<p>i haven't finished the housing app yet (i realize it's overdue haha -.-), and i was wondering whether any current students could share opinions about substance-free housing. from previous thraeds, i see that the rooms are supposedly bigger/nicer, but on the other end that it attracts mostly those forced in by parents. are either of these true? also, my only real concerns about "regular" housing have to do mess and smell. after a standard saturday night, are these usually an issue?</p>
<p>about me: i don't drink or smoke at all, and that's entirely by choice; i'm actually extremely liberal when it comes to other things, as well as politics. in college, i'd really like to make friends who i can hang out with more casually: go see a movie, talk, play video games or board games, listen to music; on weekends, maybe go to nyc or philadelphia. maybe it's telling that the colleges i chose over princeton were uchicago (i loved the atmosphere there) and brown. i'm not looking to party.</p>
<p>thanks in advance! and thanks for maybe reading all of that, haha. i've looked at the previous threads on this topic, but i'm looking for fresh opinions. :)</p>
<p>My son chose substance free as a freshman and has chosen it for next year. The vast majority of the kids in his dorm are there by choice – and it has been great. Kids who are not there by choice (parents’ forcing them) sometimes end up leaving the substance free and moving into regular dorms if they have alcohol related incidents.</p>
<p>It’s been an extremely positive experience for my son – his best friends are from this group. They are definitely not party-ers and tend to just hang out with each other.</p>
<p>You’d need to check in with others about politics and religion - but his dorm/group tends to lean more conservative and Christian than is generally represented in the Princeton population.</p>
<p>thank you so much for your response! i’m glad most of the people in your son’s dorm are there by choice. substance-free seems like a good option for me too, and right now (as i’m filling out the rest of the application), i’m leaning towards it.</p>
<p>My son is a non to lite partier, and chose regular housing as a freshman because he didn’t want to distance/exclude himself from the general pool of freshmen. Worked out fine. Put in for a quad on the housing form but got a single, so no drunken roommate tales. A few beer flu stories regarding the common bathrooms and friends w/ partying roommates, but nothing too disruptive for him. His broad group of friends includes drinkers and nondrinkers and he and 3 friends (all 4 sub-free or nearly so) have signed up for (not sure what to call it, four singles with a shared bath but not really a suite) rooms in a non sub-free dorm for next year. He didn’t regret his decision to not go sub-free.</p>
<p>Edit: DS just arrived home and I posed the question to him. He agreed w/ my response and added that a lot of the sub-free kids are “religious freaks” and “tools”.</p>
<p>oh okay, good to know! after bringing it up with my parents and my brother (who recently graduated from a so-called “party school”) and giving it some more thought, i’ve actually decided to go into regular housing. as long as other people’s drinking doesn’t affect me enormously, i think i would prefer it. thanks for your response, and please tell your son i appreciate his input. :)</p>
<p>Is it unusual to be in a substance free area? I just chose it cause I do none of those things but don’t want to be in a weird minority secluded from others (which is what im sensing from what you guys said)</p>
<p>Oh my god I just read this entire thread after my last comment… I didn’t know what I got myself into… I’m NOT religious or a tool. Is there a way to fix my app?</p>
<p>^ They only interviewed 17 sub-free freshmen, none of whom said sub-free negatively impacted their social lives. The article says that 1/4 to 1/3 of incoming freshmen indicate a preference for sub-free housing.</p>
<p>How can we contact Princeton to notify them of a change in our form? I want to request non substance free but I wrote sub free on the form originally.</p>
<p>1231233, from reading those two Daily Princetonian articles, you shouldn’t have any problem getting out of substrance free housing…it seems to be very very popular for freshmen and sophomores</p>
<p>Oh dear… now I’m worried. I was very emphatic about substance-free because that was one of my huge worries for college, but otherwise I’m very liberal… Now I’m imagining nightmare scenarios with some strange proselytizing roommate whom I won’t be able to stand… but I guess in the long run drunkenness will affect me more than an odd roommate, so I think I made the right decision.</p>
<p>WHAT?! I chose Substance Free just because I don’t drink or smoke or do any of that stuff. I’m NOT a religious freak or a tool, and I definitely DON’T want roommates who are.</p>
<p>OMG!! I already submitted my app with sub-free. I just thought that these rooms wouldn’t have beer vomit until I read this thread: I am NOT religious or a tool. And I don’t want to be with freaks or tools or be considered one by the Princeton community!! Can someone please tell me how to get out of this? Or is it already too late?!</p>
<p>I’m not a Princeton student (more like a hopeful, really), but I don’t think ONE person’s son calling sub-free students “tools” and “religious freaks” automatically makes it true.</p>
<p>Okay, honestly, I don’t think people will ask “Do you live in substance-free housing?” and judge you on the answer before getting to know you. You won’t be regarded as a freak or a tool unless your actions show you to be one.</p>
i’m glad most of the people in your son’s dorm are there by choice. substance-free seems like a good option for me too, and right now (as i’m filling out the rest of the application), i’m leaning towards it.</p>