<p>I will most likely be in Cambridge Hall next year, and I'm wondering how nice the dorms are overall compared to other dorms at Maryland. Is the furniture/bed moveable in the room, and will there be air conditioning (I know it didn't have it before, but I heard they were all getting air conditioning by next year). And, is the Cambridge Community center a real dining hall? Any of you who live there or will be living there/in Cambridge community, please just list your thoughts.</p>
<p>The high risers are all concrete so pretty standard prison cells (note that I’m being a bit dramatic in my description for humor sake) that are part of the freshman experience. The nicer dorms are for upperclassmen. Cambridge happens to one of the smaller ones, like Chestertown and BelAir, so it is easier to get to know more people in your dorm. There is a decent lounge on the first floor to hang out in that also has a microwave and a sort of kitchen area. </p>
<p>Yes, you can arrange the furniture any way you and your roommate want. If you want to loft your bed, you have to go through the official service that does this, but other than that, you do every other arrangement on your own. You get a bed, a dresser and a desk for each roommate.</p>
<p>It is premature to respond to the air conditioning question, but trust me, you will survive even if it isn’t. Just get a large room fan plus a small clip on fan for your headboard. The lounge, as mentioned in the first paragraph, is definitely already air conditioned, so a good place to hang out or study in.</p>
<p>The Cambridge Community Center used to have a dining hall and dinner theatre in my tenure, which pre-dates the scholars community. It has been totally revamped. Now it has classrooms and meeting spaces as well as what is affectionately referred to as “the incon” which is a convenience store that basically is INCONvenient to anyone not living in the Cambridge Community due to limited hours. It’s a pretty well-equipped store for all the essentials - kinda like 7-11 - toothbrush/laundry detergent/munchies/frozen foods/over the counter meds, etc.</p>
<p>The Cambridge Community is probably one of the worst communities to live in. Few of them have air conditioning (besides Cumberland) and some of them don’t have elevators (ex. bel air). </p>
<p>Location wise, it’s pretty optimal. It’s close to the incon, eppley, and classes. The diner is a few minute walk away, and 251 is a distance but you won’t be going there very often anyway. </p>
<p>Almost all freshman/scholars live in cambridge community so you’ll have a great community nonetheless. The A/C situation is what everyone says. It’s TERRIBLE the first 2-3 weeks, it’s smoltering hot and you’ll beg for A/C, but after that, it’s completely normal. I live in a non-AC dorm, and I find that I rarely wish for A/C.</p>
The dorms on campus are absolutely awful. You would find better living conditions if you were to live on the streets College Park. It might even be safer to live in the inner city; they at least have a more responsive and efficient police force. On day one, you will find yourself surrounded by smiling and enthusiastic faces, but as soon as week 1 goes by, everyone’s true character will be revealed. Most of these students will abuse their new freedom and party nonstop for the first couple of weeks. And this only means that the bathrooms will be riddled with last night meals and beer, that will be stuck to the floors and stalls of the bathroom for days at a time, giving the bathroom a strong pungent smell. And since you are now on college, drugs will make a comeback as if it were the 60s and 70s all over again. Drug dealers can be found at every door on your floor, and if that’s what you’re into, then you are in for a good time. Besides the readily available and abundant supply of a cornucopia of drugs on the floor, most of the dorm faculty, including RAs, are oblivious to the massive presence of drugs and alcohol on the floor, so most people on the floor abuse this freedom. And if you are one of the few people that are not susceptible to peer pressure, your roommates might not be as strong willed. Your room will become a “hot box” and a party room for all sorts of recreational activities, so good luck with studying while your roommates are distracting you with loud music, drugs, and alcohol. So after a couple of days, you might try to wash your clothes but once after you have placed them through the dryer for a cycle you will discover that your clothes are no more dry than when they were first placed into the dryer. Of course, nothing i perfect, so you might try another machine, but then you will realize that all of the machines are broken, only after paying $1.25 for each failed attempt. Now that you have exhausted all of your options, you will be forced to hang up all of your clothes around your room, making your room resemble a favela from the city of Rio de Janiero. I mean if that’s what you like waking up to every morning, then on-campus housing is the place for you. However, even if you decide to complain to the front desk, you will find that no one actually cares that all of the machines and facilities in the dorm buildings are broken. Emails are never responded to and even the most polite reasonable questions are met with nothing from the dorm faculty. And as previously mentioned, dorm rooms closely resemble prison cells. With the whitewashed cinder block walls, every resident experiences what it feels like to go to prison. Three to four people will get crammed into a room that should only fit two or only one person. With a lot of people and very little space, conflicts are only bound to arise, and remember that you have to live with your “friendly” roommates for at least a semester. When you are paying upwards of $6500 for a poorly maintained dorm, you might as well live in the library. At least there you can find some peace and quiet! I would never recommend to anyone to live on campus because it will only bring horrible memories that will haunt you for the rest of your life. Live off campus or go to a better college that actually cares about the lives of students. Ever since UMD joined the Big Ten, the adminsitration stopped caring about the students and started focusing on athletics rather than student life. Good luck with UMD!
umdterps18, it sure sounds like you have had a horrible experience at UMD . I can only offer the flip side to your experience and let others know that my daughter was a freshman last year in Easton and had one of the best years of her life. Room was small but she and her roommate got along great, studied and socialized the appropriate amount, was able to do her wash in many of the numerous working machines and basically had the opposite experience of EVERYTHING you described. She’s still friends with most of the people on her floor, too. Just wanted there to be another viewpoint under your post for prospective students.
Your experience doesn’t sound like fun, but let me tell you that it is the same in nearly 99% of other schools. You are not in a 5 star hotel, welcome to college dorms. Move and find something that works for you next year, you will learn from this experience.
I assume this was written for the humor. My son is a sophomore and says his room is the loudest on the floor when they are playing mario cart. He studies in his room and is a serious student and doesn’t complain, if anything he thinks the dorms are generally quiet (he is not in an honors dorm). When asked he will admit that kids throw up in the bathrooms sometimes but many if not most schools are going to have kids pushing their limit on alcohol. Just a note for living off campus, according to my son that is where all the real partying takes place so living close to campus in one of the private apartment buildings is not going to help you escape this. Also, from my time as an RA, I can tell you that every floor is different and every year the vibe of a dorm can change. So while most students at UMD likely have a pretty good experience there are always going to be exceptions. One last thought, many students choose to live in the dorms sophomore year, even the prison like high rises, so how bad can they really be?