Any Ivies w decent dorms

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've heard that Dartmouth is building new undergraduate housing, but yeah, they're mostly awful. Renovations sound great but on a compact campus they often mean that you'll spend multiple years in old nasty housing being woken up at 6:00 am by noisy construction in the dorms adjacent to yours...which will be open the year after you graduate.

My memories of Yale are totally defined by the shabby, dark and irregular quality of the housing. They've renovated a lot but it's still not great, especially because everyone pays the same amount but the luck of the housing lottery or willingness to submit fake doctor notes can make the difference between a stunning suite or a dumpy rathole.

Although residential colleges and dorm rooms were supposedly selected mostly randomly and only to balance things by geography, gender and interests, that was not the case. Inevitably the most well-off or connected students ended up in the most spacious, historically special or appealing 1st year suites. I understand that Harvard did things quite similarly. Not sure if others are more evolved.

My kid is in a beautiful new dorm at Cornell. There were a few new dorms built a couple of years ago, and one or two large dorms that are closed this year for renovation (which has caused a bit of a housing shortage), but should be really nice beginning next fall.

Schuyler?

[Anonymous]

Recent Yale grad here - a lot of the dorms have been renovated. When I was there, they were renovating one residential college per year.

I got to live in one of the renovated dorms and it was beautiful - new but retained a lot of its character. Also the college facilities were amazing - gym, a cinema, a cafe and a late night snack bar, a music room, dance studio, and lots of places to study and hang out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The newer dorms at Cornell are nice.

Which ones and how do you get it

Cornell assigns form to freshman randomly. You might get new or old. You can not request a specific one.

[Anonymous]

I went to my reunion at Cornell a couple years ago and they housed us in a brand new dorm. Ginsburg Hall, with a new dining hall adjacent to it. I found it a bit sterile tbh but it was definitely not shabby, nice common area on the first floor. Suite style with 1.5 bathrooms per suite of 6 (2 doubles and 2 singles). There was another new dorm right next to it. They have others that are new-ish—probably 15 years old at this point.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ugh, so many reasons not to go to Ivies. Luckily, equally small chance of being accepted!

I don’t think the chance of living in an older dorm for a year or two is a reason that many people use to not attend top schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Recent Yale grad here - a lot of the dorms have been renovated. When I was there, they were renovating one residential college per year.

I got to live in one of the renovated dorms and it was beautiful - new but retained a lot of its character. Also the college facilities were amazing - gym, a cinema, a cafe and a late night snack bar, a music room, dance studio, and lots of places to study and hang out.

Parent of current Yale student here and agree housing is all over the map. And in-house the residential college facilities are pretty lovely. My general sense is the parents care a lot more about this than the kids do ( this per Facebook page comments, some parents get really worked up about room dimensions etc and usually report later kid us perfectly happy.) I think what makes the teeny rooms on Old Campus feel fine is fact that most housing seems to be suite-style so they really do have plenty of space and only use their bedrooms for sleeping.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Princeton -- only bad ones are Rocky and Mathey.

Butler, Whitman, NCW/Yeh all very nice (some in Gothic style too) with AC.

Forbes debatable -- decent facilities, but far.

The rooms at Rocky and Mathey are nothing special but the buildings are beautiful from the outside.

Whitman, NCW, and Yeh are all pretty new. The worst was First but it’s getting torn down and Hobson should be nice when it’s finished in a few years.

See, this is just for visitors and proud parents. For the person living there, it doesn't help with daily problems.

I loved living in Holder Hall, which is part of Rocky. So beautiful!

[Anonymous]

Penn has two nice freshman dorms(Hill, Lauder) plus the older freshman quad dorms are halfway done with renovations and those will be nice soon. The upperclass dorms are a mix but not bad.

Ivies are old campuses. Dorms are never going to be the same glitz as the big southern schools. No one picks ivies for dorms. You pick it for the unparalleled education and outcomes and the state of the art research spaces.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You consider the Harvard houses not nice?

I liked the Harvard dorms just fine when I attended, and they've mostly been renovated since. I experienced historic and charming and newer and more comfortable. Both were great, but too bad the fireplaces were closed up (and the indoor swimming pool in Adams).

[Anonymous]

What a weird topic.

You don't go to college to live in luxury dorms. Having lived in genuinely crappy apartments in my 20s, none of the dorms I ever saw at Ivy schools (attended two for undergrad and grad) were terrible. They could be basic. But it's part of the fun and being in college.

[Anonymous]

Saw Brown, Penn, Harvard and Georgetown (not Ivy, I know). Dorms ranged from just about OK to pretty bad. Long overdue for renovation at a minimum.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What a weird topic.

You don't go to college to live in luxury dorms. Having lived in genuinely crappy apartments in my 20s, none of the dorms I ever saw at Ivy schools (attended two for undergrad and grad) were terrible. They could be basic. But it's part of the fun and being in college.

+1.
The only thing you want in a dorm is location. Nobody wanted the farflung ones that had you trudging from eastbuttfurk

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The newer dorms at Cornell are nice.

Which ones and how do you get it

For freshmen, Hu Shih Hall, RBG Hall, McClintock Hall are some of the the nicer ones. You can ask for single, double, triple, quad, mixed or single gender but you can't choose specific dorms. They are all near Morrsion dining hall which is one of the best dining halls in the country.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Penn has two nice freshman dorms(Hill, Lauder) plus the older freshman quad dorms are halfway done with renovations and those will be nice soon. The upperclass dorms are a mix but not bad.

Ivies are old campuses. Dorms are never going to be the same glitz as the big southern schools. No one picks ivies for dorms. You pick it for the unparalleled education and outcomes and the state of the art research spaces.

Lauder is an upperclassmen dorm being used to house freshmen while the Quad is being renovated. It have a freshman this year. It is suites and they are lovely. However, I wish she had the normal freshmen experience of doubles along a long hall with doors open all of the time. I also don’t think college kids need to live in dorms that are nicer than their house at home.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Penn has two nice freshman dorms(Hill, Lauder) plus the older freshman quad dorms are halfway done with renovations and those will be nice soon. The upperclass dorms are a mix but not bad.

Ivies are old campuses. Dorms are never going to be the same glitz as the big southern schools. No one picks ivies for dorms. You pick it for the unparalleled education and outcomes and the state of the art research spaces.

Lauder is an upperclassmen dorm being used to house freshmen while the Quad is being renovated. It have a freshman this year. It is suites and they are lovely. However, I wish she had the normal freshmen experience of doubles along a long hall with doors open all of the time. I also don’t think college kids need to live in dorms that are nicer than their house at home.

Lauder seems to have an antisocial rep. Any basis for that?