<p>Any thoughts on the Rubelmann dorm? I heard that it was one of the worst dorms on campus.</p>
<p>Call it Ruby.</p>
<p>It’s very old and cramped. Some people I know liked it and others didn’t. I personally would have hated to live in Ruby.</p>
<p>Here’s a post I made awhile ago about the Traditional vs. Modern debate:</p>
<p>Both have advantages and disadvantages.</p>
<p>Modern dorm rooms are newer, larger and have higher ceilings. Side note: Your room will feel bigger or smaller depending on your setup–how you arrange the furniture in your room. My roommate and I have our beds (not bunked, by the way) raised up just high enough so that our dressers fit underneath them. We therefore saved a lot of room because we have our dressers in a place that would have been occupied by the beds anyway. As a result, our room seems very big and we always have people hanging out in it. But I mention the higher ceilings because if you choose to make your room feel “bigger” by bunking the beds, the person on top won’t feel like they’re pressed against the ceiling. Top bunk beds in traditionals are very close to the ceiling. A friend of mine always smacks his head against a smoke detector when he climbs into bed.</p>
<p>Moderns also have a bathroom connected to your suite so you don’t have to walk far or move your toiletries back and forth. Some people say traditionals are more social than moderns, but I think it entirely depends on the people you’re living with. I live in a modern and my floor is very social. The open door policy works very well.</p>
<p>Traditionals tend to attract people because they like the idea of the communal bathroom and the somewhat cramped atmosphere. Unless you specifically want that, you should choose modern because the additional disadvantages of traditionals outweigh the advantages. The rooms are smaller and, as I’ve already mentioned, the ceilings are lower. They’re not necessarily in a better location than the moderns, either. The only real advantage I’ve heard about traditionals is that, since the buildings are older and the walls are thick concrete, they’re fairly soundproof.</p>
<p>Another advantage of traditionals is that they have Tempurpedic matresses, but most if not all of the moderns will have them by this year. So yeah.</p>
<p>the negatives are pretty obvious, but just to give a few of the positives:</p>
<p>1) you get priority for sofoho, the best sophomore dorm
2) traditional dorms are stereotypically more social
3) you’ll have basically as much space as a modern and pay thousands of dollars less</p>
<p>freshman housing is basically a crapshoot, and wherever you end up, there’ll be something to be happy about. and personally I’d much rather have Ruby than Park.</p>
<p>What’s wrong with Park? I lived there my freshman year and liked it a lot.</p>
<p>And modern rooms are bigger than traditional rooms.</p>
<p>One final note about Ruby is that they’re doing construction on it this summer, but I think that’s just to make the side facing Bears Den look nicer. Ruby is very close to Bears Den and pretty close to main campus, which I guess are bonuses.</p>
<p>Living in traditional freshman year, I’m pretty partial to them. The one time I visited Park at around 4 p.m. looking for someone, most of the doors to the suites were locked, and with the two or three that were open, all the doors were locked. Plus, it was completely silent. Maybe I hit an unlucky floor, but it made a pretty bad impression.</p>
<p>And while some moderns may be quite large, on average I don’t think there’s a major size difference.</p>
<p>But inane arguments aside, you don’t get to choose your freshman dorm, and the building is much less significant than the people on your floor.</p>
<p>You’re exactly right about the people on the floor being the most important part. I’m sorry you had a bad impression of Park, but my floor was quite social and I enjoyed it. The suite layout there might not be too conducive to being social, although the open door policy seemed to work pretty well for us. But a friend of mine gave me the impression that his floor in Danforth wasn’t the most social, so it’s really just a shot in the dark.</p>
<p>I lived in Ruby last year. It’s true that it’s probably one of the worst dorms on campus (though at WashU, that’s not really saying much, since the dorms are all very well kept and much better than dorms at comparable schools). I too was disappointed after getting my assignment, and I’m sure this initial sentiment was shared by a significant portion of my floormates/dormmates at the beginning of the year. So I know where you’re coming from.</p>
<p>Yes, it’s cra*pier than most other dorms. You’ll have problems with it. But Ruby across all three floors last year (at least from my perspective) was very social, very prideful, partied muchly (sorry if that’s not your thing), and despite it’s quirks, we came to love it dearly. The vast majority of my floor did anyways. Honestly, probably my biggest problem with it was that it was often too social and thus loud, but it’s not hard to find a close quiet place to study elsewhere. We often hanged out in each other’s rooms, and it was very easy to since our doors were very close. To paraphrase one of my floormates near the end of the year, “Ruby is a shiithole, but it’s the shiithole we call home. And we don’t want them to tear it down.” Just give it a chance.</p>
<p>PS. One of the best things about Ruby ended up being it’s location. Closer to classes, RIGHT across from Bear’s Den (almost too convenient to get food), and good views of the Swamp and the area right outside Bear’s Den (OTOH, you’ll hear everything that goes on at night depending on what side of Ruby you’re on).</p>
<p>PPS. And yes you do get priority on SoFoHouse, though most of my floormates ended up doing traditional again.</p>
<p>I was assigned the job of collecting box tops in most of the dorm trash rooms on the South 40 (no, that’s not my name on those envelopes!) and have been inside all the dorms. No offense meant, but I do think Ruby is the worst. It stank inside, paint was peeling from the walls, and doorknobs were sticky. And people inside were a bit rowdy and tipsy, especially on the weekends. =/ On the other hand, it’s one of the closest to the Bear’s Den.</p>
<p>EDIT: I agree that the traditionals are more social. You end up getting to know everyone on your floor and have a wider range of your choice of friends. In addition, the little complaints like broken faucets in the bathrooms, no hot water, cockroaches in the washing machines, etc., do bring us together.</p>
<p>Sent from my Droid using CC App</p>
<p>^I can definitely understand that as being the dominant perception other people would have of Ruby.</p>
<p>Inside the rooms is fairly comparable, but there is a marked difference in the quality of hallways and common areas between moderns and traditionals.</p>