super-intuitive campus (esp. dorm) reviews

<p>once i was giving a tour (I go to st georges) and the dorm we're suppose to visit on tours is mine, so i usually just show them my own room. I didn't realize it was my roommate's sleep in day so i just opened the door and turned on the lights and was showing the family the room, when my roommate slowly rolled over, still sleeping. The father goes "umm I think someone is sleeping..." and I started to crack up. It was a great transition to explaining the school's schedule though haha.</p>

<h1>1 AGSAABS: I have pictures of dorm rooms in L'ville if you want! My friend is a freshman and she took some of her room! She's got a double so PM ME!</h1>

<h1>2 Are Hotchkiss and St.Georges rooms mostly doubles or singles? I really want a roommate so is there a choice?</h1>

<p>At st georges you do get a choice..except all freshman girls besides 2
(in a double) get singles, and i believe that most boys do too. this is because they say its a transition year and its all about time management and stuff. sophomore, junior and senior year you get a choice between single, double and even triple in some cases. it all depends what pick you get in the housing lottery</p>

<p>Oh no! I don't think I'd be able to live without a close roommate. Dang it!
Was it hard the 1st year?</p>

<p>no not at all. As a new sophomore i had the choice between a double and a single, and i chose double. But everyone ive talked to says that freshman year basically the entire dorm are roommates, they get so close, and your room is basically a place to study and sleep. The nice thing about a single is you can still be very social, but also have the opportunity to shut your door and just chill by yourself when you feel the need. Also having a roommate can be very distracting during study hall haha.</p>

<p>both the dorms i saw (choate and loomis) were really nice sizes. comfortable-looking you know. also in milton the kids have a room check every sunday so they are required to have some order in their rooms. i loved both dorms basically :) hope i get in!</p>

<p>I'm getting off topic but there are separate tours at some schools?
All the tours i went on (Loomis, Taft, Choate, Hotchkiss, Andover, Exeter, SPS, Deerfield) were all with my father. I didn't know there was a separate tour. Do you have to request it or what? </p>

<p>I'm all done with tours so it doesn't matter too much. I'm just curious.</p>

<p>When we were looking at dorms as a mom, my criteria was that i didn't want it to look like my college dorm. I wanted it to look more like home. Which I guess meant smaller buildings, homey common rooms and less brick/concrete.<br>
Hands down Avon Old Farms dorms were the best we saw. Not the biggest (I'd say St. Paul's were the biggest) but the most home-like and really cool. Harry Potter like buildings, all wood work in the buildings - just really made the MOM in me feel good about the possibily sending my son there. If it reminded me of college (somehow they even smelled like college!) I didn't like it.<br>
Deerfield's philosphy on single rooms is that most kids do not share a room at home so they shouldn't have to at school.</p>

<p>All of our tours we were with my son (we did 10). One we had another family with us.<br>
The one tour that we had to knock on doors to find an open room, I did not think was "cute" like Olivia did. I thought it was unorganized and it was horrible that we walked in on a girl sleeping. I would not have been happy to have been the sleeping girls parents to hear that a boy and his family walked into her dorm room while she was asleep. All the schools but one (it was not Choate) had specific rooms to visit that the tour guides had a key to.</p>

<p>The room we saw at Loomis was very, very small. Not at all like Choate. Are there different sizes??</p>

<p>Linda - We thought that Avon had really cool dorms also. The whole school had that close knit feeling. Now if they only had girls...</p>

<p>SPS:
There are 18 houses (dorms) of which 9 are boys houses and 9 are girls houses. The average house has 30 students in it. The houses range in architecture, size, location, etc. Each has a unique character. All houses have a common room, kitchen, and study pod. </p>

<p>Rooms within a house tend to be set up similarly although come in different sizes. Rooms get significantly larger as you get older. Some are absolutely enormous (think Kehaya House) with floor to ceiling windows and a loft, while others are well, tiny (think Kitt). A more average room would be found in a Quad dorm or Nash. To give you an idea of size, all singles with a few exceptions are able to fit (comfortably) a bed, desk & chair, bureau, bookcase and a two person couch. </p>

<p>As a third former you can request a single or double - I'm not sure how often the request is granted. However, once you are in the school it is almost always possible to get a single if you want one. I think there are about the same number of singles and doubles on campus.</p>

<p>In general, dorms will vary within a school. This is because the dorms were built at different times. Usually dorm policies on what to bring will not -- so you should ask if you can bring a refrigerator, microwave, tv, etc. Also important is the spirit within the dorm which will vary by dorm master. Some schools have dorm competitions; others do not. When you see a dorm on your tour, you can ask if it is typical. This is also a good question to email your tour guide about if you want to know more now. It would be sad to eliminate a school because you saw an atypical dorm room. According to my son, at Blair they select a number of dorm rooms for viewing, but it is up to the tour guide to select which one to show on the tour. This is probably the typical approach many schools take. When we did our tours, I remember there were a few schools in which we were shown random dorms because of various problems/availabilities. When you do your revisits, you can ask to see more dorms. Applicants will most likely shadow a current student or students and be introduced to a dorm during a free period.</p>

<p>Daughter went to Loomis. She always had tiny rooms, not very nice. Yet some of her friends had very spacious ones. There is quite a variation.</p>