I know that it is far upper campus, but if placed in Sutherland Hall will I be able to socialize and get to know everyone. I know it’s much easier at Towers or something more centrally located, but Sutherland is just far from where everything would be going on.
My son was in Sutherland Honors this year and so socialized more with his fellow Sutherland residents, though he also made friends in his outside activities and had friends in Towers. Based on what he’s said, I think that it’s fair to say that if you are in Towers you will indeed be more in the thick of things. At the same time, there are still a lot of residents in Sutherland and you will have no shortage of opportunities to socialize. Also, the campus is not that spread out so I don’t think you’re isolated in Sutherland.
My DS lived in Sutherland and made a ton of friends and several are his friends still now…5 years later! Sutherland is a huge dorm and kids who want to participate in activities on Forbes and Fifth just jump on the shuttle. Sutherland is a much nicer dorm, bigger rooms, etc, than the towers so I highly recommend it based on his experience. There are a lot of threads that talk about the different dorms, so you can just search by the name of the dorm to see previous discussions.
I’m a rising senior, lived there in 2013-14. The shuttle and various walking routes down the hill made the distance seem like nothing to me. Though I made some friends who lived in the same building (I was in East, though I hung out with people from West as well), I spent quite a bit of time away and actually ended up making more friends who lived in all different places. Plus Sutherland probably has the best rooms of the first-year dorms.
I’ve probably been in Towers rooms…twice ever? Not often at all. But that’s largely a consequence of the people I met.