<p>Er...from everything I've understood you can pick an A/C option on the housing forms because it costs more money.</p>
<p>There's no guarantee that you'll get one, is what SBR means.</p>
<p>If you could get a doctor's note stating that you have allergies and such then you could request A/C. I don't know how tough that is to get, but I know a bunch of people who got one. That said, that just implies you get an A/C room, not necessarily an A/C dorm.</p>
<p>As for bathrooms, they're cleaned daily (don't think so on weekends). Get used to shower shoes, but that applies to every shared dorm bathroom in the world.</p>
<p>in terms of dorms, there are 3 ac dorms: bell tower, blackwell and randolph. although these dorms are definitely nicer/newer, the room sizes are significantly smaller. ac's are definitely not required. as long as you bring a fan, you'll be fine in a non-ac dorm AND will probably have more space...in terms of bathrooms, all are pretty much the same i feel...theyre cleaned on weekdays as long as you wear flipflops youll be fine</p>
<p>which dorms looked like housing projects? (and my follow up question, which projects are you hanging around that you think a duke dorm looks like them?)</p>
<p>as for ac: i have bad allergies, i had a doctor's note to have ac. i was placed in a non-ac dorm with a personal ac unit. since then, i've always lived in ac dorms (but on west, they're much more common).</p>
<p>If you live on third floor, like I did in Bassett, you may want more than one fan. It gets hot.</p>
<p>Honestly, the dorms aren't that bad. I think I might even miss my east campus dorm next year. Yes, the newer dorms are air-conditioned, but Blackwell and Randolph rooms are TINY. The older dorms (main quad) have irregular shaped rooms and dormer windows on the third floor, but they have a cozy, unique feel to it. Plus, the closets are HUGE.</p>
<p>As someone who has lived on East Campus for two years in one of the older looking dorms on campus I have to say that it really doesn't matter. They are all still clean and as long as you take care of the bathroom and don't do anything stupid to it you should be fine. (the cleaning staff are all really good about keeping them clean, they just don't clean them on the weekends so don't do anything stupid like making a mess and not cleaning it up)</p>
<p>Also, while the facilities can sometimes look a little worn and used that is because college students live in these places and they use them. Any damage is usually cosmetic and you are hardly ever going to find the huge, new looking dorms that you see on TV at any college so a functional room is usually way better than a pretty room.</p>
<p>My d will be gone for the summer out of the country until she returns for Orientation, so I am trying to buy some things on my own that she will need. Should we go ahead and buy risers for the dorm bed, or wait and see what dorm she is in first? Will what we buy - extra chair, closet door mirrors, etc. - depend greatly upon the dorm? It appears there are a lot of different dorm room set-ups.</p>
<p>while dorm layouts are different, what you get in each dorm is standard across the board. while you will always have one mirror (usually face level on one closet door) it's never full length, so go ahead and pick one of those up now. as for bed risers, the beds in majority of dorms could use them (i used them freshman year) -- it just depends on whether or not the bed is a half loft, and i don't know if any dorm other than bell tower has half lofts, or whether or not you plan on lofting your bed. i bought mine before school and used them, so it's just a matter of personal preference. most dorm rooms can fit a comfy chair of some sort, so that could get picked up now as well.</p>
<p>Giles and Bassett have the new furniture which includes half loft beds. My room in Giles also had a full length mirror on the door.</p>
<p>Forever Blue - there is a Bed Bath Beyond north of the Duke campus in the North Pointe Shopping area. It takes less than 10 minutes to get there from East Campus.</p>
<p>You can do the preorder program - just go to the store in your area - pick out what you think your daughter will need. When you arrive in Durham the local store will have all the items you selected ready for you to pick up. You can return any item if they are unnecessary. This is much easier than shipping the items or trying to fit everything into suitcases, especially with the airline weight limits.</p>
<p>Store personnel are extremely well organized and the store is also well stocked inside. In retail terms the opening of school is their Christmas. In the same shopping area is a Costco, one of the big box hardware stores, a grocery store, restaurants, etc.</p>
<p>My D's room in Randolph had a full length mirror on the back of the door plus a small rectangular mirror at face level in the entry. Her closet had no doors - it was an open area right by the entry door with a shelf and rod for hanging clothes. We did find a divided shelving unit at Target that was an exact fit for the top shelf to make organizing items easier.</p>
<p>Each student had a bed, desk (a Pendaflex hanging folders set fits nicely in the bottom drawer), and chest of drawers. I would suggest you buy at least two extension cords that have the flat head for wall outlets - (cord is at the bottom of the plug in rather than the front). These are great for plugging into the outlets that are next to the beds.</p>
<p>Son was also in Randolph. We found that the stacking, plastic crates that we had packed things in, and which we hoped would work for storage, too, fit perfectly on the top shelf in the closet. We put them side by side, open side forward, and they functioned as divided shelves. S is tall, so we also put a second row above the first. (The ceilings in Randolph are very high.)</p>
<p>just started to use this again, thought i would post something. congrats all, go duke!</p>
<p>What is the premed track like? How does it differ from other top universities (Harvard/Yale/Princeton/UPenn/Johns Hopkins, etc.)?</p>