<p>Can anyone (current students or parents) comment on sub-free housing pros and cons? What percentage of students at Pomona live in sub-free halls? Are these areas substantially quieter at night than the alternatives? What kind of social divisions exist between sub-free and other groups? Anyone start out in sub-free and regret it? Thanks for taking the time to fill us in!</p>
<p>Hey earlybird!</p>
<p>Over on the Facebook page, people are saying that there are actually “low sub” halls as well as “no sub” halls. I guess some of these are just as social/loud as the sub optional halls? (I’d really like to know, too!) It seems to depend on the info included on the housing form, so everybody recommends that students be as honest and forthcoming as possible.</p>
<p>I’m a no sub person, but I like participating in social events. I’m still making up my mind on those housing questions.</p>
<p>Unless there’s some change for freshman next year that I haven’t heard about, halls are officially categorized into sub and sub free. However, the housing form has opportunities to say how much you drink, whether you are good with loud music, how late you stay up, etc. A lot of thought is put into the sponsor groups, so some of the sub halls are designed to be low-sub. If you are really concerned, you can just explicitly write “please put me in a sponsor group that won’t have crazy parties every night”.</p>
<p>When deciding whether to live in a sub free hall, you should not ask “do I want to drink/smoke?” but rather “do I want to live with people who do?” The answers to these questions may not be the same. Keep in mind that in sub free halls you agree not to bring substances into your room.</p>
<p>Thanks for posting this… We are waiting to hopefully have my D talk to someone living in a sub-free dorm; she really enjoyed her visit to Pomona during “The Weekend” the weekend before last. However, she came home a bit concerned about what the social scene is like for non-partiers (her host was a partier; D is not, so she didn’t feel she got a clear sense of what the alternatives to going to parties is). If anyone cares to comment on what non-partying Pomona students do when they aren’t studying, I would greatly appreciate this info to share w/ my D.</p>
<p>Hi there:
Our daughter has been in a sub free for two years with no issues (Wig and Harwood). Loves the relative calm and has not felt “out of it” in any way.</p>
<p>Has made all sorts of friends on all sides of the equation.</p>
<p>My D chose sub free housing as a frosh and regretted it. She felt that it was like social suicide. She just might have been in a very non-social sponsor group, partially her fault by her responses on the housing form. She felt as if the social vibe of the first year is focused around your sponsor group and hers was just no fun. While she was very against drinking when she entered Pomona, she has learned to accept other people doing it, and occasionally she participates as well. Pomona still has a fabulous social scene and she has found her own friends by now - it just took longer. She said she wouldn’t have done sub free if she could do it again.</p>
<p>My D does not like the big parties that are held on all 5 campuses where drinking and hooking up abounds. She has no trouble however finding people who also don’t want to go and will hang out with them. Since she has such a big single this year, she has hosted a number of her own parties.</p>