<p>I'm trying to start figuring out how I want to decorate my dorm, and I had a few questions about the dorm rooms.</p>
<ol>
<li>Are the inside of the dorms basically the same in all colleges?</li>
<li>Are the floors carpet? Or wood? Or tile?</li>
<li>What color are the walls? Can you paint them?</li>
<li>What options to you have for hanging things on the walls? I know some places that don't like you nailing things in the walls, and other places that don't like you putting tape on the walls.</li>
<li>When you first get to your room, what do they have in the room for you?</li>
</ol>
<p>Also, does Rice allow co-ed suites?</p>
<p>I can’t answer all your questions but I can give you limited insight to what I do know.
I am only familiar with my daughters dorm:
She has a tile floor so definitely needed a rug.
Her walls were brick so you couldn’t paint them.
We used sticky tack to hang posters and hung stuff from the ceiling.
When we got there - she had a bunk bed, dresser, desk and closet. Also a recycle garbage can.
She said some suites are co-ed, I did not know this and did not see any.
This may not help if the dorms are all different, though. So maybe a student will answer with more info for you. Good luck, you will love it there~</p>
<p>^ I think ricehopkinsmom’s D must live where my S does :-).</p>
<p>The colleges are all different from each other, so there is no one size fits all answer. As anxious as you are to be there, I would wait to do much before meeting your roommate/suitemates and knowing where you are going to be, etc.</p>
<p>You’ll get lots of shopping opportunities especially your first week on campus.</p>
<p>To answer the poster’s original questions:
- No, definitely not. The room sizes and setups can vary widely. Some have their own bathrooms (McMurtry, Duncan), some are doubles with community bathrooms, quads and others. Many of the websites for the individual colleges have information about what types of rooms their college has. </p>
<ol>
<li><p>Again, depends on the college and the room you’re in. If you have allergies, you can be put in a hard-floor room, which can be wood or tile depending on the college. Some of the floors are a smoother concrete (not anything like a sidewalk, but kind of like a stone tile floor without any edges) that are easier to clean. </p></li>
<li><p>Wall color depends again on the college (they are usually solid, lighter colors) and you aren’t allowed to paint them. </p></li>
<li><p>Command hooks are useful for hanging up things, and many rooms have a long wood piece on them that you can nail/staple stuff to, but again it depends on the college/room. You can’t staple/nail the walls, but you can tape stuff to them (the tape won’t pull off paint unless you use some super sticky duck tape stuff). </p></li>
<li><p>As stated above, rooms have beds, dresser, closet, trash cans (including a recycling bin), phone and ethernet line. Most rooms have some sort of mirror in them as well. Some colleges have hangers that come with the rooms, and I know rooms that have an extra shelf thing, vanities, large window sills you can put stuff on.</p></li>
<li><p>Yes, Rice does allow coed suites, but I don’t know of any mixed suits where people share a double room. Any mixed suites I know are suites with separate bed areas (with their own door) and a shared common space/bathroom. I think mixed doubles are permitted, but I don’t know of anyone with that living arrangement.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>To elaborate on the coed question, I believe it is possible to have a coed room or suite. However, this is rare and as far as I know never happens with freshmen. You can choose after freshmen year who to room with and if you want a coed room or suite then you can choose a roommate (or roommates) who is of the opposite sex (as long as they want to room with you too). I imagine you’d be advised to think about if that is really what you want and would need to talk it over with the college coordinator or college masters.</p>
<p>Hey buddy area rugs give distinctive look and provide comfort and luxury to your living and work areas. Use jute, sisal or [shag</a> rug](<a href=“http://www.naturalarearugs.com/shag/]shag”>http://www.naturalarearugs.com/shag/) to decor your dorm.</p>
<p>Whatever college you’re in, you’re definitely not going to be allowed to paint the walls. My tour guide said rooms come with a bed, a desk and a dresser/nightstand thing with drawers. And a closet obviously.</p>
<p>Masking tape is good for hanging because it doesn’t mark the walls or pull paint off. I go to boarding school now and as someone else said, 3M command hooks are awesome. The bigger plastic ones make good coat/towel hanging spots while the smaller metal ones can hang pictures/things in frames.</p>
<p>On the contrary, some colleges (at least Martel) let you paint or wallpaper your walls, as long as you restore them to their original condition at the end of the year. For example:
[Home</a>, Suite Home - The Rice Thresher - Rice University](<a href=“http://www.ricethresher.org/home-suite-home-1.2980842]Home”>http://www.ricethresher.org/home-suite-home-1.2980842)</p>
<p>Co-ed suites are allowed. I know of one this year, and I’ll be living in one next year. In both of these situations, each individual has his or her own bedroom. As previous posters have said, it’s not common.</p>
<p>I’m not sure what the rules actually are for attaching things to the walls, but in practice anything goes. If you noticeably damage the wall, though, you’ll probably have to spackle over it or pay a fine or something.</p>
<p>Oh MAN. As an alum I try to refrain from coming here, but I just had to comment on how amazing that room looks in yessir17’s post (and for what it’s worth, that student also built a pineapple on Martel’s sundeck for Beer Bike: <a href=“https://twitter.com/thekaydays/status/313519345429016576/photo/1[/url]”>https://twitter.com/thekaydays/status/313519345429016576/photo/1</a> Dude is intense).
Anyway, my suite decided to paint our room at Martel last year a nice beige. We were fined like $40 each at the end of the year but thought it was worth it.
Here’s another painted Martel suite: [Rice</a> Cribs: Where the magic happens - The Rice Thresher - Rice University](<a href=“http://www.ricethresher.org/rice-cribs-where-the-magic-happens-1.2754192#.UUkDEBzks8U]Rice”>http://www.ricethresher.org/rice-cribs-where-the-magic-happens-1.2754192#.UUkDEBzks8U)</p>