<p>I will be attending the University of Rochester next Fall and am strongly considering sub-free housing. </p>
<p>The drawbacks are:
a) in the dorm I wwant (there are 3 choices) sub-free dorming has always been on the bottom floor-- not too great
b) and this is the major concern I have-- people in sub-free may be overly judgemental of those who do drink, and I really have no desire to live with such people...</p>
<p>Positives:
a) I don't like partying, so I'd be with more people who share common interests-- this will most liekly make it easier to meet people
b) yup, a pretty much sums it up...</p>
<p>So, I guess my main question is, in your experience, at whatever school it may be, are sub-free housed students more judgemental in any way?</p>
<p>Whew! At first I thought you meant "submarine-sandwich-free", which would be a terrible thing because subs are great. Anyway...</p>
<p>I really don't think there's a need for "sub-free housing"... honestly, most of the people you meet will be the same. Even if you don't drink or party, you can still be friends with people in your dorm/floor, or make friends outside your dorm with similar interests and hang out with them (I speak from experience, because I don't drink but I'm still cool with all the guys on my floor who do).</p>
<p>But I can't really comment on the attitudes of people that actually do live in substance free housing, because I haven't been in that kind of situation or known any people living in that kind of dorm.</p>
<p>Thanks for the advice :)</p>
<p>I did substance-free housing this year. I definetly would have reconsidered doing so in retrospect. The plusses are that my roommie didn't party or anything so I didn't have a roommate who smoked or came in drunk every weekend. It was generally a quieter place. </p>
<p>However, I do agree with GoldShadow in that laregely there is not a huge reason to have to do substance free. I sometimes felt as though there was a stigma attached to kids in my dorm. The kids were all nice kids, but they tended to be introverted, very conservative, and a bit socially awkward. Most of them I became friends with by virtue of living near them. A lot of kids on my hall also live in NC so they often go home or away for the weekend. </p>
<p>So in retrospect I doubt if I would have chosen this to live in, despite not being a huge partyer or a drinker. Mainly because of small stigma and because I just did not like many of the other kids I lived with as I knew them more and more. Sure it is just in general, but these kids are much more introverted (ie: would rather play video games or they just study) and in the beginning of the year some were just weird. Some kids would just not say hello to me, which I found kind of rude.</p>
<p>Bottom line: I don't think it is necessary unless you are really conservative/religious and are really offended by drinking.</p>
<p>I tend to be fairly introverted, but I'm definitely working on this. I think it would be helpful to be exposed to all sorts of people, mainly those who are accepting of others.</p>
<p>I do not judge others for their own decisions, and acknowledge that everyone makes their own choices according to their morals. And, I am conservative socially, though again, I don't in any way judge others who are not. I am not overly relgious, so this isn't really a factor that plays into my semi-conservative attitude.</p>
<p>I dislike partying, as I must admit, I am somewhat awkward. However, I smile at people every chance I get, so this kind of contradicts the whole unfriendliness thing.</p>
<p>And the stigma attached to sub-free really wouldn't bother me... Rochester seems to be a farily mellow school, so I'm thinking the students don't really label quite as much as Wake Forest (judging from the Winston-Salem location, I'm just assuming...)</p>
<p>I thought you meant subway. Well in that case I can't answer your question, but if you ask me, their roast beef sandwich is mighty tasty.</p>
<p>Yeah, at Rochester there are probably more interesting, quirkier people than at Wake, so substance free might be less of an issue. I mean I def have lots of quirks, but it would be more conducive for someone on the shy side to be out of a more introverted environment.</p>
<p>haha, maybe I should retitle my thread :)</p>
<p>I was actually debating between Rochester and Wake for my ED application, but decided sports were too important at Wake, as was Greek life and drinking in general. However, the people all smiled at me, which gave me an amazing feeling :)</p>
<p>At this point I'm thinking I may want to do regular as opposed to sub-free since I would have to have a dorm on the first floor and I really really don't want to do that... I LIKE fresh air... as opposed to sealed shut windows...</p>
<p>Is drinking a big part of life at Wake? My sis went there and I don't think she really embraced drinking until senior year. She did sub-free her freshman year, met some great people(her roomie was horrible, but for other reasons) that she is still close with even though they've all graduated. </p>
<p>However, if you don't do sub-free and you are getting a random roommate at my school, there's a fairly good chance you WILL get someone who gets drunk of their ass Thursday-Saturday nights, never goes to class, and adds nothing but drama to the room. I knew who my roomie was going to be(we aren't drinkers or in sub-free), but some non-drinkers we know that are not in sub-free and got random roommates have had a stressful year.</p>
<p>Kids who voluntarily pick substance-free dorms tend to be the oddballs.</p>
<p>That's why it would probably be different at Rochester, where it says only 20% of the students are involved in Greek Life. At Wake it is 50% of the students, and it is true that greek life generally means more drinking. Now, my hall my be an outlier, but I really have found out that I have less in common with them over time. </p>
<p>On the flipside of what frostburg2010 said, there is always the chance that in subfree (if we are going to be stereotyping) that you will get a weird roomie who sits in the room ALL day. That is just as bad, if not worse than a partying roomie.</p>
<p>"Kids who voluntarily pick substance-free dorms tend to be the oddballs."</p>
<p>I would have to disagree. Substance free dorms offer the small things in college, that really make life easier. I will agree that MOST of the people living in these dorms are a little socially ackward, but they are nice. That is the key thing right there. They aren't...-can't use a cuss, stupid moderators- idiots to put it lightly. They aren't going to vandalise stuff, they aren't going to make messes in the bathrooms etc, they aren't going to keep you up with obnoxious music, and they won't walk drunk into your room and keep you up when you have class at 8 in the morning...</p>
<p>That being said, I was put in sub-free housing this year. At first I thought it was bad. Turns out though, it's quite the opposite. With the reasons listed above and the fact that the only thing sub-free about the housing is the CONTRACT (no one will care if you party, if you get what I'm saying), sub-free housing turned out to be alright. If you like a quiet atmosphere, nice people, and a lack of idiots, I would go with sub-free housing :)</p>
<p>Well, consider the fact that Rochester is already not full of many idiots... is sub-free really a necessity where I'm going? Not to bash Illinois at all, but I'm sure there's a much larger party atmosphere than at U of R...</p>
<p>Wilmington, that anti-social type that you mentioned is what my sis's freshman roomie was like. She is an artsy type(not that it makes much of a difference); she kept mainly to herself. She only talked to friends from home on the phone, that's when she wasn't yelling at her parents about how horrible Wake was, and was the worst slob you could ever imagine. Part how my sis's way of making new friends was staying with other girls on the hall to get away from her terrible roommate. </p>
<p>I'll be the first to admit that I go to a party school, which is why the chances of getting a random drunken roommate are so high. But, if most Rochester kids don't party to heavily and most aren't big drinkers, then a freshman dorm probably won't be too different from sub-free. Location matters. If there's nothing to do at your school besides party, then your chances of getting a drunken roommate go up.</p>
<p>I would suggest you somehow get in touch with people that actually live in the specific dorm you'd be thinking of, and ask them what the atmosphere's like. I signed up for my school's version of sub-free housing my sophomore year, because I figured since I'd be living in a suite and among older students, there was a much higher possibility for impromptu parties in the common room and so on, and I didn't really want to live with a bunch of raging drunks. I got stuck with 3 other girls who considered themselves to nearly be non-drinkers because they usually went to parties only once a week, and they wanted to be assured to have a quiet place to study at least a few days a week, when they weren't stumbling home drunk. Nice for them, I guess, but not so much for me. I've seen a few people on here making similar recommendations...sign up for sub-free housing so your roommate will never bother you, but you can still feel free to go out and party whenever you like (never mind about whether or not that would bother the roommate). If the atmosphere is going to be like that, there's really no difference and no point.</p>
<p>I lived in the substance free building at my school - I thought it would be awesome because I didn't like to party, drink & get high, so I'd be living with others that had similar lifestyles.
WRONG. People that were under 18 were assigned to be there, whether they wanted to be or not. Also, there were a few rehab dropouts whose parents forced them to sign up for the building. As a result, the building wasn't nearly substance free. It was jokingly renamed the substance-filled building. I absolutely hated living there because I was one of the few that wanted to live substance free. I also lived on the first floor, so all through the night I'd hear the drunken idiots stumble in and vomit outside my door. I think living in any other regular building would be better than that.</p>
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I would suggest you somehow get in touch with people that actually live in the specific dorm you'd be thinking of, and ask them what the atmosphere's like.
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<p>I doubt that would be a good way to get an honest assesment. The introverts would call it heaven, and the normal people would call it hell.</p>