Recommendation for the Best College House

Which College Houses would be the best ones for an incoming female SEAS Freshman?

Hill house or new college house. Both are close by, and recently renovated or constructed

Hill in my opinion. I’ve never seen the inside of New College House, but Hill has the tightest halls (you’ll get to know your hallmates and will likely remain friends throughout college) and a dining hall downstairs.

It depends on what kind of social experience you want.

If you’re fairly reserved or need a space to yourself, Stouffer is the way to go. The rooms are large and almost entirely singles. I live there this year, and I think it was a good fit for freshman year, but it can get a little lonely, so I’m altering my living situation next year for a better alone/social balance (room of my own, house of friends.)

If you want that balance above of alone/social, the suite order I’d go is NCH → DuBois → Gregory. NCH is closest to Engineering, as was mentioned, and neither DuBois nor Gregory have A/C, but it’s generally agreed Gregory is worse.

For the traditional freshman experience, Hill > Quad: closer, newly renovated with A/C and less mold, dining hall inside.

Kings Court English kind of just exists. It’s east-ish, has a dining hall inside, double rooms… never heard anything stellar or concerning about it.

What about recommendation for CAS student? I’m majoring in either PoliSci or PPE. I want my room to be kind of a quiet, peaceful space, but also for a dorm that’s relatively friendly/ lots of people to talk to, but not party all the time (Can someone explain what “social” means when Penn students say that? Like party all the time? Or is it more like friendly and lots of activities?) I also am quite scared of quad bathrooms, I heard they are really bad. I’m okay with not perfectly clean all the time but would like to avoid vomit/dirt/anything that if I step in wpuld require me to wash my feet again.

Historically speaking, what are the chances of getting into one of your top 2 choices for housing?

@mintchocolate11 I think that would be depending on what your top 2 choices are. If your top two choices are not extremely popular, like doubles in the Quad, you would have a pretty high chance getting into your top choices. (This is according to a conversation I had with the housing staff at Quaker Days)

@Angelababy30 Interesting - I thought a double in the Quad would be extremely popular

@perplexedbrit I think that’s what @Angelababy30 is saying, that doubles in the Quad are extremely popular. If they are your top choices, it’ll be harder to get them than if they were not.

@perplexedbrit sorry for the confusion! I guess that comma just makes everything confusing. I was in a hurry, so I didn’t proofread before posting. I will try to proofread beforehand next time.

What if my top two choices were Hill or NCH? I’m trying to avoid the quad lol

NCH is not freshman only housing, which meant that the number of spots for freshman isn’t that high. Hill is fine I think, if you go for double. According to my host at Quaker Days, 84% of incoming freshman applied for one of the three houses at the Quad as their top choice last year. LOL.