<p>Hello, so this might be a little late, but I am concerned about the bathrooms. Can anyone describe the communal bathrooms (especially for BJ)? Are there shower stalls or open showers? Are the bathrooms infested with bugs? Some schools have cockroaches in the bathrooms.. Also, coed bathrooms, are they awkward at all? Much thanks! :)</p>
<p>i’d also appreciate if someone answered this!</p>
<p>I lived in South for my first year, but I’ve been to BJ plenty of times. Communal bathrooms in BJ have two or three shower stalls, and I’ve never seen any bugs there. None of the ones I’ve been to are coed, so yeah hope this helps.</p>
<p>I put BJ as my first choice also, and I was also a bit concerned about the bathrooms. However, from what I’ve heard, they aren’t that bad. Are the BJ bathrooms coed?</p>
<p>I lived in Pierce last year where we also have coed bathrooms. Pierce bathrooms are not always the cleanest, but I have never seen any bugs, and of course we have shower curtains. In Pierce, the House votes on whether or not the entire bathroom will be coed (or just parts of it), and if anyone votes against coed showers, then showers are single sex. They are awkward for like one week but then you are like “it’s college” and it doesn’t matter.</p>
<p>Bathrooms are not an issue. I lived two years in a BJ coed-bathroom house (always voted upon, but everyone really hates it if anyone votes against coed bathrooms). Single sex bathrooms would be a downer, because bathrooms are where crazy **** goes down sometimes. Like bonding. Or scav. Plus it’s pretty normal for someone to be cutting someone else’s hair in the bathroom. Or after parties, when someone is puking their guts out into the toilet. You don’t want those moments to be single sex, do you? :P</p>
<p>But really, not an issue. At all.</p>
<p>i just want to bump this b/c im curious as well. which dorms at uchicago have coed bathrooms/showers and which don’t? thanks.</p>
<p>Communal bathrooms are rectangular in shape. It have toilets on one side and showers on the other. There would be able 5 toilets and 4 showers. At the far end, there would be 4-5 sinks with mirrors in front of each one. The bathrooms also had bathtubs. No one took baths in them, but we did use them if we were dying each other’s hair.</p>
<p>are all communal bathrooms co-ed? and what dorms have communal bathrooms and what dorms don’t?</p>
<p>jamesbond and others: you might like to take a look at this nifty chart for side-by-side comparisons of the UChicago residence halls for info on bathrooms and other aspects of residential life
<a href=“http://housing.uchicago.edu/sites/housing.uchicago.edu/files/uploads/Housing%20Grid%20Page%201%20FINAL.pdf[/url]”>http://housing.uchicago.edu/sites/housing.uchicago.edu/files/uploads/Housing%20Grid%20Page%201%20FINAL.pdf</a></p>
<p>Just wanted to pitch in - when I was choosing dorms, I was also incredibly unsure about communal bathrooms. After much consideration, I still went for BJ as my top choice because I was hoping that its many other redeeming qualities would make me overlook the communal bathrooms.</p>
<p>Rest assured, they’re not as bad as they sound. I was quite scared about them coming in, but it’s actually not a huge deal. I don’t know about other houses/residence halls with communal bathrooms, but mine in BJ is a co-ed communal with 5 people sharing two stalls, a urinal (that no one uses on my floor), two showers, and three sinks (I do have to say though that there’s a smaller amount of people on my floor than what’s typical). Unless you live with crazy people that refuse to close the curtains for some odd reason, it’s not a big deal at all considering that you’re literally surrounded on three sides in the shower by huge concrete walls. Also you don’t want them to be single-sex; they were that way during O-Week, and it’s a complete pain having to go to a different floor just to wash your hands or use the restroom.</p>
<p>Don’t most of you have communal bathrooms at home? That you share with parents and siblings, some of whom may be whatever gender you aren’t?</p>
<p>That’s pretty much what it is like in college, except everyone is more modest and more respectful of others’ privacy than your average little brother (or parent) is. It’s a little awkward for everyone for a few days, at most, until you feel you know who everyone is. But during that time everyone is also super-careful not to do anything offensive. After that short time, however, it becomes just like sharing a bathroom with nonbratty siblings. </p>
<p>Human beings are pretty adaptable. One of the things they are perfectly good at is sharing bathrooms among a limited number of people without anything really upsetting happening. Especially big bathrooms, with unlimited hot water and multiple stalls. It may not be the way you want to live the rest of your life, but you can tolerate it for a few years with no problems.</p>
<p>Every year this question comes up, usually later in the spring when more people are picking colleges and picking dorms. Unless you have unusual needs (I have been taught by some parents of autistic-spectrum kids to qualify my views a little), communal vs. in-suite bathrooms should be so far down your list of important concerns that it’s not really on the list.</p>