Trying to decide which residence hall to apply to at UIUC. Can anyone help?

<p>Ok so I have a few questions about housing at UIUC and housing in general. I am an incoming freshman for the Class of 2017 and just accepted my offer of admission to the College of Business, now searching for a hall to apply to. </p>

<p>My first question is something I see lots of things about on the internet, but I'm still confused. What exactly is a single room? Does it mean that you're all on your own or is it like sharing an apartment with someone where you have a bedroom of your own and you share a kitchen& a bathroom with your roommate? Having my own bedroom but sharing the rest with another person is what I want. Do we have that option at UIUC? </p>

<p>What about the bathrooms? How many people do you share the bathroom with? Does it depend on the type of room youre staying in? If so, how?</p>

<p>My other question is about the residence halls. I did a little research and it seems like Barton Hall is what I'm looking for since I will be staying in a women's hall for sure. How is it in terms of location, daily life and other stuff? I will be attending the College of Business so I would like my dorm to be fairly close to it. I would also like to be in a dorm that isnt isolated and there's stuff going on. I would like to be in the Champaign side of the campus as well. Stuff like wifi, a gym nearby, etc. are also fairly important to me but also places where I can study properly.</p>

<p>So can anyone help me with these questions? I would really appreciate if any of you have experience living in Barton or another womens residence in UIUC that you can recommend based on the things that I'm looking for? Also, I am an international student if that makes any difference.</p>

<p>Thank you so much in advance!</p>

<p>You have lots of questions, but here are the answers I can give you based on my daughter’s ongoing quest to answer similar questions. Plus, I live in UIUC residence halls years ago.</p>

<p>Note, all answers apply to university residence halls only. Private housing can be similar or different.</p>

<p>A single is a room with a bed a desk and a closet. in the University residence halls you don’t have a private bath. You have a community bathroom down the hall. These are all single sex. The disadvantage is a little less privacy than an in room bath. But, you quickly get over that because you realize everyone else is worried about themselves and not paying attention to you. The advantage of the community bathroom is that somebody else cleans it–daily. Some of the private residence halls have in room suite baths. Generally you are sharing with three other girls and need to clean it yourself.</p>

<p>I am not sure why you want a single, I am sure you have your reasons. However, they are very limited in availability. Most people live in a double. The advantage of a double is that hopefully you make a new friend and you also generally have someone to help pick you up when you are feeling down. You also get the benefit that your roommate’s friends potentially become your friends.</p>

<p>As far as staying in a women’s dorm, Barton is the only all women’s option offered by the university. There might be private options too, but we never investigated that. There are plusses and minuses to being all women. But, be aware that unlike some other schools, so called coed university residence halls have some separation between the sexes. They are either coed by floor (i.e. first floor male, second floor female), or coed by hall (i.e. Hall 1 North is male, 1 South is Female). You will not find mixes of male and female rooms on the same hall.</p>

<p>You mentioned that you are going to be in business. Most business students either go for private housing (generally Bromley) or the “six pack” (officially Ikenberry Commons North or South). These are also the most social dorms on campus. People in the six pack come from all over, there are tons of freshman and everyone is looking to make new friends. All it takes is walking up to somebody and saying, “hi my name is girlabouttown.”</p>