<p>Are all freshmen absolutely required to live in a residential college? Is there any way around it?</p>
<p>Thanks.</p>
<p>Yes you are required to do live in a residential college. Why don't you want to?</p>
<p>Yes you have to, a lot of people love living there</p>
<p>Yeah, I don't see why you wouldn't want to.</p>
<p>I hate the thought of a roomate. What are the dorms like at Princeton?</p>
<p>Rooms come in all shapes and sizes, from singles to eight person suites. Different colleges have different characteristics. For example, Whitman has lots of singles while Wilson has lots of suites. The average square footage per person in residential college housing is 142 sq. feet.</p>
<p>You can ask for a single room. You should be thankful that Princeton guarantees under graduate housing for all 4 years. Off campus living in Princeton could be expensive and not very convenient. Besides you will be missing all the neat stuff that goes on campus.</p>
<p>Socially, I'd say having roommates your freshman year is a good thing. Sometimes having more than one is even better. It is a lot easier to make friends and meet people when you live in a massive 8-man suite than when you live alone in a 130 sq ft single.</p>
<p>I was wondering if there's a real sense of community within the residential colleges. When I visited Yale, I saw that people were completely insane about their colleges. Do the residential colleges at Princeton compare and do you generally get close to the other people at your college? Also, do they compose a significant part of campus social life, as compared to say, eating clubs or extracurriculars?</p>
<p>I'd really like to get these questions answered.</p>
<p>My friends and I don't feel the same level of pride for our residential college as our friends at Yale do. The main reason is that most students leave the college system for eating clubs and upperclass housing after sophomore year. The college system is changing. Beginning last year, students had the option of living in a residential college all four years, making it much more similar to the Yale model. Some students, myself included, believe that the administration is going a little too far in its efforts to promote residential colleges (by annexing independent dorms into Whitman College for example). Since there are only a limited number of shared meal plans, Nassau Hall's efforts to promote the colleges can be seen as an attack on the clubs. One of my friends called it social engineering. I wouldn't go that far, but I would prefer less administrative input into where I eat and sleep.</p>
<p>There is a certain sense of community in the colleges, mainly because you are always around the same people. I wouldn't say that the colleges are a significant part of campus life. They do sponsor study breaks, open mic nights, and so forth, but I spend far more time involved in extracurriculars around campus.</p>
<p>I think Forbes College is the only residential college with a true sense of community. Unlike most of the other colleges (with the exception of Whitman) Forbes is all in one large building. It also happens to be the most isolated of the six (along Alexander Rd across the street from the WaWa and the McCarter Theatre Center). Despite the inconvenience, a lot of Forbesians love it.</p>
<p>And yet I was in Forbes, and still resent that my two years there made my social life exponentially harder. /bitterness</p>
<p>It can be annoying that you are chained to one living situation for two years, but be open-minded. Many - most - love their colleges. Most people make most of their friends there and spend a lot of time studying, hanging out, and participating in events there. My friends (mostly in Mathey and Rocky) had a real sense of pride in their colleges. And if you don't love it, it's just a place to lay your head at night, as it was for me - not a big deal!</p>
<p>What are the chances of getting a single room in any of the residential colleges?</p>
<p>It depends on which college you end up in. Some of them have more than others. However, sophomores and upperclassmen in the colleges are likely to have already grabbed a lot of the singles.</p>
<p>Having a roommate or roommates, even a weird one, is not nearly as bad as you think it is. But if you go in disliking your roommate for being your roommate, you and your roommate are in for a rough year. If you truly have a problem with living with someone (for instance, you absolutely cannot work when there is someone else in your room or you absolutely cannot sleep in the presence of another person or you have a medical issue that would be complicated by having a roommate), you might be able to apply for special needs housing.</p>