<p>Any input on refrigerators? Should we rent them? Buy one? Are there any limitations on size, etc.?</p>
<p>I'm going to be in a John Jay single next year.</p>
<p>renting vs. buying depends on where you are from. If you are from NY or the tri state area or you are willing to take a chance at finding someone to keep your fridge for you over the summer then buy for sure! If you are going to have to put your fridge in storage then you will be paying more to keep it than you paid for it. You should only rent if you live very far away and you are not going to stay at columbia over the summer. The rental fridges suck. They are usually pretty torn up and barely work...not to mention they are small and not very clean. The size limitation i think is 2 cu. ft. which the rental fridges go by but of course you cant fit anything into a fridge that size. Especially if you live close by, you should spring for a 4 cu. ft. fridge...noone will say anything. Best ones i've seen are the ones with a seperate freezer...i think its like 4.5 cu. ft. I've had a 4 cu. ft. one since freshman yr and i got it for 100 bucks...compare that to renting one half that size for 70 bucks or so a yr.</p>
<p>Some considerations:
1. The Blue Key Society will rent fridges on campus, and the proceeds go to charity
2. There are outside rental companies with more options
3. If you live in a suite any one year, you will have a fridge and your personal fridge will be rather redundant.</p>
<p>odds are you will not live in a suite until ur senior yr.</p>
<p>Are there no refrigerators in Hartley or Wallach?</p>
<p>good point...yes there are full fridges in the kitchens of hartley and wallach problem there is though that you are living with people you dont know so your things might not be very safe in that fridge but of course that depends on the people who are assigned to your suite who you of course wont know beforehand so it is still safer to have your own fridge if you are going to live there IMO.</p>
<p>Also let me expand on my previous post....this might be alot for the some of you incoming students but just want to cover all the bases. Freshman year the only dorms that are available with fridges are hartley and wallach. Sophomore year, one way you will have a fridge is if you go into the housing lottery as a group of 3, 7 or 8 and get lucky and end up in claremont or ruggles. Also you can go into an East Campus suite with juniors or seniors where you will get a small double but you will have a shared fridge in the kitchen...but as a sophomore only about 200 or so people (out of about 1200) get any of these fridge options. Sophomores can also get Studio doubles in Watt and maybe some of the small rooms in woodbridge which have kitchens but those very rarely drop down that far. As a junior, from what we saw last time around in the lottery it has become clear that an East Campus suite is a long shot if your group does not have at least one rising senior. So I would guesstimate that there are no more than 100 juniors in EC suites this upcoming school year. Other than that your choices as a junior do not include anything with a common fridge. Juniors also get studio doubles in Watt and a good portion of Woodbridge which are appartments with kitchens. Some also end up in 600 W 113 but by far the vast majority will be in schapiro or broadway where it is singles in a hallway style building with no shared fridge. As a senior though you are most likely to end up in a suite if you want so this is the only time where the odds are for having a common fridge. </p>
<p>In my case I've lived in John Jay, Furnald, Schapiro in that order so far and have needed the fridge every year. Next year I am living in Hogan where there is a kitchen with a fridge but I will most probably still have my own fridge in my room to store some essentials so I dont have to go all the way to the kitchen for them.</p>
<p>there are no kitchen refrigerators in wallach (and i doubt hartley)</p>
<p>I lived there this year.</p>
<p>I personally suggest buying one. Mine is 1.8 cubic feet, and it's been very useful (leftovers, milk, fruit, and such). I think the biggest one you can bring is 2.4 (??)</p>
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I think the biggest one you can bring is 2.4
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</p>
<p>as i said noone checks...even my RA one yr had one that was way bigger.</p>
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there are no kitchen refrigerators in wallach (and i doubt hartley)
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</p>
<p>hmmm, maybe, if u say so</p>
<p>
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1. The Blue Key Society will rent fridges on campus, and the proceeds go to charity
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</p>
<p>Why do they have to make a profit? Can't they just rent them out at cost. Do they really need to extract a few bucks of "charity" out of parents who are forking over $40,000 bucks a year.</p>
<p>
[quote]
3. If you live in a suite any one year, you will have a fridge and your personal fridge will be rather redundant.
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</p>
<p>The problem with communal fridges in suites:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>people steal your **</p></li>
<li><p>people eat your *</p></li>
<li><p>people drink your *</p></li>
<li><p>other peoples' ** smells / rots / otherwise becomes gross</p></li>
<li><p>you can't keep booze in the communal fridge</p></li>
<li><p>there's often not enough room for all your stuff</p></li>
</ul>
<p>
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Why do they have to make a profit? Can't they just rent them out at cost. Do they really need to extract a few bucks of "charity" out of parents who are forking over $40,000 bucks a year.
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</p>
<p>Well the group exists to do charity/community service work; the fridge thing is just a revenue stream. If its primary mission were dispensing fridges, maybe they would work a bit differently. Think of them like Girl Scouts selling cookies; they're overpriced but you buy them anyway.</p>
<p>People buy Girl Scout cookies because they're good. They're overpriced, but I don't think they're any more expensive than some of the other packaged cookies that you find in the store. Also, they're overpriced because of supply and demand. They only sell them for a few weeks every year, so that artificially pumps up demand for them.</p>
<p>Not sure why one would rent a fridge from the key society. Might as well rent one from an outside vendor if you want to rent.</p>
<p>i rented a fridge last year and returning it at the end of the year was actually just a really bad experience because it's tough to get it down to where pick up is with the not-so-sturdy hand trucks you can get in hartley and you end up having to return the fridges in the middle of like..final exam week and honestly this is the last thing i wanted to worry about. and plus for all the trouble of bringing it to your room, returning at the end of the year, the fridge quality was actually pretty bad. so i would buy a fridge instead of renting one haha if its only for personal convenience</p>
<p>I had a 3.5 cu ft Sanyo fridge for all 4 years. Freshman year, I brought my own desk as extra furniture to my Carman double, and the fridge fit into the leg space of the spare Columbia desk perfectly - like a glove. It's been very useful even though I lived in a suite most of my other years, because during the summer I needed a place to put my milk, juice, leftovers, veggies, beer, etc. It was just the right size and really efficient.</p>
<p>If you're in Carman / JJ freshman year, I recommend one. They can be had for $50 and it's better to own than to rent. I just sold mine on craigslist AT A PROFIT, after 4 years of ownership. Hope that helps,</p>
<p>Steve</p>
<p>I don't know where you got that 3.5 cubic ft sanyo fridge for $50.....
When I checked on amazon, a 2.5 sanyo fridge sold for $149.99 (that's after savings, original price is $199.99). The cheapest 3.6 cubic ft sanyo fridge i found was $170.</p>
<p>Mine is 4.2 cu ft and I got it for 100 bucks three years ago....its also a sanyo....u need to shop around a bit....i think it was from best buy.</p>
<p>the one i have is 3.0 cu ft and first perfectly in my dorm. i recommend one that size</p>