<p>DD is off on her gap year, so I will ask, cause its never too soon. Since we put down our deposit in June (2010) and she will not attend till fall 2011, she should get first dibs on dorms, right? </p>
<p>What are the "best" freshman dorms. Nicest, closest, biggest rooms, etc, etc. Also, since she will be coming off a gap year, maybe a dorm that has a mix of freshmen and sophmores would be nice?</p>
<p>We had a discussion on the freshman dorms a few months ago. It may help you to take a look at that:</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/rensselaer-polytechnic-institute/889074-residence-hall-selection-need-some-help.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/rensselaer-polytechnic-institute/889074-residence-hall-selection-need-some-help.html</a></p>
<p>I do not know if she would get first dibs on dorms. Maybe give the Admissions Office a call on that one?</p>
<p>The Quad would have a mix of freshman and upperclassman, as I guess BARH would, too.</p>
<p>Maybe cache will chime in, since he (she?) is there now.</p>
<p>If she wants a mix of freshman and upperclassmen, her options are BARH and Quad. I would suggest Quad - it has air conditioning, and is very close to the academic buildings. BARH is close to the athletic fields, and has its own dining hall, but a far walk from the rest of campus. If she wants to be with all freshmen, there are 5 dorms on freshman hill - Hall, Nason, Cary, Crockett, and Barton. The first four are all the same - double rooms, floor bathroom, and Barton is newer, has air conditioning and has triples with suite baths.</p>
<p>Quad is (from my understanding) now freshman/sophomore only, so that sounds like it could be a safe bet. It’s also smack in the middle of campus, making it easy to get places quickly. I lived there for two years and would have stayed a third had there been no class restrictions on the place.</p>
<p>BARH is pretty far from the main campus, so I really didn’t look into it that much. I heard that the dining hall is good, but the distance is just too much of a hassle for me to have cared to deal with it (I preferred to move off campus instead, so I didn’t even bother checking if I could transfer there from quad). It’s definitely less distant from freshman hill than it is from the rest of the campus, so at least there’s some potential for social interaction with other incoming students.</p>
<p>Among the residence halls on freshman hill, Barton is almost surely the nicest available dorm (I don’t think the absolute newest buildings such as Blitman are available to incoming students, though I could be wrong). The rooms are spacious and, importantly, there is good air conditioning. The other dorms are older and require you to bring a powerful fan if you wish to stay cool in your room. All rooms on freshman hill are approximately equidistant from the rest of campus.</p>
<p>Among these, I’d recommend trying to go for Barton. Your daughter might be a year older than the rest of the students, but it’s still definitely a good idea to try to join friendship cliques before they solidify, which is going to be easier to do with freshman as opposed to with upperclassmen.</p>