<p>Hey everyone! I'm officially a Vassar student, class of 2015! I'm incredibly excited to be a part of the wonderful community there. Unfortunately, when I visited I was unable to view a dorm room so I have no idea what they look like. I've been given the impression that they're on the small side, which is understandable. I was wondering if anyone knew which house had the most spacious dorms and nicest bathrooms (in general), which ones have been recently renovated (within the past 4 years or so), and which ones are known for being on the quieter side. </p>
<p>Josselyn fits all your interests except perhaps the last part about being on the quieter side. However, you can sign up to live in a wellness hall, which can help a bit. The quieter dorms are Raymond and Strong.</p>
<p>Oh forgot to mention that Davison is also quite nice (renovation just finished last year). The rooms used to be kinda sad, but now they’re pretty roomy. Downside is they don’t really have closets, just this weird open nook in the wall where you can hang stuff, aside from a drawer set. In Joss (and I believe most other dorms) you would get both. Davison rooms also don’t have mirrors. </p>
<p>However, from my experience its also pretty loud.</p>
<p>There is a general rule of thumb that the non quad dorms are much quieter than the quad dorms because there is less traffic between dorms and you can’t hear any noise overflow from another quad dorm if there is a party there. So Joss, Noyes and Cushing are generally quieter (Strong is very quiet, though, and also holds the least number of students). Cushing probably has the most classical character - leaded windows, etc, but Noyes has a character all of it’s own… Jewett and Davison are the most recent renovations (Davison about a year ago, Jewett re-opened in 2007).</p>
<p>I think most of the dorms have an equal number of really big rooms and really small ones. Theoretically, the bigger rooms are doubles (or triples) and the smaller ones are singles, but that doesn’t always happen. There are always a couple of tiny freshman doubles, and sometimes there are huge ones…</p>
<p>Hey guys. I’m curious. How does the whole house selection process work? Do they send us the package in May or what? Because I sent my deposit, and I have yet to receive any such package.</p>
<p>Ok. I am a current Vassar student and I need to clear some things up in this thread. Please, if you don’t know what you are talking about, don’t post information in the thread because it can be very misleading.</p>
<p>@Chii…I live in Davison. Every double has 2 closets. Most singles have the closet “nook” in the wall however some singles have closets. All freshmen in Davi live in double, so they will have closets. please don’t spread stuff about our dorm that could turn people off to it, when in fact, your information is incorrect.</p>
<p>If you want to live in a quiet area, you should definitely pick strong or a wellness/quiet hall. Dorms are definitely quiet on weekday nights but if you insist on quiet on weekend nights too, every dorm will have its fair share of noise, even some of the “quieter” dorms like cushing/noyes.</p>
<p>also @treehugging, you cannot pick your dorm at all unless you are female and ask for all female housing (strong) or request a quiet or wellness hall (which could be in any dorm)</p>
<p>@zak you will get a form over the summer with 4 simple questions that ResLife uses to pair you with a roommate. you can also request quiet/wellness/female options on this form, but you cannot request a specific dorm</p>
<p>@Cre90 - back when I was submitting my form there was a question something like, “anything else you want us to know?” where I put what dorm I wanted to be in. I got it. Who knows if that is why, though.</p>
<p>I also would reiterate that if you want quiet, you should say you want to be in a “wellness” or “quiet” hall. It won’t guarantee quiet - It’s still college and it’s still communal living - but in general people respect the space. This is especially true since they mostly are near the area in the dorm where the House Fellows live - sometimes on the hall, sometimes above them - and, especially if they have small children, no one wants to bother them. </p>
<p>Also, to take a peak inside the renovations, you can go to the builder’s site. This is the Davison page, but they also have one for Jewett, and for the Town Houses and Terrace Apartments (both for seniors) They also have photos around their site of a ton of Vassar buildings that have recently and not so recently been renovated or constructed (all different architects, same building firm). [Davison</a> House - Academic, Residence Halls](<a href=“http://www.kirchhoff-consigli.com/projects2.php?proj_id=56&cat_id=1&subcat_id=3]Davison”>Construction company | General contractor | Consigli)</p>
<p>Cre90 there’s no need to be rude and I did not intend to “spread stuff” about Davison. Apologies for the mix-up about the closets in Davison, however, when I was living there right after renovation (YES, I lived there too for a year), all the rooms my friends and I had were singles without closets. This is something to consider, since after freshman (sometimes sophomore) year many people do not want to live in doubles. And if they choose to seek a single, they should know that they may not get what a lot of other dorms have in terms of storage space if their draw number is not high enough.</p>
<p>I have to say that out of all the dorms, Cushing and Noise are the quietest. Joss actually gets relatively loud, and i’ve been there on the weekends trying to sleep and its not peaceful AT ALL. Joss is nice as far as the rooms go, and so is davison. Joss has larger rooms, but as far as cleanliness goes, out of the two i would say davi is a bit better. But just so you know, other dorms that haven’t been renovated in the past 4 years are still nice. Noise and cushing have great character, and while it’s not as new or large as joss or davi, cushing is BEAUTIFUL and has tons of character and pride. Noise is pretty much the same, but without the awesome gothic architecture. If you need a helpful overview of all the dorms, i really like this article by the misc…</p>
<p>lol sorry guys, I just realized I spelled Noyse wrong. but so you know…Noyse generally has no Noise. tehehehehehe…such a bad joke, but also a terrible spelling error on my part. sorry!</p>
<p>Looking for bigger rooms, on the quieter side, and newly renovated? Check out Jewett Wellness. If that is not your thing, I feel Noyes has some pretty big rooms, and is pretty quiet.</p>
<p>Yes, there are singles in Main. Freshmen aren’t assigned to them and I don’t know how easy it is to get one as a rising sophomore. I know Jewett rising sophomores were told to expect a double next year.</p>
<p>It varies year to year depending on number of juniors going JYA, how many are staying in the forms, how many sophomores are in each house, how many freshmen need doubles… the only real guarantee for a single sophomore year is if you live in Strong.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>You do not get to choose your house freshman year. You can as a sophomore, but you are put at the bottom of that house’s room draw.</p></li>
<li><p>Singles vary from house to house. As kayneu said, Strong is easy for singles because there are typical several vacant rooms. In Noyes, it is harder as a sophomore to get a double than it is to get a single. It really depends on the house’s structure and freshman population size.</p></li>
<li><p>Houses are NOT something to worry about going in. They all have their pros and cons, and you will probably feel deep pride for your house regardless. One may have great bathrooms but cramped rooms, another may have a tight sense of house-wide community but not as tight fellow groups, etc.</p></li>
</ol>