<p>In terms of location, size and quality of rooms, safety and security, which is the better of the two First-Year Experience dorms?</p>
<p>Well… unless they’ve changed the housing form from last year, you don’t get to choose one or the other; you can only request FYE housing in general. The fact that 100% of the residents are randomly assigned and leave after one year also means there’s little continuity in terms of culture or social scene. (Sometimes people want to know which one is the party dorm, the hipster dorm, etc., and there’s no good answer - it changes from year to year.) But here are some of the constants:</p>
<p>They’re both about the same size and in roughly equal physical condition (= cinderblock rectangles). The halls, rooms, and furnishings I’ve seen in each looked really similar. They each have both single-sex and co-ed halls; not sure if you get to choose which you live on. (I know a few folks who got assigned to single-sex halls against their will their first year.) There are no all-gender rooms, though. They’re both centrally located, and have the same security features as all the dorms - swipe-cards to get into the building and manual locks on the doors. (Oberlin is gradually replacing these with swipe-cards, too, though there’s been some backlash.)</p>
<p>Barrows is on North Campus, closer to the Science Center and the gym. North Campus is a more classically collegiate part of campus: think grassy quad surrounded by brick buildings. It’s got marginally more singles than Dascomb (7 vs. 4).</p>
<p>Dascomb is larger. It’s at the southern edge of Wilder Bowl, near South Campus - closer to the Con, King (humanities/social sciences), and Peters (languages). South Campus is more geographically and architecturally varied than North Campus, and has a reputation for having more of a freewheeling/progressive/diverse culture. Dascomb also has its own dining hall, whereas Barrows kids have to walk to Stevie.</p>
<p>Which dorm is closer to the classroom buildings?</p>
<p>Depends. Barrows is closer to the science center and the psych and geology buildings; Dascomb is closer to the humanities/math/computer science building, languages, and the Con. They’re both equally close to the main library and equally far from the art building (which isn’t really close to any of the dorms).</p>
<p>Either way, you don’t have to walk more than three minutes to get to class (with the exception of the art building…)</p>
<ul>
<li>an annoyed art history student ;)</li>
</ul>
<p>Thanks quaere</p>
<p>I hear Dascomb is going to have some pretty awesome RA’s next year…</p>
<p>How do you define “awesome RA?” Aren’t they just kids? Or is this a tease cause you/your kid is going to be one of them? :)</p>
<p>You caught me, proud mama here. I personally know two of the RA’s that will be in Dascomb next year. One will be a first year RA, one is a second year RA, but her first year in a freshman dorm. If your child should get placed in Dascomb, you can pm me, and I will give you more information, and make sure they look out for him/her.</p>
<p>Actually, I think I know one of next year’s Dascomb RAs… in which case, yes, at least one of them is really awesome :D</p>
<p>quaere, how did you get to be an RA and you’re only going to be a sophomore? Who did you bribe? ;)</p>
<p>Plainsman, I didn’t bribe anyone - I thought you’d figured out from my posts that I’m a die-hard co-oper and would never sell out to ResEd 
But one of my friends is a real live Dascomb RA, and is only a sophomore… which I guess is an objective indicator of how awesome she is!</p>