<p>I lived in Lyon, which has cinder block walls (which helps with the heat), but no A/C. The dorms without A/C have the largest rooms, though (easily twice the size of a typical mudd/blaisdell AC’ed room), so it was absolutely worth it. 
I’ve found that, other than August through October, and at the end of the year in May, it’s really not necessary. I bought a tower fan and didn’t use it for the most part. And because we’re in the desert, the temperature really drops at night. </p>
<p>To add to the above poster:
The bigger pool also has a nice diving pool attached to it- very cool!
Also, there are racquetball courts in addition to squash.
I worked in the training room for work-study (mostly wrapping ice bags for athletes, doing the occasional ultrasound therapy for track girls, and learning how to do ankle wraps), so while I’m not an athlete myself (did take tennis though…8 courts!), I can tell you that the equipment and facilities are top notch! And there are always trainers (and other assistants like me) standing by at meets and games for emergencies. :)</p>
<p>Dining halls are great (though the quality declines as the year goes on…then spikes at alumni weekend and parents weekend! hehe), and as the other poster said, many students love to eat at the other school’s dining halls. While dinner outings to Mudd or Scripps with my sponsor group were always a bit hard to organize, it’s very easy to slip over to CMC or Scripps at lunch if you have a class on north campus before and after lunch. Breakfasts and brunches are the best meals, by the way- not much can go wrong with fresh pancakes. Here are my suggestions: Yogurt with frozen fruit on T/Th at Frank; make-your-own Belgian waffles with pineapple and syrup at Frank; fresh strawberries at CMC breakfasts; and make-your-own-smoothies at Pitzer and Mudd. Oops, sorry, kind of got off-topic. Anyway! Flex dollars also nicely complement the regular meal dollars and can be used at the dining halls (if you ran out, or have a guest over), at Coop Fountain (burgers, sandwiches, bagels, quesadillas, chicken tenders, drinks), at Coop Store (snacks!!!), Sagehen Cafe (treat your professor to lunch!), or Motley Cafe. If you don’t eat breakfast, cook for yourself sometimes, or eat out on weekends, you can reduce your regular meals per week to 14 or 12…but keep the 160 flex. It’s really great. :)</p>
<p>OTL (On the Loose, the outdoors club) is really poplar with all of the 5 colleges. You can go on short weekend trips to long spring break trips. I’ll post the destinations in a separate post, along with the OTL guidebook preface. I went to Ansel Adams for my orientation adventure and had the greatest time. </p>
<p>sorry, don’t know about the varsity sports…I do know freshman guys on the tennis team are rocking though!! I think you have to go talk to the coach, but I don’t think it’s too difficult to join if you’re a great player. You should email the appropriate coach- they’re great to talk to!</p>