<p>I really like stanford, but I am a little confused about their housing system. Could someone talk about their experience with it? Although Stanford is my #1 choice, I really like Yale and Harvard's housing system because you are forced to interact with people outside your major/social circle/economic status.</p>
<p>Also, how nice are the dorms?</p>
<p>Thanks</p>
<p>Gorgeous, Spacious, Perfect.</p>
<p>I think you'll be pretty happy with the diversity of people you'll get to interact with in a typical Stanford freshman dorm. I don't know the specifics of the other schools' programs, so I can't speak to them, but what I can say is that I never felt like I was living in a place full of carbon copy's of myself. One thing you don't have to worry about at Stanford is meeting people that are, how shall I say, unique?</p>
<p>Freshman dorms are pretty cut and dry. Odds are, you'll end up in a room that looks more or less exactly like this:</p>
<p>Not a ton of space, but enough. </p>
<p>After your freshman year, the type of housing you can get is really varied. It all depends on a whole host of factors, not the least of which is luck, but if you're curious you can browse around here to get a feel for your options Soph. through Senior year:</p>
<p>ASSU</a> Draw Guide</p>
<p>docketgold</p>
<p>Is there a grassy area outside your dorm room? Lucky you!</p>
<p>My son's window faces the garbage bins in the parking lot!</p>
<p>Thanks a lot for the picture. Do you have any of a common area? Does stanford even have common areas? I really dont know how their system works. Is it like a hallway with rooms off of it, or are there several common areas with rooms off each of those common areas in one big building? Could you talk about that?</p>
<p>I checked out that 2nd link (thanks for that too) and some of the descriptions under misc were pretty lousy. What are the better things about housing. I am not trying to bash it, because I believe that the descriptions are to tell students the problems, not try to recruit them.</p>
<p>Also, Stanford is so huge (i went there and loved the campus). Do people tend to live with other people in their same major as to be close to their major's building?</p>
<p>Thanks a lot.</p>
<p>@Fresnomom- It varies as to what you look out on. But I can't think of a dorm on campus that isn't a minutes walk away from a grassy area and/or great view.</p>
<p>@agent0- Here's some freshman dorm common areas. These will vary much more than the rooms will:</p>
<p>So here's the general overview of housing. I'm going to assume that you want to know about freshman housing, so that's what I'll be talking about. If you want to know about upperclass housing, I can hit on that in a later post.</p>
<p>After you're admitted you'll receive a housing packet (although it might be an online form now) where you'll list your preferences for what type of dorm you want and give a bit of info that will help pair you up with a good roommate. The different types of dorms are all freshman or 4-class, with the former being a house of only freshman and the latter being one comprised of students of all 4 years. There are a few other specialty options (called Freshman Sophmore College and SLE), but I wouldn't recommend these. Opinions you'll get on those programs will be varied, but just keep in mind that everyone will be biased (including me), so do some research for yourself and make an informed decision.</p>
<p>You're assigned housing over the summer, and you won't find out who your roommate is until you meet them in the room on move-in day. What freshman dorm you live in is important, but not in the sense that if you don't get the "right" dorm, you're going to be miserable. A lot of lifelong friendships get forged there, and a lot of people's friend groups consist mainly of people in their dorm. </p>
<p>There's no real rhyme or reason explaining how people get assigned where they do, or how people get roommates chosen for them. Obviously what you put on your housing application has something to do with it, but a lot of times it's more or less dumb luck. </p>
<p>Now on to a nuts and bolts description of an average freshman dorm..</p>
<p>Most will have a TV, DVD player, speaker system of some kind, and assorted table games (ping pong, foosball, pool, etc.) in their lounge. Freshman dorms usually do a pretty good job of making sure there are plenty of things to do in the lounge. </p>
<p>Each dorm also has a computer cluster. Theoretically this is to give every student access to a computer in their residence, but because most everybody has a computer of their own this is effectively a dorm study space. It's generally quiet, and can be a good place to work on group projects if necessary.</p>
<p>Someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but I think just about every freshman dorm is of the rooms off a hallway variety. That is, each dorm (or as Stanford calls them, "houses") has 1 common area (=lounge), a kitchenette with microwave, fridge and stove, and a computer cluster more or less centrally located with rooms taking up the rest of the space in the dorm. A house is generally a 100 people or so, although this can vary in either direction by about 50. </p>
<p>The reason those descriptions you read were so bad was because that's a draw guide written for upperclassmen. In your case, everybody's going to be in the same boat in terms of what their room has to offer in size, amenities, etc. so it's not really an issue for you.</p>
<p>Thanks again for another great post docketgold.</p>
<p>Could you talk about upperclassman housing too? Does upperclass housing (or any housing) have smaller living rooms in an almost suite fashion?</p>
<p>With Yale and Harvard, everyone is put into essentially the same housing situation and their experiences tend not to differ much (which is good because I hear generally great reviews about their housing system. Unfortunatley, I know very little about Stanford's system). I know that you can apply to be in an ethnic house and that would probably change your lifestyle a bit. I know that you said that your life would not be miserable if you were placed in the "wrong house," but would you say that people generally are happy with housing and have similar experiences?</p>
<p>
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<p>Upperclass housing varies a lot. And unlike the freshman housing where everybody is more or less in the same boat, upperclass housing can vary by a HUGE margin from person to person.</p>
<p>Upperclass housing more or less breaks down like this:
- The Row: Generally considered to be the "good" housing. Small houses of about 60 kids, open kitchen (which means you get snacks and soda provided for you for all to eat), good atmosphere, etc.
- 4-Class Dorms: Generally considered to be the "bad" housing. Where most end up their unpreferred year.
- Upperclass dorms: Varies. A lot of times you'll be able to get your own room in one of these either with a single or a two-room double, not as good as the row though (in most eyes)
- Suites: 4 or 8 singles off a shared common room w/ 1 bath for the whole place. Not bad living although it's far from the center of campus.
- Mirrielees: Apartment style, no meal plan provided (although you can still get one if you want), 1 double and 1 or 2 singles off of a shared common room that has to have been made for midgets its so damn small.</p>
<p>Housing for the following year is determined each year in the spring by this thing called the Draw. Everyone forms into groups of 8 or less people and is assigned a number. You then create a list of which houses you want to live in everybody is assigned starting with whoever has #1 and working all the way down to #3000 or so. You get 2 years of what is called preferred housing, 1 year unpreferred. A preferred year is one in which you'll get a number between 1 and 2000, and unpreferred year between 2000-3000. While an unpreferred year almost guarantees you ****ty housing, a preferred year does not necessarily assure you good housing. And there's no fairness mechanism involved (although there's been talk of reworking the system--in other words, you could end up in both your preferred years with the number 1,999, that's just how it goes.</p>
<p>Now, not everybody has to enter the draw. If you're in a frat or sorority that has its own house you can usually live there for some or all of your years, thus avoiding the draw. Staff members are also selected before the draw happens, so if you go down that route you can try and score a single on the row or something like that. It's pretty competitive, and ruled by cronyism, but well worth it if you can get it. There's a plethora of other loopholes whereby you can avoid the draw, I won't really get into them as they probably won't affect you and you'll learn about them more if you decide to come here.</p>
<p>Basically, to summarize upperclass housing, I would say the following. You can do really well for yourself, or you can really screw the pooch. Some of it is luck, but some of it is planning and foresight as well. A lot of people ***** and moan about the lot they've been given, but as long as you're relatively open to different living situations you can probably find something that will suit you.</p>
<p>thank you so much docketgold. you have really helped me out. I dont have any more questions right now, but I know who to ask in the future. thanks again.</p>
<p>Do you know of anyone who lived with parents while attending Stanford as an undergraduate? Will commuting to the school every day be a problem? Are there reasonably affordable residential areas nearby?
Thanks.</p>
<p>As a freshman you are required to live on campus, and even though there are plenty of people who are from the area and could commute, I have never heard of it. Also, housing in Palo Alto is not cheap. You wouldn’t save that much money living in Palo Alto. I saw a statistic saying 97% of students live on campus. I fell like a student would miss a lot living off campus. Moral of the story, don’t live off campus.</p>
<p>I know someone who lived with parents for one year. She did it her senior year, but she was going to take a fifth, so it enabled her to be in the dorms for the fifth year. It wasn’t easy, but she made it work. She ended up spending a fair number of nights crashing on people’s floors on campus.</p>
<p>Also, since this is an old thread, new readers should note that the housing system (especially for upperclass housing) has changed quite a bit in the last couple of years, and a lot of the information above is no longer accurate.</p>
<p>You said
“Staff members are also selected before the draw happens, so if you go down that route you can try and score a single on the row or something like that. It’s pretty competitive, and ruled by cronyism, but well worth it if you can get it. There’s a plethora of other loopholes whereby you can avoid the draw”
What loopholes? My k would just like to live with friends, as if on any other campus, but the tier system is restrictive. If you have to fit in study abroad in the fall or winter, or an internship.</p>
<p>the tier system as docketgold has described it has changed a bit. Instead of the preferred and unpreferred years, there are three tiers. Tier 1 is numbers 1-999, tier 2 numbers 1000-1999, and tier 3 numbers 2000-end. Each upperclass year you consume one of your tiers to pick a residence, although sophomores are not allowed to use tier 1. Not only does this eliminate the problem docketgold presented of getting 1999 both preferred years, but because sophomores are not allowed to use tier 1 it means that few sophomores live in row houses (most popular residences, so they almost all draw tier 1) and a ton are clustered in the Toyon, Crothers, Branner area of campus. It’s like freshman year all over, as someone told me the other night. </p>
<p>The main way to get around the draw besides staffing is called preassigning. Some upperclass dorms, maybe ethnic four class dorms (?), all coops (I think), and most (all?) themed row houses allow applications into the residence before the draw. Some houses have an ethnic theme, others have a ethics theme, others have an academic theme, and others are coops. Preassigning is the primary way that sophomores get on the row. In some row houses (like Storey, Casa Italiana…) the preassign process is fairly competitive, in other places it is not. </p>
<p>Another “loophole” is to be in a frat/sorority, which generally means living sophomore and senior year in the house while drawing tier 3 junior year and potentially studying abroad.</p>
<p>If you think you may be a coop person, you’re in luck. Coops are easy to draw into sophomore year, and once you draw in and get to know the staff you’re a solid candidate to preassign/staff the next year, as the current staff chooses preassign and the next years’ staff. </p>
<p>If you plan things right you can get very solid housing all four years. Staffing for instance not only burns tier 3 but in most cases gets you a single. Preassigning can get you into the most sought after row houses as a sophomore while only using Tier 2. That leaves Tier 1, which you can’t really go wrong with.</p>
<p>When can students become RA’s and does becoming RA get you free/nice housing? This is one complex housing system!</p>
<p>What’s the difference between row houses and all other housing, I guess? Haha.</p>
<p>What’s your opinion on Greek living? Benefits/drawbacks, etc.? Thanks for all of the updated help!</p>
<p>Does Stanford’s housing system do a good job of building community among members of a dorm? I’m trying to decide between Stanford, UChicago, and Notre Dame; both UC and ND have a lot of house loyalty/house activities, etc. Will I find community like that through dorm life at Stanford?</p>
<p>
I haven’t heard of a sophomore being an RA, though I’m not sure it’s impossible. All the RAs I’ve ever met have been juniors and seniors, with about a 50/50 junior/senior divide between the two (just guessing on that though). Sophomores can have other staff positions though. </p>
<p>Being an RA almost always (if not always) means you get a single. Every Stanford residence has at least one RA, so RAs end up everywhere on campus, even Oak Creek Apartments. So RAs will get a single and use their tier3 to get into residences that draw from tier1 to tier3. Therefore being an RA in, say, Xanadu (where the draw cutoff is extremely low) is probably one of the biggest steals on campus. </p>
<p>The pay for an RA is about 3/4 of the room and board bill. Which is about 9000 dollars. </p>
<p>
Haha indeed. </p>
<p>Row houses are centered around, though not all on, Mayfield Avenue (exceptions are the Cowell Cluster, EBF, Jerry, Kappa Alpha, and Narnia). Row houses are known mainly for two things. They are generally more sociable, due to a variety of factors, and they have arguably better food than dorms. Regarding the social life in a row house, not all row houses through the typical all campus party or let frats/sororities/clubs throw all campus parties in the house. A fair number do, but many others will stick to smaller gatherings for things like birthday parties, special dinner, progressives, random dance parties, and more. Also doors in row houses tend to be more open than in upperclass dorms. Row houses attract social people who want this more social atmosphere, which also greatly contributes to the nature of the row houses. From what I can gather, community in a row house is tighter than an upperclass dorm, and it’s a great place to meet lots of new people whereas an upperclass dorm might not be. </p>
<p>Regarding the food, row houses either have a chef that cooks for them or, if they are coops, will have the students cook the meals. This means that there is less selection than dining halls, but generally the food is of better quality. Also I think all row houses have open kitchens. Other residences on campus have open kitchens too (Gov-Co houses) but most if not all traditional dorms do not. </p>
<p>I should mention that not only are Row Houses close to the parties, but they are generally close to the center of campus. Some are much closer than others though. </p>
<p>
I think so. It’s hard to compare it to those other schools though because I don’t live in dorms at those schools let alone talk to people that do. I suggest coming to admit weekend and judging for yourself the communities in the dorms. </p>
<p>One thing you will not get at Stanford is four years in the same community. Frats and sororities can come close to this with basically 3.2 years in the community, and theoretically one can stay in the same dorm all four years, but most people tend to move around year to year. I think this is good. It exposes you to new people, ideas, and social situations. It’s bad I think in that it’s harder to make lifelong friends.</p>
<p>I would not call them gorgeous, spacious, or perfect. but rather probably fairly typical for college dorms. If you want gorgeous, spacious, and perfect, see Harvard.
I love Stanford, but the housing system here is one thing I lament. Lots of great houses, but definitely not perfect.</p>
<p>Yeah, the housing is not exactly gorgeous, spacious, or perfect. There are definitely a good number of places on campus where some of those descriptors are true - maybe a disproportionately high number of places - but I say the housing is above average at best. That’s especially true if you don’t want to live in a co-op.</p>
