<p>My D ('12) just got her housing information -- it's ML. She's not pleased but trying to make the best of it. Can someone speak to the pros/cons of living in ML? How isolated is it? [WHERE is it exactly (campus map shows an arrow down Harvard Ave -- how far down?)] How difficult to go back and forth during the day? Do students who live there still feel like they're part of college life, or does it really "totally blow." Do the RAs assigned there want to be there, and is there an attempt (beginning with the RAs) to make it a positive experience, or is everyone just waiting out the year? Thanks for any insights anyone can give.</p>
<p>Here's a Google Map of Mary Lyon. Switch to SATELLITE view to get your bearings. STREET VIEW to see the buildings and walk the streets. Note: there is a cut-through along the athletic field and thru a pedestrian tunnel under the train tracks directly to Sharples Dining Hall.</p>
<p>http://wikimapia.org/sys/exp_kml/?id=788560&l=0&v=11275343</a> - Google Maps</p>
<p>History of Mary Lyons:</p>
<p>swat</a> history - The Mary Lyon Buildings</p>
<p>Photos of Mary Lyons:</p>
<p>swat</a> history - The Mary Lyon Buildings - ML 4, The Mary Leavitt</p>
<p>The only disadvantage of Mary Lyons is the location. It's really not that far, just over a half mile to the dining hall, which is nothing compared to the hikes on a large campus. Swarthmore students, psychologically, view anything across the tracks as "off-campus", including the Palmer, Pittenger, and Roberts dorms which are closer to the Dining Hall than some of the "on-campus" dorms. There's a shuttle bus that runs to Mary Lyons, but students do tend to pack for the day and avoid trips back and forth.</p>
<p>Other than location, Mary Lyons has a lot of advantages. Beautiful old building in a nice setting. Nice rooms with semi-private baths. A breakfast room that serves breakfast right in the dorm every morning. Good cross-section of first year and uppper class students. And, year in and year out, probably the strongest "community" of any dorm on campus. In the past students actually selected to live there for three or four years in the lottery (although that appears to be waning). As far as the actual dorm experience, Mary Lyon would rank above several of the larger first year options, although it's hard to establish any kind of ranking because each of the dorms has its positives and negatives, that will vary from student to student. For example, is the Grand Central Station feel of Willets a positive or a negative? Is the ultra-modern architecture of Alice Paul and David Kemp a positive or a negative? Is single-sex living in Parrish a positive or a negative?</p>
<p>After seeing my daughter go thru the Swat housing system for four years, I would say that the school does everything possible to give every student an equitable shake. You can expect one year in the dorm you really, really want. One year in the dorm you really, really don't want. And, two years in between.</p>
<p>My Swat student lived there, and it has real advantages. It is a beautiful dorm, very family-like. A little out of the way, but good bus service. I would not fret about ML.</p>
<p>S lived there freshman year & by the time he graduated his closest friends were still those friends from freshman year. He didn't like that ML was so far from campus (relatively speaking), so tended not to go back to his room between classes. The breakfast room is nice if your child tends to get up in time for breakfast (mine didn't). Sharing a bathroom with only 3 other people seems preferable to the traditional hall bathroom.
Any student will be fine in ML</p>
<p>Thanks interesteddad and swatparent! Your comments are very much appreciated.</p>
<p>I'll be living in ML next year as a sophomore. What hall is she on? I know the RAs will be very cool. To be honest, I am dreading it. If you stay out a lot it should be little problem. Me and my roommate often go back and forth from our room quite a bit during the day and thats why im worried, but we shall see. The one thing i did notice is that a lot of the ml kids last year because very close and were a good group of friends. If she is looking for someone to talk to she can shoot me an email im looking forward to meeting my new dormmates :) (<a href="mailto:mbleima1@swarthmore.edu">mbleima1@swarthmore.edu</a>)</p>
<p>Actually, one of my good friends from IL is an RA there; he's really cool and hasn't expressed any qualms about being an RA there. Secondly, it seemed like many of the students who lived in ML stayed 'on campus' for most of the day, and now that there are lockers for such students in the basement of Parrish, it isn't so hard to accomplish. Some students living in ML also had bikes to shorten their strenuous journeys to and from campus, so that might be something worth considering. Though I'm thrilled to be living on campus again this year, unlike Mr. Andrassy, I rarely went back and forth to my room (except for the occasional book swap), so I don't think I'd be too terribly upset if I had to live in ML. Nonetheless, I am incredibly pleased to be living on campus again.</p>
<p>Before I end this post however, I must submit that despite having a very active year at Swarthmore (I'm a rising sophomore), I never once ventured never to ML. But I'm probably just an anomaly.</p>
<p>Not venturing to ML is is not uncommon. Most of the campus used to go for the annual Halloween party hosted by Mary Lyon. But, starting two years ago, the ML residents voted not to host the party because it wasn't worth trashing their dorm common areas with a college party for 500+ people.</p>
<p>For those staying on campus all day, Swarthmore is filled with nooks and crannies and places to hang out. The various libraries. The snack bar. The Kohlberg coffee bar. The Science Center sushi bar. The Parrish lounges. Sharples dining hall.</p>
<p>ML has lots of positives! I would never choose to live there due to the distance, but that's really the only thing that stops most people. The dorm is beautiful, ML breakfast is DELICIOUS (I'd wake up early and trek from Wharton many Saturday mornings to eat there), the big 1st floor lounge is really nice, the rooms are big and you get semi-private bathrooms (usually one per 4 people), and a lot of people like having a homey space that's separate from their on-campus life. I'm a rising sophomore and will be living in PPR (by choice), so I'll definitely be on campus most of the day, but as ID said, there are plenty of things to do away from your room (not that I won't miss Wharton, haha). And as tons of rising sophomores were placed in ML, I imagine I'll be visiting my friends there a lot more often next year. :]</p>
<p>i got stuck in (pre-renovation) ML basement sophomore year and by march my roommates (4 friends in two doubles) and i had gone "lord of the flies" on one another. my experience was extreme, and it's possible to make the best of it, but it's not a place that any non-swillie would willingly pick into. yes, the rooms are pretty big, but feeling like you're marooned on campus all day long begins to get old, and probably decreases how social one winds up being.</p>
<p>I lived in ML for two years. It wasn't absolutely terrible, but it wasn't great, either. The only reason I ended up there my sophomore year was that I managed to snag a single. I preferred living out in BFE to having a roommate. I'd gladly have taken a single in any other dorm, but there simply weren't any available. </p>
<p>There is definitely an ML subculture that is distinct from campus life on the whole. If you happen to enjoy this aspect of ML, that will make living there more enjoyable. If you don't fit in with the ML culture, it will make the experience something of a drag. My personal take on the ML experience is that I feel like I missed out a little on campus life because I lived there for my first two years at Swarthmore. I suspect I was a little unlucky in my freshman year hall assignment, because I got put on a hall with people who were very much unlike me in terms of basic social preferences, and I didn't end up becoming great friends with any of them; all of my good friends were on campus. So it seems there is a bit of a crapshoot factor in getting assigned there; if you bond with the people on your hall, or the other people in ML, it will make your experience more enjoyable, if not, it will make you wish you lived somewhere more central.</p>
<p>Thanks, AE and others. D is not SWIL, so I really don't know why she was placed there -- other than her housing form perhaps presented a high degree of flexibility (lots of 'no preference'). It is what it is.</p>
<p>There is no more SWIL. It is Psi Phi.</p>
<p>And, our resident Psi Phi'er here at CC, Arador, says that Psi Phi'ers no longer congregate in Mary Lyon. That's actually making it tough to sell Mary Lyon in the housing lottery because you no longer have a sizeable interest-group tending to pick there.</p>
<p>Also, ML basement rooms have been taken out of the housing inventory with the opening of the New New Dorm. The lounge on each floor of Dana and Hollowell have also been taken out of the inventory. And the Lodges have been reduced from five students to four.</p>
<p>Hey momuv2! I was an RA in ML last year and not ONE of the people on my hall was "SWIL/Phi Psi." Our hall really bonded, perhaps due to the fact that we were somewhat removed from the rest of the campus (not to say that my freshmen didn't have on-campus friends, they just had the opportunity to get to know one another well). </p>
<p>I really think housing at Swat does a fantastic job of engineering cohesive calls that get along...and I think the RA selection committees tries hard to place energetic and committed RAs specifically in ML because there's STILL a stigma associated with living there, even though I think that the subculture A.E.'s referencing is practically undetectable now (I think we had a grand total of one official Psi Phi function take place in ML last year). The kitchen is awesome, the TV is one of the biggest in the dorms (Mephistos and Parrish are the only ones as big, I think?), the rooms are <em>so</em> much bigger than what you'd get in a Willets double, and the building in general is beautiful. It's about a 10-15 minute walk to Sharples, but there is a shuttle in the mornings and evenings. Plus, my hall and I always joked last year that ML-ers have these mad time management skills because you can't afford to go back and forth to the dorm all the time. </p>
<p>Also, I know all of the ML RAs for next year, and they're all great people - your daughter's in good hands. Let me know if you have any more questions!</p>
<p>I was on the second floor last year in the room christened as "the Barn", a larger double pretty much right above the main entrance. The room leaked at least 3 times a year from the bathroom that was above me. The heat in the winter was inconsistent, so I would always come back to my room at the end of the day not knowing if it was going to be a warm or cold night. Being an engin major and spending most of my time in Hicks (probably more time though because I was forced to live in ML), I would leave ML at 8:15 in the morning on a shuttle and get back around 1:45 the next morning, so I guess I spent 6 and a half hours there a day with 6 of those being sleeping. I really didn't want to spend more than that.</p>
<p>As a sophomore last year I was forced to "choose" into ML for it was the only dorm left when they got to my relatively "low" lottery number of 940. Had I been a couple of numbers higher I would have ended up on campus. Because I did get a choice technically, I was placed on the second floor with other people that chose to live there as well. I liked my bathroommate but most of the people on my hall mostly kept to themselves. Although the stereotype of the Swil kids isn't as prevalent at ML now that they seemingly have migrated to Mertz to undoubtedly live in harmony with their soccer team brothers, there are still many people there who prefer to be off campus. I would have a little light music on at 10 pm and have been asked to lower the volume because people were trying to sleep. For somebody like me who loved being in the center of campus at Parrish my freshman year (so much that I'm living there next year as a junior), ML was not a happy place. It honestly felt like I took a year off of school socially but not academically.</p>
<p>Don't get me wrong though, at least there's nobody living in the basement this year so the cockroaches shouldn't be too much of a problem. The second floor RA this next year is a good friend of mine who makes friends with everybody, although he too is an engineer and will be commuting between ML and his second home Hicks. Freshmen in ML did seem to bond pretty well because of the seclusion I guess.</p>
<p>
[quote]
I really think housing at Swat does a fantastic job of engineering cohesive calls that get along...and I think the RA selection committees tries hard to place energetic and committed RAs specifically in ML because there's STILL a stigma associated with living there, even though I think that the subculture A.E.'s referencing is practically undetectable now (I think we had a grand total of one official Psi Phi function take place in ML last year).
[/quote]
I don't believe I ever said there is an Psi Phi subculture at ML. I just said there is an ML subculture that is distinct from campus life. This emerges as a result of ML's remoteness and has nothing to do with Psi Phi.</p>
<p>Whoops. My bad, A.E.! </p>
<p>Anyways, I think what it comes down to in the end is your attitude going into ML at the beginning of the year. If you already have a negative conception of ML, it could be a lousy year. But if you make the most of it and try to see the positive aspects of living there (and there are plenty!!), it's likely that you'll make lasting friendships and have a great time.</p>
<p>I was put into ML last year (after requesting on my form to not be put there), and honestly, I loved it. It really isn't that far from campus, there's shuttle service (and late at night public safety will give you a lift), and it's a really nice place. When I switched rooms (roommate problems) I made sure that I would still be in ML.</p>
<p>My list</p>
<p>Pros:
-community
-many freshmen
-beautiful building
-private bathrooms
-delicious breakfast
-quiet
-distance (it can be really nice, after a long day of studying on campus, to be physically removed from the campus in your nice cozy room.)</p>
<p>Cons:
-distance (the shuttle doesn't run in the morning if it's snowing, but that doesn't happen often)
-lack of afternoon hall life (most people do stay on campus for most of the day)
-it's hard to get people to come visit you in ML</p>
<p>I personally think that it's a lot more enjoyable for freshmen than sophomores, because the freshmen generally do form a social community with good hall life. Also, the second floor RA is really awesome and happy to be in ML.</p>
<p>-Kriket's kid</p>
<p>
[quote]
-lack of afternoon hall life
[/quote]
</p>
<p>That could be a plus. If you can get in the habit of making free time during the day study time or reading time, you are way ahead of the game. </p>
<p>I guess the downside might be early on when freshmen still tend to congregate in the dorm and walk to dinner at Sharples like a mass pilgrimage.</p>
<p>I think people have made a solid case for ML. I enjoyed my two years there, but I'm also pleased to have lived in Mertz and (in a couple of days) Wharton. </p>
<p>The distance is the biggest issue. I really didn't mind the walk--it was nice to have some distance between campus and my room, and I could clear my head--but some people find a 10 minute walk to be absolute hell. Which I find a bit strange.</p>
<p>Just think: ML is far closer to campus than say ... dorms at one end of Cornell, or somesuch. The big issue is that everything else is so clustered on campus, so the distance <em>feels</em> long, even if it isn't.</p>