<p>@burnitblue: I have a friend that lives in MacGregor C-entry. She seems to really enjoy it. Just so you know, each entry at MacGregor has a distinctively different personality. Be sure to explore all the dorms during REX and if you end up with MacGregor anyways, be sure to explore all the entries.</p>
<p>I had put Next as my first choice but got New House 2 (my second choice). But I’m not actually committed to any dorms like some of my friends even I like Next a lot. So, what can any one tell me about New House as I didn’t get to experience it at all except walk up and down the stairs? How are the people there? Cooking facilities? Etc?</p>
<p>Keep in mind that even among those of you who don’t switch dorms, most of you will end up switching halls/entries/floors. :)</p>
<p>To the person who asked about 5W, EC - in my time (I graduated in 2007), 5W was sociable but not particularly loud, with a lot of intramural sports participation and a lot of athletes in general. Lots of (video) gamers, too.</p>
<p>Yeah, jessiehl’s description of 5W is still pretty true.</p>
<p>In general, everyone, PARTICIPATE IN RUSH!! Rush is fun, you get free food, and you get to meet upperclassmen and figure out where you’d fit best. In-dorm rush too! Don’t let stereotypes you hear about the dorms and/or halls stop you from visiting them and seeing for yourself.</p>
<p>Seriously, I cannot second Star* enough. Visit ALL the dorms. Don’t just participate in events and eat food, TALK to the upperclassmen, get a feel for their personality. Ask for dorm tours! Only then will you end up with the best dorm for YOU.</p>
<p>thanks jessie, sounds cool! which floors of EC are typically louder/quieter?</p>
<p>i’m definitely going to explore during REX, i’m just curious :)</p>
<p>I’m thirding Star* here. I don’t care how well you think you know where you want to be - you should at least see what you’re missing. (Also, for some reason, quite a few prefrosh seem to be under the impression that telling people you <em>really really</em> want to live in their living group and <em>you’re absolutely sure that you have eyes for no other place</em> will impress the upperclassmen. It doesn’t.)</p>
<p>Piper’s right, it just drives us crazy. I don’t care if you <em>know</em> you love a dorm, do us all a favor and CHECK OUT EVERY DORM! There might just be a dorm that you love even more, and if not, at least you’ll be sure. Nothing sucks more than getting a prefrosh who KNEW THEY LOVED THEIR TEMPT DORM, only to realize during the year that they would’ve been happier somewhere else. </p>
<p>Also, talking to upperclassmen is really important during this process. A lot of the dorms are slightly exaggerated during rush (for instance, EC doesn’t always have crazy parties / roller coasters in the courtyard), so just wandering around yourself is often not enough to get a good sense of a dorm. This is especially true about volume level / social level you see during rush. </p>
<p>A good idea is to figure out before-hand what’s important to you in a living group, and ask upperclassmen specific questions to help figure out if you’d be happy there all year. Also, just get to know people and see if you could see yourself becoming good friends with them.</p>
<p>Jessie once mentioned (on a blog, I think?) that you should pick a living group based on who you want to become. I think that’s pretty sound advice. You may be one of those people (I know I was) who found lots of living groups to be awesome places. It’s not as though you’ll find one place where everyone is awesome and then hate everyone who isn’t on your floor/in that dorm/on your “side” of campus. </p>
<p>Jus’ sayin’ :)</p>
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<p>This is VERY generalized, and possibly out of date (I still have a lot of undergrad friends and am on campus a fair amount, but I haven’t <em>lived</em> in EC for over two years).</p>
<p>The rule of thumb for most of my undergrad career was that the even-numbered halls in the west parallel and the odd-numbered halls in the east parallel were loud, and the others were quiet. By the end of my undergrad career, 2E had become a lot more active. Still not sure it’s considered “loud”, though, just active.</p>
<p>Of course, this presents loud/quiet as a binary, when it is actually a spectrum. 3E had a rep as the loudest hall (I suspect that they will not be offended by my saying that :D), and 4E or 3W as the quietest. Again, this could have changed (and also, loud/quiet is only one variable among MANY in hall culture). Explore the halls yourself.</p>
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<p>Yeah, I just want to stress this. There are always incoming frosh who think that they should show their love for a living group, possibly the one they are temped in, by hanging out there ALL the time, telling anyone who suggests that they should get out more that there’s no need because they <em>couldn’t possibly</em> choose anywhere else. They think their devotion is endearing. It isn’t, trust me. This is, in fact, a fantastic way to get a bad reputation very quickly. Upperclassmen put a lot of effort into making sure that the administration allows dorm rush and hall rush to continue to exist, because they believe in the idea of student choice in housing. They also put a lot of effort into putting on cool rush stuff for the frosh, which is pointless if the frosh aren’t exploring, or aren’t open to moving. They don’t want you sabotaging their efforts.</p>
<p>Not to beat the dead horse too much or anything…but as someone who was insane enough to be her dorm’s Rush Chair TWICE (and I mean insane, I should probably be institutionalized for that…)…well I just can’t resist taking one swing at the dead horse.</p>
<p>OMG PARTICIPATE IN REX. VISIT EVERY DORM/HALL/FLOOR/WING/ENTRY YOU POSSIBLY CAN. IF YOU DO NOT, I WILL BE VERY ANGRY.</p>
<p>=)</p>
<p>Seriously, upperclassmen know how important it is, and that’s why they put ridiculous effort into Rex. Don’t let their efforts go to waste. Cuz that’s just plain mean. =P</p>
<p>East Campus 3W :)</p>