I’m looking for independent housing on west campus right now. I read some of the previous threads, but I need some more recent input since there is now construction/renovations going on in some of the west campus housing. I’m an incoming sophomore transfer, so I’m not too familiar with west campus housing. I know there are quads (like Craven, Crowell, Few, Edens, Kilgo, ect…) and those quads have independent houses within them. How do the independent houses work? Is it an organized community in which we’d be encouraged to interact through RAs or is it just a bunch of random independents living in one area with no one to spur interaction? Hopefully, I can get some input on the options I have in terms of independent housing on west campus. Also, opinions, recommendations, pros/cons, cautionary notes, personal experiences, and types of layouts regarding west campus housing would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
Lots of questions in this post so I’ll tackle a few but feel free to ask the same ones again.
Independent houses are in dorms (obviously). Dorms have more than one house (usually).
You live there dorm style (but some rare dorms have suites) with an RA in charge of your floor or maybe two floors. RAs plan events, sometimes for your house or sometimes for the entire dorm or entire “complex of dorms.” The Keohane dorms may have “Keohane Quad” events, for instance, that are for anyone that lives in Keohane 4A, 4B, 4D, and 4E (note that there is no 4C!). If you go to them, you can meet people and interact.
Do people interact much outside of these events? Not really in my experience. People live with no strings attached aka do everything at their own leisure; personally the reason why I LOVE independent housing. Also, a lot of independents are athletes with crazy schedules so you may not see some of them around often.
A little on each dorm:
*Yes, Craven/Crowell are getting renovated right now. Craven won’t be open anytime soon. Not sure about Crowell. They were known to be the “worst” dorms in terms of lack of AC and cockroaches. Hopefully, this will get fixed.
*Kilgo and Few have already been renovated and are quite nice.
*Wannamaker is also nice though some people didn’t use to like it because of its Substance Free label. I believe it only has one(?) house that’s substance free now, instead of two like in the past.
*Keohane and Edens are newer. Keohane 4E is imo the best dorm on campus due to its suite-style living, comfy common rooms, abundance of windows, and proximity to Bella Union, Pitchforks/Cafe Edens, and the basketball players that live there (if you care about this lol). Edens has an interesting layout to its living arrangment (not so much hallways–but that’s something to look at the blueprints for which you can find online with your netID). Main downside to Keohane and Edens (especially Edens) is how far away they are from the main quad. If you lived in Keohane 4A and 4B this wasn’t so much of an issue, but after construction started in Craven, the bridge that connected Keohane and Craven (and consequently the main quad) is useless.
Can anyone provide any information on Keohane 4A. The Shire House?
@whitney2018 What do you need to know?
what are the rooms like? Nice common area? Is it much older than other Keohane buildings?
Rooms are nice on west. Even though the buildings are old they have been refurbished. All have AC and nice large windows. Doubles are large enough to fit a sofa. Singles are smaller but still a good size.
Common areas are fairly nice as well.