Choosing a residence hall

Hello all. The last week has been really jam packed full of exciting things for me - from my first webinar with my liason for my Chemical Engineering senior project to obtaining some spectacular data from some lab experiments - and the semester is well underway now with exams and presentation dates approaching. Last week I posted about not being certain of what to study in college, and this week I wanted to take the time this week to post about another common question I am asked on my tours I give of campus regarding what residence hall to pick and housing as a freshman at CU-Boulder.

First off, the most common question regarding housing I get is, "Greg, what is the best dorm to live in?" to which I reply every one is the best. If you asked a group of sophomores or juniors on campus which residence hall is the best - each person would likely say their own hall. In the end your experiences and neighbors/friends define how you look back on your residence hall. With that in mind, though, there are some factors that can help you choose which hall might be the best fit for you.

Residential Academic Programs, or RAPs, are classes intended to aid in the transition to college life and classes for incoming freshman. Many residential halls on campus offer them and each hall will have a different subject theme to the RAP classes they offer - for example Baker Hall has a RAP that focuses on Natural Sciences. If there is a specific RAP program that you want to join, that would be a helpful guiding factor to choosing a hall. One can search the internet or look at the housing and dining services website for more information on RAP programs and the different halls that offer them.

Another deciding factor might be location on campus. Most of the residential halls are grouped together near Farrand Field on campus, but some halls are located near the Law School building on the south part of campus or approximately 1-mile away from main campus at Williams Village. Another hall, Sewall Hall, is located directly next to the Recreational Center and Norlin Library (the main library on campus). While some might be thinking living off campus would be terrible, I lived in Darly North my freshman year - located in Williams Village - and they have a campus bus that is constantly shuttling students to and from main campus to village community. There exists a separate recreational center and a dining complex located at Williams Village, too, so that students need not travel to main campus to access these. I really enjoyed living in Williams Village because it allowed me to "go home" at the end of the day. Regardless that some friends loved living on campus, they would occasionally tell me they felt like they were always "on-campus" becaues they would go to their residence hall room which was located next to their classroom building. This was just one aspect of living at Williams Village that I enjoyed - but others exist and it is a great place to reside your freshman year.

One other factor that I can think of is whether a dining hall exists in your hall. Residence halls with dining halls connected to them are Libby, Farrand and Sewall. The Williams Village dining hall is located right next to the residence halls that are located there. The final dining hall that students can use their meal plan at is located in the Center for Community. Each dining hall will have something unique to that dining hall, too, for example Farrand boasts pizzas at nearly every meal and Libby has an omelette bar open in the mornings where you can order custom omelettes. Regardless that each dining hall is open to all students with a meal plan (i.e. if you live in Farrand you can eat in any dining hall) this could be a factor is some peoples decisions of where to live.

I hope this gives you an idea of how students decide about which halls to live in. Also, if you decide to attend CU-Boulder, only after you accept your offer of admittance are you allowed to apply to housing. If this post didn't answer all of your questions, refer to the housing and dining services website I provided a link to above. I want to end the post with a link to decorating ideas for your residence hall room. Some students get very creative and end up having awesome rooms - and this website gives some ideas to work with.

I hope you all have a nice day and until next week!