called the police. I actually think nothing ever happened to those who were caught, though they were all extremely anxious during winter break about what could happen to them.</p>
<p>These situations aside, I really enjoyed living in Giles. Its location is money: next to the library; almost directly across from the Marketplace; a short walk from Brodie Gym; and pretty close to the bus stop. Plus, knowing that something is always going on in the rooms around you is sweet when you randomly have nothing to do.</p>
<p>It does stink that you had to pay for damages caused by someone else. Our D had to do the same thing in another freshman dorm. (to the tune of $300!) She lived in a suite that had a window access to the rooftop of her dorm. Although she recalls only stepping foot out that window less than 5 times in the fall (just to sit and study), her suitemates held huge parties out there and even had a grill and a kiddie pool placed out there. They would invite herds of friends, who totally trashed the place and caused leaks in the roof. However, all four suitemates were asked to split the damage bill ($1200) equally. Our D had numerous conversations with higher-ups about her non-participation and even lack of knowledge that a kiddie pool and grill were on that rooftop. She honestly did not know since she never used the area in the spring. We resisted paying the bill for a while, but then we felt "pressured" to clear her name even though we know that she was not at fault. Anyone who knows her would know for a fact that she would never cause such damage... (lilly-white skin (does not care to sunbathe), teetotaler, straight "A" student, Duke Chapel Choir member, etc.) Hopefully, her name has been completely cleared now: it costs a WHOLE lot for a family with no financial aid scraping to send her to Duke. We have had to let it go, though, and remind ourselves that she was and is still innocent in the whole ordeal.</p>
<p>No need to feel sorry for her. She is having the time of her life at Duke, has made the best friends she has ever had, and is very involved in many meaningful extracurriculars. Presently, she is studying abroad and having a blast!</p>
<p>Well...er...don't mean to burst anyone's bubble, but I just called the Housing office and the guy told me that housing assignments wouldn't be posted on Dukepass until Thursday or Friday later this week.</p>
<p>Apparently, Duke really wants to build up our anticipation</p>
<p>well if you're from the south I guess it's pretty cold. When it's about 25 and blowing 20mph wind it's cold. But for the northerners, it's a nice break I bet.</p>
<p>Heh, yeah, NC winters are a blessing to me. I'm going around campus in jeans and a sweatshirt, meanwhile my friends from Florida are wearing pants and three different layers of jackets, and are still cold.</p>
<p>Oddly enough, the people who decided it was too cold are from the Northeast as well. They normally had a method down, I guess they just got lazy.</p>
<p>hahaha people smoke out windows during finals esp. sophomore year winter finals, my balcony was definitely a study break spot for the girls in my block when we were stressed out.</p>
<p>honestly, nc winters are pretty chill. the few times i've been freezing were when i've been caught off guard and surprised by cold weather and therefore not dressed appropriately (nc has huge temperature swings sometimes) OR the times that it actually is that cold-- usually during nighttime. better than being in ny. i don't think i used my heavy winter coat too too much, but instead lived in fleeces.</p>
<p>Hahaha, i don't know who you heard that from, but they must not have visited Pegram. I'll let an actual Pegram-ite respond, though. (although if you search for Pegram either in this forum or the Duke 2009 forum, you'll find some pretty good descriptions of it)</p>
<p>my year pegram was a LOT of fun. it's a great dorm, the rooms will be essentially like most dorms of its shape (all along the main quad), it definitely was FAR from being dirty (in an actual not clean sense of the word) my year. i am so envious you are in pegram. seriously. it's funny because one of my dad's business clients went to duke, and he lived in pegram and lived in the room next to mine, so i went on a business dinner and talked half the time about pegram!!</p>