<p>I'm a possible JHU sophomore transfer. I'm confused with all this housing stuff. </p>
<ul>
<li><p>I'm wondering whether the "apartment style" rooms are really like. </p></li>
<li><p>Most social dorms - are there any specific transfer dorms? It doesn't seem like it from the info they sent. </p></li>
<li><p>What about the all-soph dorm (McCoy I think? and Bradford)</p></li>
<li><p>what's the point of the 11 month leases? do they start earlier or go later? this confuses me the most I guess. </p></li>
<li><p>How's the meal plan like? They sent very little info on this: are there meals in dinning halls every day? Are they any good?</p></li>
<li><p>any other housing/meal plan advice/horror stories would be GREATLY appreciated.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Hey, I'm a rising sophomore at Hopkins. I can answer a few of your questions.</p>
<p>There are no specific transfer dorms. The dorms that sophomores will primilary live in are: Homewood, Bradford, McCoy, and Charles Commons. A lot of my friends chose to live in Charles Commons because it'll be brand new next year. Homewood (apartment-style) is apparently the nicest; however, it's also farther from campus than the other dorms. I didn't look into Bradford that much. I'm living in McCoy next year because it's the closest dorm to the main part of campus. Bradford and Charles Commons are still very close though.</p>
<p>The 11 month leases allow students to stay over the summer.</p>
<p>The food company will be changing next year from Sodexho to Aramark. I don't think the contract has started, so it remains to be seen whether the food is good. I've heard from some friends that Aramark isn't bad though.</p>
<p>Hope this helps, and good luck making your decision!</p>
<p>Hopkins hopes to get on the Princeton Review's best campus dining top 10 by 2008, and the switch to Aramark is supposed to be a major component of that initiative. As a sophomore on a meal plan, you'll eat meals at the new Charles Commons dining hall, which places an emphasis on made-to-order meals. This is definitely an improvement over the soon-to-be obsolete Wolman Station dining hall and its cafeteria-style food. Yes, there will be meals everyday, and as a sophomore, you will have a choice of several "dining dollars" based meal plans. They really try to gouge you on prices with the meal plans, so get the cheapest one you can (you can always pay cash once your plan runs out, which is still cheaper than buying more dining dollars).</p>
<p>Apart from the all-freshman dorms, JHU no longer has all-sophomore housing. Upperclassmen now have the option of living on-campus and many chose to excercise that option for 06-07, snapping up prime real-estate in Homewood and Bradford (apartment-style living). There are floorplans and photos of dorms on the JHU housing website (jhu.edu/~hds). </p>
<p>kattal - My S is a soph Hopkins transfer and we found the Housing info a little confusing also. You can call the # listed in the housing letter and these folks are VERY helpful. One was a student and spent a lot of time answering questions about what the dorms were like, etc. as well as the factual qx re 11 mo/9mo/"vacation" leases. She also explained about dining dollars vs. # meal plans and the pros and cons. I suggest you call.</p>
<p>If you don't want an 11-month lease, then I think your choices are McCoy and Charles Commons. Since they're drastically changing their food service (I think), it would be hard to predict how the food will be based on past experience. We did find out that using your dining dollars at the main cafeteria costs $10/meal, whether the meal is breakfast/lunch or dinner. But if you use them at the more ala carte places, you wouldn't pay so much for the smaller meals. So you probably wouldn't want to use them at the main caff, if your idea of breakfast is a piece of toast and coffee ;).</p>
<p>kattal -- the responses you have gotten so far are excellent, and I hope you find them quite helpful. </p>
<p>I'd also suggest that you access the information about Housing and Dining on the Admitted Student websit (<a href="http://apply.jhu.edu/admitted/)%5B/url%5D">http://apply.jhu.edu/admitted/)</a>, as a lot of your questions have been addressed. You can also access student descriptions of their own dorms (with pictures) in the Insider's Guide section.</p>
<p>And oh yeah, definitely follow jmmom's advice and call the Housing Office (410-516-8282) as they are quite helpful in explaining how everything works for transfers.</p>