Roz Wills and Eli Cohen

I want to address a question I heard a few times at summer orientation, and I noticed a few people asking on the 2012 Facebook group. What are the dorms like? Especially Stimson, seeing as that’s where the largest chunk of freshmen end up. I lived in Conner 115 last year, and I’m in Lewis 202 this coming year. Roz lived in Wagner 409 (as did my girlfriend, if you read back to the first post). A few of our other friends were in Stimson as well.

I’ve heard people show concerns that Stimson is somehow a worse hall than… I’m not sure. Some other hall, I suppose. I think that comes from two things people have heard.

A) There’s no AC.

B) Freshmen live there, so that must mean it was the last thing picked, so that must mean it’s the worst.

I’m going to address the second one first. That’s not how room draw works, as you’ll find out at the end of your first year. The freshmen class, as a whole, “pick first” in a sense. Before seniors, juniors or sophomores pick rooms, a bunch of rooms are set aside for freshmen. These rooms are spread around campus, with the largest concentration in Stimson, followed by Froelicher, plus a bunch in the T, Mary Fisher (especially Bacon), and Heubeck. Sondheim too, by application only. These were set aside ahead of time. You haven’t been given “leftovers.” They spread it out so you have a shot at living anywhere, though Stimson is a bit more likely than the others.

As far as the quality of the dorms… everyone’s got their own likes and dislikes about each building. It’s always going to depend on who you talk to, and what your preferred living situation is. The thing that affects most people is definitely AC vs. no AC. It’s true that Stimson has no air conditioning. The first 3 weeks you get here and the last 3 weeks before you leave for the summer can be hot. If you don’t deal with heat well, invest in a good fan. That’s really all I can say. Other than that one minor drawback (which not everyone even sees as a problem) the hall is great.

The rooms are big. Certainly bigger than I expected my dorm room to be. My friends who were already in college told me to expect a closet-sized room. Stimson rooms are pretty spacious. In fact, you have the option of bunking your beds, to make the room even bigger. That’s a decision between you and your roommate, and I’m sure Roz can be convinced to talk about that in more detail. What I will say is that she had bunked beds, and I will say that with bunked beds, there was enough space to fit a couch in the room, with the box the couch came in in the middle of the room as a table. We were inventive. Plus, there was still enough room for Emily to have a huge pile of unsorted crap in the corner, a microfridge, and of course, the two desks that came with the room. PLUS floor space left over for Roz to do her Set Design homework on the floor (it involves a large piece of canvas). Without bunked beds, we could have done all that, minus the couch. The rooms in Stimson are nice and big. Also, you get to live right next to the main dining hall, which is always a plus.

The concern about Stimson has a lot to do with the AC bit. It does get hot… but seriously, has anyone not experienced heat before? I suppose we might have one or two students coming down from the Yukon, but other than that, I don’t think there’s anyone who hasn’t experienced 90 degrees before. When it gets hot, you might sweat (*gasp!*) and you’ll want to drink more water than usual (OMG!) and you might even want to do less physical activity than you otherwise would (holy bejesus!). On the really hot days, you might even want to go hang out with a friend who lives in a dorm with AC (*shock and awe*).

Heh, I know I’m bordering on passive-aggressive sarcasm on the AC point. I do love AC as much as anyone else. I’m from Massachusetts, where it does hit 90, but not quite as often as it does here. I did find the hotter days mildly uncomfortable. After those first couple weeks, it’ll cool down, and you won’t have to think about it anymore. And really, when it’s hot you’ll end up going “wow, it’s hot” then move on, and do something fun. Heat won’t RUIN your dorm living experience. Do you really need me to tell you that, though? I’ve been going on for two paragraphs, but you know your body better than I do. If you find yourself immobilized on hot days, then you’ll find yourself immobilized by hot days in Stimson. If you find yourself mildly uncomfortable and sweaty, but you can go about your day as usual, that’s what will happen in college.

A lot of things change when you get to college. One thing that probably won’t change too much is your physiological needs. And that’s all I have to say about that. If you’re living in Lewis, especially Lewis 2, I’m sure I’ll see a lot of you. Heck, no matter where you live, I’ll see a lot of you. I’m on Orientation Committee, after all, and you’re reading my blog, so I’m sure we’ll get along. If you have any questions, dorm-related or otherwise, my e-mail is still available, eli.cohen@goucher.edu. I check it all the time. Or Facebook, I suppose, if you have a desperate fear of e-mail. I do somewhat prefer e-mail, though.

Much love for the class of 2012,

-Eli

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Roz here — just gonna throw in my two cents on top of what Eli has already said — he’s already covered most of what I probably would have said, but I will second the comment about the bunk beds. We started out as a triple, so the beds were already bunked plus another one on the other side of the room, and there was still a fair amount of room, although the dorm was supposed to be a double and it showed. When our third roommate left, however, we didn’t bother unbunking and it really made life comparatively spacious — I highly recommend getting your beds bunked if you can.

Also, with regards to the A/C — once you get into October or so, it really is not that bad at all. I won’t deny that the first two or three weeks of my particular freshman year were murder, although that was in part because of a heat wave that swept the area at the time. But honestly…you can go hang out in Pearlstone and chill out (literally), or you can bring a fan. I did both, and I got through pretty much unscarred, and if I can do it, you can too. So if you got assigned to Stimson, don’t stress about it — I for one had a fantastic freshman year there.

– Roz