<p>Can anyone discuss general info about housing at tufts? For example, how are the dorms socially? Do most people study in their rooms or in the library? Also, I have heard that most friend groups originate from the people living on their hallway, how true is this? Lastly, are any Freshman dorms significantly better than others?</p>
<p>Housing, housing. This is such an interesting and diverse question that you are almost certainly going to get seven opinions from any five people you ask.</p>
<p>The bottom line is that it depends. The dorms themselves are not the greatest compared to other schools, but to really see that you have to visit a couple of schools and get friends of yours to show you around the dorms.</p>
<p>A lot of friend groups do originate on the hall. But it varies. I know people who met more than half of their friends freshman year through their hall or floor, but it was probably only 15% for me. The same goes for where people study. I would say that most folks study in their room (often with doors open if you have a good floor) or common room / hallway, but there are definitely some people who swear by the library, dining hall or campus center. The latter might be more of an upperclassmen phenomenon though; I’m not sure.</p>
<p>There are four all-freshman dorms: Houston and Hill (uphill) and Tilton and Haskell (downhill). They all have their pros and cons: Houston doesn’t have good common rooms and has communal bathrooms, but probably has one of the best environments of the four. Hill is like Houston, if a bit nicer and larger, but is comparatively farther from the rest of campus (which honestly means 150 seconds farther than Houston, but folks get lazy). Tilton IMO is the best of the four, with good common rooms and several unisex single-person bathrooms, though the rooms are a bit smaller. Haskell is arranged in ten person suites, which is just different. Folks often become really tight with their suite, but not always, and I’m not sure if it’s a good idea or not to put freshman in suites like that. If you ask for a freshman dorm and get it, you get randomly assigned to one of the four.</p>
<p>There are a bunch more dorms that house freshmen: Miller, South, Bush, Hodgdon, and Lewis. Miller, the sole other uphill one, is arranged like Houston but I think it is much nicer. It also has very excellent common rooms. Half of it is sophomores. South is the largest dorm and is filled with sophomores and a couple of juniors too. South is being renovated now and was last year as well, so it has gotten a bit better in recent years. There is nothing especially terrible about it, but it’s not fantastic. Bush and Hodgdon are not very good, dorm-quality wise. I’m sure the floors are just as friendly as say, Miller, but you really have to go there to see what I mean. And Lewis used to be pretty terrible until they renovated it, but now it looks rather nice. </p>
<p>You are almost certainly going to get a double as a freshman, but there is a very very small chance that you will get a single or a triple. I know the brief description of the dorms don’t help all that much, but that’s because it’s really hard to convey what the feel of them is over the Internet. You’re best off visiting to really get a proper impression.</p>
<p>Wow… thank you for that response that was very helpful. Also, does anyone know when the housing survey will be up on the student connections page?</p>
<p>Ah, you’re attending Tufts in the fall. I thought you were a rising senior. Looking through my email, looks like I received the housing questionnaire in late June and it was due by the end of June. Classic ResLife; they delay a heck of a long time and only give you a few days to reply.</p>
<p>Two more dorms that I forgot somehow: Metcalf and Richardson. Richardson is pretty small and is all-female. I’m a guy and I have never had any friends live there to my knowledge, so I can’t help you out there. Metcalf is pretty decent as far as the quality of the building goes, but it feels like the dorm was built haphazardly. There isn’t a ton of floor community there I don’t think, and I’m not sure if the Bridge Program is really all that active still.</p>
<p>My son was in Miller as a freshman and he really liked the common rooms on the floors. They were big and had good furniture. He was in South as a sophomore and had the world’s worst double. He couldn’t sit up in his bed without hitting the ceiling and there were two desk drawers to store clothes and no bookcase at all. Horrible room. The common rooms were small and badly furnished as well. (At least on the top floor.) It’s a relatively new building, I’m suprised it’s being renovated, but maybe they’ll recognize that room my son was in should have been a single. He was (and is) in Metcalf for a summer job. It’s old and rabbit warreny. The lighting is weird and some of the fluorescents flicker annoyingly. He was in Lewis earlier this summer. I didn’t notice the floor lounges. There’s a big lounge on the ground floor, that you can’t see because it’s behind a concrete wall that stops just above my eye level. Not very welcoming!</p>
<p>South has gotten quite a lot nicer as of late. I had freshman friends this past year in there and they both liked it a lot. A little small, but some creative organization got them through it. But yes, that’s definitely one thing about South that’s a little unique: the rooms vary a LOT in size. I don’t think the renovations are huge–walls and carpets for the most part.</p>
<p>Miller and Metcalf…you’re entirely right. I was being far too charitable to Metcalf.</p>
<p>Any recommendations on off campus housing? My D starts Grad School in fall.
My impression is that Medford is cheaper and quiet, but not many stores. Looks like it would be better to be in Somerville halfway between Davis and campus or maybe between Teele Sq. and campus.
Parking is important too…is it easy or difficult with only street parking with many places. Thanks. Any pointers appreciated.</p>
<p>Not sure what’s available this late in the game, but I’m sure all the graduate students do something. Start with [url=<a href=“http://www.tuftslife.com/]TuftsLife[/url”>http://www.tuftslife.com/]TuftsLife[/url</a>]</p>
<p>Thanks for the quick response. Not much on Tuftslife. Looking at Craig’s list and will try and meet with a realtor hopefully this weekend. Any neighborhood pointers or areas to avoid??</p>
<p>Parking is much easier in Medford as most streets have free public parking (in Somerville all streets require a permit or are metered).</p>
<p>The Tufts housing market operates in a strange bubble where June leases for the vast majority of houses with any proximity to campus are signed between September and December of the previous year. As a result, most grad students I know of tended to live further from campus in neighborhoods like Medford Square or Magoun Square.</p>
<p>Street parking in Somerville is pretty cheap; I think it’s probably about $30/month.</p>
<p>The problem with street parking in Somerville (from my understanding) is that your car needs to be registered at your Somerville address in order to get a parking pass. This can be a nuisance depending on how long you plan to live there and whether you or your parents (or somebody else entirely) owns the car. I’ve heard that registering your car in Somerville can also cause a spike in insurance rates.</p>
<p>Ah, that probably is true. My only experience with this is with friends of mine who have graduated and are staying in Somerville.</p>
<p>TuftsStudent you were right, it is 10 days before the survey is due and the link is still not available.</p>