<p>Incoming and current students/parents please post your opinion. Thank you!</p>
<p>I lived in Johnson and I loved it, and would do it again. I chose not to live in the upperclass substance free dorm this year, but my roommate this year was another girl who lived in Johnson, and so the result was the same.</p>
<p>I basically felt that since we don't get to choose our freshman roommates, asking to live in Johnson was at least a way to guarantee that there wouldn't be alcohol related problems (and smoking as well. I really, really would've gone crazy if I'd had a roommate that smoked).</p>
<p>My son didn't live in Johnson, but friends who did really seemed to like it. According to him, it didn't guarantee that people who lived there would never drink, etc., but it certainly cut down on anything happening on site in dorm.</p>
<p>I'm not opposed to applying for substance free housing next year, but my fear is that there may be some sort of social rift between those living in substance free housing and those not. Is it like that at all? Is living in Johnston some sort of brand that people around campus know you by?</p>
<p>I'm doing it, for the first year at least. I suppose after the first year it sorts itself out (b/c you pick your roomie)</p>
<p>I'm not applying for Substance Free.</p>
<p>My daughter did not apply for the substance free dorm. She sent in her housing and parent form yesterday.</p>
<p>to kyletx:</p>
<p>if you're going to apply for substance-free housing, you should do it because you really, really want to live in a non-substance-abusing dorm, not because you just don't object to it. i'd like to say that living in johnson isn't very different from living in the other freshman dorms, but that simply isn't the case.</p>
<p>while i wouldn't say that living in johnson is "some sort of brand that people around campus know you by," i might say that it's a sort of brand that people DON'T know you by, if that makes any sense. wake is a reasonably small school, and you tend to recognize a lot of people, so if an unrecognizeable person is spotted, someone might offer the semi-condescending explanation of, "they probably live in johnson." the fact is, for many people on campus johnson is associated with people who don't go out and are very antisocial, and while this stereotype, from my experience with "johnsonites", isn't accurate, it's still the idea a lot of wake students have. the only truth behind it is that yes, johnson students are less likely to drink and, yes, as a result are less likely to go out to parties, etc. for a person interested in going out a lot and meeting a lot of people (whether drinking or not), i wouldn't recommend living in johnson, simply because it's more difficult to find out about the social events at the beginning of the year where most people i know met the people they ended up hanging out with for the rest of the year and the rest of college. it's not impossible, but from what i can tell it's more difficult, simply because these things tend to travel by word of mouth more than anything, and it's hard to get information from students around you who aren't interested.</p>
<p>as far as greek life and johnson is concerned... i don't see a very high percentage of women in sororities who live/d in johnson. there are a number of reasonable reasons for this, the foremost being that a lot of people (whether accurately or inaccurately) associate greek life with alcohol, and logically there are a lot of johnson students who don't drink and, as a result, aren't interested. there's also the fact that a decent part of getting into a sorority comes from knowing members, and as i already mentioned, people i know who lived in johnson have told me it's more difficult to meet people when you live there as a freshman. sorority rush goes by in less than a week, so you don't really get to know people well during rush.
for men it's different; as far as i've witnessed, living in johnson isn't really detrimental to men rushing a fraternity, since the first time freshmen are allowed to rush a fraternity is also in the second semester. by that time, if a person really is determined to go to parties and such, they are doing it; their knowledge of social events is no longer dependent on the people living around them. men's rush is a couple weeks long, so while sorority women can't really get to know rushees, men get to know those rushing their fraternities pretty well.</p>
<p>hopefully that made some sense, if there are any questions, please ask.</p>
<p>sosywfu, It is nice that you took the time to post, but......In your only other post, you mention that having food in your room is good when "you come in from a party at 2am." If that is your thing, great. The fact is, you don't live in Johnson, so what you say is an opinion. It would be nice to hear from the people who are actually living in Johnson. Come on, if your all supposedly "in your rooms, and anti-social", you have lots of time to post!</p>
<p>why do substance free. i mean cant people just live in other residence halls and not drink/smoke?</p>
<p>This is just my opinion- gathered from what others have posted hereover the last few years about doing substance free: In a regular hall, even if you don't smoke and drink, those that do may be your roomate. although the university tries to match up people, many lie on their housing application (parents are watching!) and say yes, they do not go to bed late, No, they do not party. The reality- they can't wait to get to college to do that very thing! There you are, with a roomate who is a party animal. If you REALLY do not drink, smoke or party that stinks. That is what Johnson is for.</p>
<p>I didnt live in Johnson, but I think that sosywfu's post was very accurate overall. Since the "party at 2am" comment seems to make some question the post, I myself do not drink and still agree. From what I've seen, it usually is not that big of a problem if your roommate does party and you don't.</p>
<p>njmom, if i offended you in some way i did not intend to. and my remark about coming home from a party was accompanied by a remark about studying at 2 am; i was trying to show how having food in one's room is convenient, no matter who the person is. and i didn't accuse anyone of being anti-social, but rather said that the stereotype in question was not true in my experience. i can't help but get the idea that you are misinterpreting my words, especially since what i said is NOT opinion, but fact. i said that i had heard certain things and witnessed others, and while my statements do reflect the experiences of one person, i did in fact hear and witness those things. please don't imply that i'm misrepresenting myself or anyone else when i am not, especially since your most recent post in this thread agrees with what i was saying: you should live in johnson if you really, really are not interested in living with people who drink, smoke, etc, although there are always a few people in that dorm who do participate in such activities and only live there because their parents made them apply.</p>
<p>also, keep in mind that a person who "parties" is not necessarily a drinker or abuser of any other substances. i've known more than a fair share of wake students who love going out but prefer to stay sober when they do so.</p>
<p>I did live in Johnson my freshman year, and I think that sosywfu's post has some accurate points and some that aren't so accurate.</p>
<p>I think that she was right when she said that we don't hear about the parties as much. At least for the first semester. After rush, word started getting even to Johnson. </p>
<p>But I don't think that living in Johnson hindered our ability to make friends, nor do I think that we were the antisocial people on campus who stayed in our rooms all the time. In my experience, the people in Johnson tended to be the people who were really involved with their clubs and often had planned activities that they were doing. I've never felt like I have fewer friends than people who party all the time (unless we're talking about facebook friends, where I think partying does seem to help).</p>
<p>As for rush, I don't know if living in Johnson makes it less likely you'll get into a sorority. I only know of, I think, one person who rushed and didn't get a bid. I think that fewer people in Johnson rush, but those that do rush have just as great a chance of getting in.</p>
<p>Thank you for the "actual" deal, Ginneyvere. Hearing from people who actually live there is what counts- not what some stranger may say about you (such as when sosywfu mentioned that when someone is unregognized, they are said to live in Johnson? Why care?) By the time you get to college, (and hopefully by the end of kindergarten) you should care more about your own perception of yourself than a strangers. As far as what people "Don't know you by", when you have true friends that really does not matter. If anyone else has first hand experience living in Johnson, lets hear from you!</p>
<p>I lived in Johnson my freshman year. The people that I met there are still my closest friends. My boyfriend lived a floor above me. Here's my opinion:</p>
<p>In general:
Closest dorm to Tribble (wake up at 9:25 for 9:30 class!)
Cleaner than the other freshman dorms I went into
I made close friends, but in no way did I not meet people from other dorms or other grades. Classes and clubs make up for any perceived gaps. At least half of the girls on my floor rushed, and I know that a fair number on the other floors did too.</p>
<p>Substance Related:
I don't drink, so it was nice to have a built in set of people who knew how to have fun without substance assistance. However, I knew a lot of people who did drink. Some of them signed up for substance free, and then felt like experimenting when they got to Wake; some signed up because Mom and Dad said to, and they couldn't wait to get sloshed; some ended up in Johnson because of a housing crunch; a lot of people (myself including) just didn't feel like being around alcohol on a regular basis. It's also nice for those of us with say, an allergy to cigarette smoke, or those like my Johnson roommate who needed a little quieter environment at times because she's epileptic. </p>
<p>The thing that Johnson does is this: provides flexibility. If you want to go get drunk or just have a social drink or whatever, no one is really stopping you (the RAs basically say that as long as you aren't drinking in the dorm and you don't come back making a heck of a racket/puking/acting drunk in the public areas, they would rather you come back to where you are safe than wander campus or strange dorms). However, if some Friday night you don't feel like going out/you have a big project/you have a headache, your room and your hall is a much quieter place than many of the other dorms. It's sort of like your shelter from the storm; you can choose to use it when you need it or get your party fix on when you want to.</p>
<p>Sable- THANK YOU!!</p>
<p>i completely support the posts of ginnyvere and sable, as do two of my freshman-year-in-johnson friends who read the posts. but again, i think my own post was accurate in depicting the attitude some people on campus have about the dorm, which was, in fact, what kyletx asked about. my post would have been rather irrelevant if the question hadn't been posed to begin with, and i think the implication that i'm acting childish (or that the poster who asked is acting childish) by discussing the sometimes negative, sometimes inaccurate views of others on campus is out of line.</p>
<p>the original post asks for opinion. i'd think anyone would want the opinion from both sides. personally, i think johnson is a good choice for someone who wants a quiet study environment on the halls and never wants to be anywhere near alcohol. however, even for non-partiers and those completely focused on academics, i would recommend a regular dorm.</p>
<p>it's not as if I don't know about the stereotypes; they exist about the sororities and frats too. Believe me, I know--I lived in Huffman House this year. What I was saying is that any perceived impression of me as a Johnsonite or a Huffamanite has seldom if ever come up, much less intefered with my ability hang out, make friends, or whatever. The flexibility thing represents a choice--I could hang with my friends in Luter or Collins when I wanted to, but I also had the other option. Just saying.</p>