<p>Forgive me if this has been asked a billion times before before, but what are the main differences between the Queen's Court dorm and other freshman dorms? I'm aware of the substance use pledge, so please try to go beyond that.</p>
<p>And is it true that it is significantly easier for boys to get admitted into this dorm than it is for girls? (because far fewer boys want to make the pledge)</p>
<p>Queen’s Court, as defined by the University, is a residential college, in the tradition of those of older universities (e.g., Yale, Princeton), which were actually adapted from the systems at Oxbridge. This is what makes it unique per se. From what I know, Queen’s Court has community programming, mandatory events, advisers and a dean(?), etc.</p>
<p>Queen’s Court, as defined by the University, is a residential college, in the tradition of those of older universities (e.g., Yale, Princeton), which were actually adapted from the systems at Oxbridge. This is what makes it unique per se. From what I know, Queen’s Court has community programming, mandatory events, advisers and a dean(?), etc.</p>
<p>The main focus of Queen’s isn’t the substance-free-ness. We did an informal survey when I lived there last year and about half the students drank on a regular or semi-regular basis (once a week or more). And some went pretty hard…</p>
<p>QC lyfe is about bonding: community activities (especially “Knight Court,” a four-times-a-week cross between show-and-tell and that shake-n-bake part of church services, but also more programming than other freshman dorms, a great study lounge, sports [often vs. Brogues], and “Disputatio”), a smaller population that all but forces you to meet everyone by the end of the year, and a shared feeling that’s a wonderful mix of pride (since, hey, it is the coolest dorm, and everyone supposedly wants to live there) and shame (since, hey, it is the “loser dorm”/“awkward dorm”).</p>
<p>I could bore you to tears with fabulously interesting stories from last year, and if you don’t mind spending a few weeknights socializing from 10p to 10:30p–you do have to do shake-n-bake at least twice a week–I highly recommend applying.</p>
<p>Dunno where you heard the thing about guys having an easier time getting in than gals. As far as I know, that’s not the case, and it seems like believing otherwise would be a bit sexist.</p>
<p>What does ‘shake and bake’ mean?</p>
<p>I’m with LeftyLou on this also-what is “Shake n Bake”?</p>
<p>If you ever go to a Church of Christ service, you’ll know what I mean… [url=<a href=“http://www.christianchronicle.org/article2159681~Is_your_church_visitor-friendly]The”>http://www.christianchronicle.org/article2159681~Is_your_church_visitor-friendly]The</a> Christian Chronicle: “Is your church visitor-friendly?”<a href=“see%20third%20paragraph”>/url</a></p>
<p>Sort of like the “peace be with you”-and-a-handshake part of Mass, but tending more towards brief conversation.</p>
<p>I meant it in the sense that people often greet each other at Knight Court as they would at a church service: they don’t run in the same circles, so it’s the only time of the day they talk to each other, but they greet each other because it’s that kind of shared social setting.</p>
<p>Hi. I am currently living in Queens Court this year as a freshman and I think I can give a good idea of what it is like.</p>
<p>I chose to live their because I do not drink or do drugs, I was interested in the wellness aspect. Unfortunately, this is NOT the reason why most kinds live there. Most kids want the larger rooms or the programming they promise. Most kids go out just as much as other kids on campus and keep alcohol in their rooms and such.</p>
<p>The rooms are pretty nice. I got an end room in Robert’s Hall, which means that the room is extra large. I also got an extra window which is nice. John’s hall has walk in closests and decent sized rooms while Bishop’s has bathrooms, but the rooms are tiny to make room for the bathroom. It is an older building and the heating makes it 100 degress! My roommate and I had to keep our windows open ALL winter becuase our room was always so hot. The communal bathrooms have their problems. We had a broken shower for like a month, leaving only one working shower whch was horrible. Also, one of our toliets have not worked all year properly. But generally the bathrooms are kept clean. </p>
<p>Bishop’s Lounge is beautiful and a good place to do homework IF it stays quiet. 99% of the time it will not be quiet like it promises. The other lounge with a tv is nothing special, very plain and in the basement. There is like a lounge across from the laundry room but that is nothing special either. The laundry room is usually a complete mess and at least one machine is guarenteed to be broken. Also, the dryers are horrible and half of them do not dry your clothes fast at all, like Im talking you need to wait 3 hours for your clothes to dry. The stairs that lead to the laundry room are a hazard, very steep and old. I feel down them in January and ended up pretty injured.</p>
<p>If you have not guessed it by now, I HATE Queens Court. I honestly wish I did not decided to live here. Aside from the laundry room stairs, people drinking, and the loud study lounge, there was also a lack of programming. The first month had a lot of activites, but ever since then there has been NOTHING. Occasionally we get broadway tickets, but you then have to go on your own Also, the bagel breakfast which is a big promise did not happen till January.</p>
<p>Last thing, Queens Court is VERY cliquey. It is honestly like high school all over again. Eveverybody is nice to everyone, but they will not let you join their group to hang out or whatever. It takes a very certain kind of person to live in Queens and like it. A lot of people obvously end up loving it, but I had such a negative experience.</p>
<p>Goodness gracious. LOL. Another freshmen venting about dorms. No dorm is perfect, at any college. I dont care if its the Taj Mahal. There will ALWAYS be dorm drama. There will always be something to complain about. </p>
<p>Dorm life is not just for a convenience for out of state students. Its about community and learning to grow up. Many kids come from sheltered and somewhat privileged backgrounds and its a big learning curve, to learn how to tend for themselves, live with others who get on your nerves after 2 weeks and how to deal with stress, and how to economize your space etc. </p>
<p>Freshmen are the ones with the most adjustment problems. Sophomores see marked improvement…and by Junior and Senior year you are living with your best friends, learned to be tolerant and flexible and accepting the social order on campus. Then when graduation comes around everyone is in tears saying goodbye to friends and a campus they love so dearly. </p>
<p>My daughter lived in Queens. There were issues. There was drama. There was a LOT of growing up…learning to be tolerant. (They won Disputatio, btw). They wouldnt change a thing, however. </p>
<p>Is Queens for everyone? No. No dorm is for everyone. Queens is special. Bring a sense of humor, a lot of maturity or ability to grow, and a heap of tolerance, just as you would to any other dorm on any other campus.</p>
<p>I do not like what you were implying. I think you believe that I come from a sheltered background and failed to grow up during my first year of college.</p>
<p>You have NO idea what I went throug my first year at Fordham. I struggled a lot and not because I come from a sheltered background. College is an adjustment for anyone and it does cause you to grow up. I think I have done a lot of growing up this past year, despite still struggling at times.</p>
<p>I know that no dorm is going to be perfect, the point I am trying to make is that Queens Court is not all that it is set out to be. I think people usually have good things to say about Queens and I understand that because it is a good dorm for some people, however I think it is also important for people to read about it from the perspective of someone who did not enjoy it. </p>
<p>Also, at the end of the day IMO Queens Court is not all it says it is. For starters, I would not call it a wellness dorm because most people do drink. It also does offer as many programs as it says this well. Maybe this year we just got lazy RA’s but still, we had very few programs.</p>
<p>I think it is just important for people to hear the experience I had at Queens Court this year. I love Fordham and would not want to be anywhere else, but I have had a very negative experience with Queens. I do not want to scare anyone away, but I think people need to see all sides of it.</p>
<p>Queens Court is a special dorm. If you think I could not enjoy it because of immaturity and no tolerance well then I am not going to lose any sleep tonight. I know that it takes a lot more than just maturity and tolerance to make it there because I actually lived there.</p>
<p>Sovereigndebt, I notice you post a lot on here about the experiences of your daughter. I am glad as a parent you enjoyed Fordham but I think you try and make it like you know what it is to be a student too much. You were not actually there with your daughter and thus you do not know everything. I do not think you should be so quick to jump on someone who is actually experiencing Fordham for themselves.</p>
<p>In response to the first question again, this year they accepted the same number of boys and girls. So, it is not more easy for one gender to get in compared to the other.</p>
<p>But that doesn’t say how many applied.</p>
<p>I’m a student at Fordham and I had a much happier experience in QC than gardy24. But the dorm is not for everyone. </p>
<p>I went into it for the wellness aspect but like gardy, I found that many students in the dorm did not care about that. However, I enjoyed a lot of the programming in the dorm and feel that it helped me to develop a number of great friendships. I agree that there was much more programming earlier in the year, but that is when I felt that these types of activities were most helpful. </p>
<p>Also I studied all the time in Bishops and it was a good environment (other then when all the tours came through!).</p>
<p>I don’t know the numbers, but I if you want QC and that type of close-knit environment, you should send everything back in asap.</p>
<p>My son lived in Queen’s last year and while he didn’t dislike it, he was disappointed because it was not really a wellness dorm. Gardy24’s description is fairly consistent with my son’s experience. Maybe for the girls the situation was different, but my son had to attend several meetings with RA’s about the drunkenness and vomiting that was taking place in his dorm. My son also found that Bishop’s Lounge was too loud to try to study in, and he mentioned very few dorm activities other than Knight Court. He did find that his roommates and most of the students there were nice and easy to get along with, but Friday and Saturday night activities seemed to always include hitting the bars which he wasn’t into doing. It caused him to give up on wellness housing even though he still isn’t into partying.</p>
<p>To be clear the drinking almost always occurs off campus. No way to police that. Wellness is a good idea and its hard to control. Freshmen are more apt to have trouble adjusting to the stress and the dorm drama. Its at every college. </p>
<p>Queens is a great dorm overall. I understand the frustration, but it is also up to students to move on, ignore the party animals and focus on their work, their relationships and making Fordham better for all.</p>
<p>@soverigndebt – Not sure when your daughter graduated from Fordham but the drinking absolutely does NOT always take place off campus. There is drinking in QC. However, I will say that my roommate (who did drink) respected the fact that I joined QU in part for the “wellness environment” and never brought alcohol into our room which I appreciated. But there was drinking going on down the hall in other rooms for sure. I do think the drinking was less than in other “non-wellness” dorms but it was there. I’d estimate that about 50% of students in QC truly wanted a wellness environment and others wanted to be in the dorm for other reasons. I guess it is up to the university to determine how strictly they want to enforce the wellness aspect of Queens, but it was not taken as seriously as I had hoped it would be. I actually found that more people respected the wellness aspect of the dorm during my soph. year in wellness housing.</p>
<p>But like most things in life, you have to find the group of friends and the activities that you want to be a part of. That said, I had a great experience in QC and made many of my closest friends at Fordham through living in that dorm.</p>
<p>My daughter graduated in 2011. In Queens 2007. Those caught drinking on campus in Queens, where it is prohibited both by policy and by law (underage ), students were written up and threatened with expulsion. No doubt it occurred in some rooms. Depends on the RA. </p>
<p>But even in the dorms for upperclassmen where it is permitted for those of age, most of the drinking occurs off campus if for the main reason they just want to go out and get away from dorm environment and studying. Someone might have a bottle of wine, someone might have a six pack of beer…but mostly they went out. </p>
<p>I’m not selling Queens or Fordham as a Seminary, Convent or AA convention. Im selling Queens as a great dorm in the context of typical freshmen follies and drama and I am supportive of Wellness campaign on campus. Kids around the nation think college is about getting away from mom and dad, being irresponsible and wild, having a good time and maybe doing some work. Its a rude awakening at many colleges where the workload is heavy, the expectations are high and the tuition even higher. Yes, there are floaters…those who float through college, average grades, easy courses…but Fordham is not typically very friendly to floaters. </p>
<p>My advice to my daughter was to ignore the party animals, the weirdos and morally challenged. Focus on finding friends like her who were there to learn, achieve, excel and get a job/go to graduate school. I can tell you that among her groupies of 8-10 people, most of whom were girlfriends/boyfriends, ALL of them graduated Phi Beta Kappa, got into graduate school and/or have outstanding jobs. That plan of action…being with people who take college work at Fordham seriously and DONT approve of bad behavior, while having lots of fun (they did…they drank socially, and the “couples” are still together today…6 years later) worked out well for them. They were roomies starting sophomore year. </p>
<p>I want to be encouraging to those discouraged by disappointment in Queens…by helping them understand that you cant regulate all behavior without turning it into an unwelcome place, a snitch fest, and so forth. That while its sad some sign the wellness pledge and promptly flout it and ignore it with seeming impugnity, the majority of kids take it seriously, take their studies seriously, and relationships seriously…and as described above…THAT is what gets them success in college and life. </p>
<p>There will be scofflaws in every profession of life: doctors, lawyers, accountants, bankers, communications, even in social work. That does not detract from the good people and good works of those who follow the law and respect others. </p>
<p>God bless.</p>