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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?
Not sure. As I mentioned about my kid- I wish she had a more typical freshman dorm experience. The rooms are all suites, so maybe that’s what it seems antisocial….suites are definitely less social than typical college doubles.
Yale is all suites, they were very social.
Suites can be terrible if you end up in the wrong entryway or with a bad roommate combination. Some floors had 3-5 suites and a great mix of social people that made it the place to be. In other suites, you could be one of just 2 suites on your floor and if the mix was wrong, you'd rarely see a soul- that was my freshman year. I think a long hallway of rooms might be unpleasant in terms of living conditions but a very positive social environment!
My best living experience was when I was in a tiny, crowded entryway with the 4 smallest suites in my residential college. It was the housing lottery dumping ground and had basically the worst picks from each class. It was really great to mix across 3 classes and our cramped conditions somehow encouraged more mixing than if we'd had more square footage.
Suites are best if they don't include bathrooms. Harvard used to have most bathrooms within suites, while Yale had most bathrooms in hallways outside of suites. I think ensuite bathrooms are convenient but are not great for socializing because people have no reason to see anyone but their immediate roommate and can turn really antisocial.