<p>How do they determine roommates for first-year students? Do they send out a questionaire and try to match peope up or is it done randomly? Can you choose your own roommates? Also, what kind of dorms are there? Quiet dorms, substance-free dorms, etc… Which dorms are the best? (location on campus/room size/etc) Thanks!</p>
<p>They do send out a questionaire.</p>
<p>I do not believe that they allow you to choose a roommate.</p>
<p>There are only two types really: Chem Free and Normal.</p>
<p>There are two BRAND NEW DORMS which are being built right now. Those should be awesome. One of them will be chem free, so I'd reccomend asking for chem free (almost guaranteed awesome housing)</p>
<p>However these new dorms aren't in the line of standard freshman 'bricks' which are all right next to the main quad. But it doesn't really matter, the campus is small enough, and all of the dorms are good.</p>
<p>What are the names of these new dorms?</p>
<p>I am not sure - for our year you didnt get to choose a specific dorm at all. They haven't publicly announced the dorm names. This year there are Coleman, Hyde, Appleton, Maine, Winthrop, and Moore. Hyde (current chem free dorm) and Appleton will close for renovation next year.</p>
<p>here's an article on the new dorms
<a href="http://orient.bowdoin.edu/orient/article.php?date=2005-02-11§ion=1&id=4%5B/url%5D">http://orient.bowdoin.edu/orient/article.php?date=2005-02-11§ion=1&id=4</a></p>
<p>What is a chem free dorm?</p>
<p>You sign a contract stating that you will not use or consume controlled substances in the dorm, or bring them into the dorm.</p>
<p>Does anyone have information on freshman dorms . . . which ones are the best?</p>
<p>But are they going to tear down the Appleton dormroom that Harriet B. Stowe lived in when she wrote "Uncle Tom's Cabin?"</p>
<p>Best dorms - new ones, Coleman, Moore. friendly_smile, I'm not sure about that, they have the "Harriet B Stowe House" and Stowe Inn and Stowe Hall.</p>
<p>are the new freshman dorms triples or doubles?</p>
<p>I believe they're triples, and once all of the bricks are renovated then they'll open them all as doubles</p>
<p>what type of questions do they ask on the roommate questionnaire? does it really match people up well?</p>
<p>They just say like, circle 1 to 5, 5 meaning I agree and 1 meaning disagree: I like parties, I like waking up early, etc. etc. Then they ask you what music you like (which, I've heard, is primarily what they use to make their decisions). And they're not tearing Appleton down, just renovating it.</p>
<p>is there an athlete dorm that they dont really call "the athlete dorm" but they basically put the freshman who are playing sports in...?</p>
<p>no, they spread everyone out</p>
<p>lol actually this year, Coleman had a fair amount of the freshman players on the football and hockey teams, which resulted in a lot of drunken dorm damage.</p>
<p>If we request someone for a roommate will they assign you to them? Or would that work against you because they want you to meet knew people...</p>
<p>I dont think they'll give you someone. No one I know got someone they knew as a roommate, and the one previous boyfriend / girlfriend couple I knew were placed about as far apart as possible.</p>
<p>Tell a bit about the house chem-free is associated with. D is considering chem free but heard the house it is associated with isn't as "desirable". Any comments from current Bowdoin students?</p>
<p>ccgmom, i live in that house (it's called "Howell House"). most of us are just normal (perhaps slightly on the nerdy side) people, but there are a few "socially awkward kids" who end up here every year, and there's nothing we can do about it. and since all house members run and plan activities, those kids are in the spotlight just as much as the rest of us, which tends to cause problems - last year, i stayed as far away from the house as possible because of these "sketchy" kids, and i only ended up choosing to live here because it's some of the best sophomore housing on campus. this year, i heard from several different first-years in Hyde that the same kids (and a new one who is also pretty odd) were freaking them out. as far as next year goes, i chose to live in the house again, and i have several friends who are staying as well, so some people will be remaining the same - but we actually have an unaffiliated block of kids coming in (they're not from the chem-free first-year dorm, but, rather, from a completely different one) who seem really interesting, outgoing and ambitious, which should make things better - maybe. there are also 3 new "weird kids" (i feel awful saying this, but it's true...) coming in, though, so i guess we'll see what happens.</p>
<p>additionally, the fact that the house is chem-free AND already has a bad reputation makes it very difficult for it to run well-attended and interesting events. we try, but we're rarely successful (we really only had one successful party this year - and "successful" for a chem-free party means 100-200 people, instead of the much larger numbers for the campuswide parties that other houses throw). we're more successful with "alternative programming"-type events - we just had a lobster bake, which 80 affiliates (the limit, due to costs...) attended; we've run several "academic"-type events (professors, film-showing/discussion nights, etc.); we have game nights for affiliates, and other things like that - weekend options for when you don't want to go to a party, but do want to do something. as far as next year's events go, the new president seems really ambitious and well-liked by his class, and he has some big ideas for events that we can run, so i'm hoping that next year will be a good year - but there's no way to know for sure.</p>
<p>if you have any other questions about the house, i'd be glad to answer them - i'm trying my best to be honest (as you can see here, i hope!) and thorough. it probably would be good for you and your daughter if oliver and travisD answered also, as they can provide an "outside perspective" to contrast with mine.</p>
<p>finally, tell your daughter that the house should not be her main consideration when she decides about whether or not to go with chem-free - she should definitely consider what type of atmosphere she wants her dorm to have, as the chem-free dorm always has a very distinctive one (which may or may not be for her), and what type of people she'd like to be living with. some people choose chem-free because of religious beliefs or personal morals, or because of their parents, but quite a few others choose it because they want a better atmosphere for studying or because they don't want to have to deal with drunken roommates and disgusting bathrooms on weekends and the like (or because they want to be sure to have friends who don't drink, or for other reasons entirely) - so she's going to be dealing with certain specific types of people by choosing to live in the chem-free dorm, and certain others by choosing to live in any of the other dorms (but she'll also be dealing with a lot of cool people regardless of which one she chooses!). she could live in any one of the first-year dorms without having to ever associate with her affiliated house after the first 2 weeks of school (parts of orientation are run by the houses, so she can't avoid them at the beginning...) - but she can't avoid her roommates, hallmates, and dorm-mates for the entire year...</p>
<p>(wow, that was really long. i'm sorry!)</p>