oberlin: Yet another question from the high schoolers...

Sara (

autumnspark) wrote in

oberlin,
@ 2004-01-14 16:15:00

Entry tags:

dorms, for incoming first-years

Yet another question from the high schoolers...
Hey everyone. Alright, so I'm gonna be a froshie next year (I got in ED), and have a question. I totaly want to be prepared whenever the housing request form rolls on in, and I was wondering if you could give me fun descriptions of the dorms, and generalizations of the people in them.

Because, after all, nothing is more fun than stereotyping your fellow students!!!!!!

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haleth_the_elf
2004-01-14 02:50 pm UTC (link)

Oh goodie, I love stereotyping. I won't do all the dorms, but here's a run-down, very fast, of ones that jump to mind. If I offend anyone... Sorry.

In order from north-south:

North/Langston: loud and drunk on weekends, long walks to class, lots of athletes, but divided doubles (which rock), very nice building layout that will confuse your friends, lots of kitchens, lounges, and common areas, a good mix of people. (I lived in North last year, and liked it a lot, despite some of its downfalls. It's a long cold walk in the winter though.)
Burton: pretty average, I think. Has triples, and group showers.
East: Quiet, probably studious. Another dorm with a weird layout.
Noah: Big, old, upper-class mostly, I think. Houses the sci-fi/fantasy theme hall. Lovely, large lounges, fancy stuff.
Barrows: All first year dorm. Crazy, high energy, lots of drugs and "I just got to college" rebellion. People who live there love it, and say you make tons of friends really fast, and can't get work done. People who didn't live there (like me) are glad they didn't. If you like that sort of thing...
Barnard: cute and pretty. I think it might be substance-free this year.
Talcott: Pretty, old building with HUGE rooms. And bats, but nevermind that. Since you're early decision, you can probably get in there if you want. It's so nice that people who live there never leave. Very close to classes.
Dascomb: Called Da Scum for a reason. Stupid cinderblock building, but lots of high energy community. Lots of first-years live there. it's close to everything, and there's a dining hall there.
Harkness: I love Harkness dearly. It's a coop, and has the reputation of being the crazy hippie coop. Great sense of community, good food. They're responsible for most of the campus pranks. Fun, happy place. But some people think it smells bad.
Baldwin: has a reputation as a militant feminist dorm, but it's not really that bad.
Fairchild: Not too bad, nothing special either.
South: Lots of conservatory students. THis year it holds the classics hall. It's set up sort of like North, but even more confusing. Kitchens are poorly located, but there are lots of lounges, and divided doubles. Not much community, outside the Classics Hall (where I live). I don't know that many other people in the building.

There are other coops besides Harkness, but I don't know much about them. They all have good community, though. And I know very little about the theme houses. Hope this helps!

(Reply to this)

missnizz
2004-01-14 03:00 pm UTC (link)

a little tiny bit of advice: i feel like two favorite pastimes of obies are stereotyping and complaining. people will tell you they're afraid to go into a certain dorm, yet they don't know anyone who lives there. they'll also bitch about everything-- as an example, last year when i asked about barnard, somebody said that there were too many doors.

i'm a first year, and i moved out of Barnard close to the end of first semester. i don't know if it will stay substance free next year, but there was a lot of conflict between people who wanted programming and people who just wanted to live somewhere where people didn't set off fire alarms at 6am and vomit all over the bathroom. it was an okay place to live, with a good location and amazing showers, but the divided doubles were VERY BADLY DIVIDED and there was virtually no community.

i moved to Baldwin (women's collective) a week before thanksgiving. my room is amazing, the people are the most wonderful and inspiring girls i've ever met, and it's in the center of campus. and even though the heat is iffy and there have been five bats this semester, i love it, and i love the women who live here.

so even if you get stuck somewhere you grow to loathe, you can get out. you have lots of options. don't stress-- you'll be at oberlin no matter where you live.

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jude
2004-01-14 03:44 pm UTC (link)

sticking with dorms i actually have a modicum of experience with:

people in dorms vary from year to year, and thus the community feeling does too -- my freshman year Talcott was fantastic, and my junior year it sucked. regardless, it's a gorgeous dorm with humongous rooms, wide hallways, nice showers, and a good kitchen (although you do have to share it with 78 people who in my experience do not always wash their dishes). if you're ED, definitely try for it.

Fairkid is probably my second favorite dorm after Talcott. spacious rooms, decent kitchens, nice big lounge. crazy hippie dining co-op in the basement (Harkness is the dirty hippie co-op, by contrast ;P) so lots of co-opers live there, but they by no means take up the whole space.

Noah and Burton both have weird things living in the heat vents. they don't mess up the heat, but they do make weird knocking sounds ALL THE TIME. Noah's rooms are nice -- the ones on the second floor being somewhat smaller than the rest because of the lounge -- but there is only one kitchen, on the first floor, and the showers only have curtains instead of walls. Burton i believe has gang showers.

scum is disgusting. end of story. do not live there. any community there might be is not worth multiple 6am fire drills.

North and South are mazes. supposedly they're identical, but for some reason i always found North to be much more claustrophobic than south. if divided doubles are your thing, go for it, but personally i find them a pain, especially because the dividing wall just means that much extra space you don't get.

i have never lived in a co-op (i ate in Fairkid for one semester my freshman year and then ran for my life, being neither vegan nor particularly political) but from what i've observed they can be a lot of fun. certain ones require a certain mindset to live and/or eat in -- Harkness and Fairkid leap to mind -- but those that have it love it. and if nothing else they are cheaper than regular dorms and CDS.

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treefox
2004-01-16 04:17 pm UTC (link)

No no no, North and South are not identical.

Added to that, the central part of North burnt down a while back, thus the new-looking center part (which creates most of the layout confusion) and the lounges.

I actually dug up some of the architectural concept work for North for a project when I was at Oberlin. Turns out the odd wings were designed to 'create a sense of community' - apparently you were supposed to identify with and socialise with people in your wing, or 'house' - thus the fact that North, South, and East have each of their wings named after wealthy donors. North and South were also exercises in 'advanced concepts in student living' or something like that - this roughly translates to packing as many people as possible into as small a piece of land as possible at the lowest cost and with the shortest construction period. North was supposed to be built over a summer (I don't know whether they actually achieved this or not).

Keep has perhaps the greatest sense of community of any student housing at Oberlin - largely owing to a well placed and sumptuous lounge (though back in the day it had the most marvellous overstuffed sofas - we'd push two together and call it the 'couch bathtub' then pile like 15 people into it. Small rooms encourage a strong lounge presence. And it's a co-op too, which always helps.

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musicmanjack
2004-01-14 03:44 pm UTC (link)

North/Langston: A bunch of athletes live here... that's all I know. Athletes are scary.

East: It's supposed to be really quiet or something.

Barrows: Barrows is beyond ghetto. It's worse than Dascomb. It's all first years as well, so it's really noisy and rebellius. It's right next to the science center, if you're thinking of being some sort of science major...

Talcott: The best dorm on campus! Live here! I wish I could! I don't think there's much of a community though, so if meeting people is more of a priority than great living conditions, live in Dascomb or Barrows.

Dascomb: I'm a first year, and I live here. I absolutely love it. Yeah, it's kinda gross, but it's really easy to make friends, and it is right in the heart of campus. If you don't mind living in marginal living conditions, live here. It's a lot like Barrows, just less ghetto.

Harkness: If you're into stank ass people who don't shower, bathe, and eat from dumpsters... live here. It's disgusting. I can smell it from my dorm, and the people are really strange. I would imagine the bathrooms to be very clean, though, because I would imagine that they are never used...

Fairchild: I don't really know anything about Fairkid, but it's close to the con.

South: Lots of connies live here. No one talks to each other... it's really confusing too, but divided doubles are nice if you hate your roommate.

Baldwin: Where all the millitant feminists reside. Some of them are really nice though. It's really pretty. Although I'm kinda scared to go in there...

So, uh... yeah. Hope that helps.

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lizzels
2004-01-14 04:43 pm UTC (link)

In reponse to:

"Harkness: If you're into stank ass people who don't shower, bathe, and eat from dumpsters... live here. It's disgusting. I can smell it from my dorm, and the people are really strange. I would imagine the bathrooms to be very clean, though, because I would imagine that they are never used..."

Most people in Harkness shower just as often as anyone else. And we do not eat food from dumpsters, and the building is generally pretty clean. The lounge can get pretty cluttered by the end of the week, but it's because people actually hang out and spend time in there. It's more of a community than a lot of other dorms. You can almost always go down to the lounge and find people hanging out, playing games, reading stories out loud, and all kinds of fun stuff. The only complaint that I would have with Harkness is that it can be pretty busy and has people around all the time, so it isn't the most quiet place to live. But if you are a first year looking for a chance to live in a place with a real sense of community and cooperation, Harkness is a great place to be.

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pontiuspilates
2004-01-14 04:49 pm UTC (link)

I have to object to this portrayal of Harkies. Most Harkies shower and don't like to eat out of dumpsters. In fact, there's only a couple stank-ass Harkies. (But they're really stinky.) And besides, where else but Harkness do you get giant snow sculptures and pirate raids and Robot Wars and cuddle puddles on the Harkness boat?

And that's prolly not Harkness you're smelling in your dorm. In fact, I can't imagine being able to smell anything from Dascomb, because Dascomb has a bit of a moldy funk to it because it's nasty and scummy. And also the dining hall smells like grease and onion death. And I've actually been in Dascomb (I doubt if you've been in Harkness), and you guys take infinitely worse care of your building than Harkies take care of Harkness. At least in Harkness, we know enough to flush when there's poop in the toilet.

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

	musicmanjack 2004-01-14 06:34 pm UTC (link)
	I have too been to harkness! I saw 3 cockroaches! WAR! (Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

	pontiuspilates 2004-01-14 06:38 pm UTC (link)
	Eeeww... I haven't ever seen cockroaches in Harkness. Maybe you brought them, because I've definitely seen roaches in Dascomb dining hall. And mouse poop. (Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

cizmad
2004-01-18 03:36 pm UTC (link)

I will address the Dascomb/Harkness issue because I have lived in Dascomb, hung out in Harkness, and am right about everything all the time.

Dascomb smells a little. Harkness smells a little more.

Dascomb got peed in a lot last year. Our bad. But in fairness, those responsible for the peeing also peed in every other dorm and co-op on campus before it got too cold to go outside and they resorted to peeing in their own lounge, so we can hardly count that against Dascomb alone. And uh, Harkness? Someone pooed on the floor in one of your many exciting bathrooms-turned-anarchist meeting places, so let's not cast human waste stones, shall we?

By the end of the year last year, Harkness was really really dirty. No, sh - I know what you're going to say, and you're wrong. It was gross. Not the sewage-all-over-the-place-hippies-making-sculptures-out-of-human-waste gross that a lot of Conservatory students (uptight bastards [just kidding {kind of}]) seem to think, but definitely not THAT well cared for. Whatever, we're in college, things get dirty, and they did.

As a counterpoint, Dascomb did have fire alarms All. The Damn. Time.

Communities change from year to year. Last year, Dascomb simply and completely rocked the world of Oberlin. Yes, we were over the top, yes many windows were broken by buttcheeks and that's a little weird, and yes, admittedly, howling along with a guitar at four in the morning during reading period is probably not as good an idea as it seemed at the time. But who had the balls to set off hundreds of dollars worth of fireworks on Wilder Bowl? Dascomb. Who, after being chastised by security for being noisy and setting things on fire had the pleasure of hearing the security guard say into her walkie-talkie "Yeah... SAME crew." ? Dascomb.

This year, I hear things in Dascomb are still friendly but a lot more sedate.

Harkness maintains a more steady level of community, mostly because people tend to stick around there once they're in. The result is a group that does crazy, spontaneous-seeming things that at the same time are part of a tradition. It's... a weird atmosphere. Those who are really into it because it's fun tend to be rockin' people, and at any given moment these awesome folks seem to account for about half of Harkness' population. The other half of the population is peppered with people who are really vocal about how Harkness is way better than any of the other dorms and so much more spontaneous and fun and independent and blah blah blah we're-perfect-cakes. These people, ironically, are what keeps Harkness from being as cool as they say it is. Kathleen, in case anyone gets the wrong impression from this being a reply to one of her comments, is way not one of these people.

So in conclusion -

Harkness has more dirt, but also more freedom than Dascomb.
Dascomb's community fluctuates, but it tends to house people who just don't give a shit where they live, turn in their housing forms three months after classes have started, and end up there. These people are the most fun.
Harkness' community is also lots of fun, and the people who will belligerently declare that while rolling their eyes at other dorms are really (aside from, admit it, some aesthetic issues) the only thing keeping them from being as fun as they probably should be.
I therefore declare them like Pluto and Neptune, trading places occasionally as the best overall community to be found on South campus despite both of them having some stank problems.

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cizmad
2004-01-18 03:37 pm UTC (link)

A quick rundown on the rest...

North - Like south, except with athletes instead of connies. It's... a dorm.
Burton - Pretty nice rooms, heater difficulties, try to snag a triple for two people, it's diviiiiiine. Community tends to be pretty neat, from what I've gathered living here one year and from last year. Showers now have curtains.
Noah - Nice rooms, nice lounges, tends to be a bit more private - don't bet on much community.
East - Meh. Quiet hall, if you're into that sort of thing - things can go either way on community issue.
Barrows - Like Dascomb, except slightly more drugs and slightly less odor... lacks a bit of the flavor of its south campus counterpart. All freshmen, so easy to meet folks.
Barnard - Substance free. Kind of a quiet, private but friendly atmosphere.
Fairkid - My friends who live there sometimes get loud while watching Monday night football (so think around 10pm ish) and constantly get shushed and bitched at. So that's how things there are, but if quieter atmosphere is your thing, it's probably not bad.
Talcott - Pretty, big rooms, full of people who are completely neurotic, and bats who are relatively stable.
Baldwin - I like individuals I've met from here a lot, but I gather from them that the atmosphere is kind of passive-aggressively enforced PC mindtrap. Not to be insulting, or anything. Like I said, most folks I've met from there are nice.
Zeke - Full of jocks. Not like that's bad or anything.

I'll leave coops and program houses to others, since aside from Harkness I haven't spent that much time in any of them.

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electricpotato
2004-01-14 04:54 pm UTC (link)

"Harkness: If you're into stank ass people who don't shower, bathe, and eat from dumpsters... live here. It's disgusting. I can smell it from my dorm, and the people are really strange. I would imagine the bathrooms to be very clean, though, because I would imagine that they are never used..."

you couldn't be more wrong. have you ever actually been in harkness? it is somewhat messy, but i have never been as disgusted by a dorm as i am by dascomb, where people punch holes in the walls and pee on everything.

other than the messiness every one of your claims is complete bullshit. first of all, most of us bathe once a day, but even if they don't very few people smell. AND there are people who don't bathe everywhere. the same goes for "really strange" people. have you noticed that you go to OBERLIN?

additionally, the claim that harkness serves food from dumpsters was a complete fabrication.

if you want to see a disgusting, smelly dorm perhaps you should go out in your hallway. perhaps you should educate yourself before making outrageous claims based on stereotypes.

all of your dorm descriptions are incorrect in this way, actually, but since i live in harkness i chose to respond to the one that offended me the most.

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	treefox 2004-01-16 04:21 pm UTC (link)
	Oh that was such a perfect 'Obie response' he he he!!! 'Perhaps you should educate yourself before making outrageous claims based on stereotypes' (Reply to this) (Parent)

mrfishes
2004-01-15 09:25 pm UTC (link)

lived in Harkness my freshman year (lo these many years ago. . . ok, 2000). Not stinky. In fact, unless there was cooking in the kitchen (which sadly usually smelled better than it tasted, but I'm not vegan or even vegetarian) or cleaning in the halls, there was hardly any smell at all. As opposed to Dascomb, where various friends of mine lived at various points, which pretty much always stank of sweatsock and other smells that build up in places that don't have their cleanliness inspected on a weekly basis, as the co-ops do.

I wouldn't recommend co-op living for just anybody, but you don't have to hold your nose to get through it.

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treefox
2004-01-16 04:37 pm UTC (link)

He he he!

As previously mentioned, Obies are so very good stereotyping everyone and everything.

Having lived in both Dascomb and Harkness, I think I can firmly say that neither lives up to its stereotype. I think the most negative things that can be said about either pertain primarily to the structural integrity of the two. When I lived in Dascomb, part of the ceiling caved in above the 2nd floor men's showers. While in Harkness a sewer line ruptured below the 2nd floor showers, slowing dripping sewage into a first floor room. I think the only thing that says about the two is that construction in the late '40's and early '50's sucked.

Dascomb sucks for those who live in close proximity to the ventilation equipment of the kitchen. The archetecture is also soul crushing (as is Barrows, which until half of it was demolished to make way for the science center, had essentially the same floor plan as Dascomb). If you don't live near the kitchen, it's just bland. The location can't be beat, however. Where else can you wake up at 9:57 and get to a 10:00 class on time in King?

Harkness's reputation attracts a few of the 'dirty hippies' who give it that reputation. However, as it's the largest of the co-ops and less homey than Keep, Tank, or Old B, the vast majority of the people living there are just people who had crap OSCA lottery numbers. Yes, there are crazy antics, but on any given night, you'll find far more weed being smoked on North quad than you will in Harkness. The politiking can get a bit stressful at times, but it's not as dirty as people who've never been there say it is. Harkies are also less inclined to vomit on their carpets, as they're the ones who'll have to clean it up, not RezLiphe's not-always-showing-up clean-up crews.

While I'm here, I'll just say that Keep was my favorite place of residence. Great lounge, well heated, small close-knit community.

But get off campus as soon as you feasibly can. Enter into a civil union with your roommate, marry that sketchy guy down the hall for a week, or develop some bizarre medical malady. You'll be happier and and financially better off if you escape from the ever widening maw of pain and despair that is the world of Oberlin residence halls. Failing that, get into a co-op. Never feel bad about abusing ResLife; while other areas of Oberlin administration might not be very good at what they do, ResLife are a bunch of incompetent, vindictive morons. Fire Kimmie LaPhond.

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	bad lottery number? pittnat 2004-01-17 02:21 pm UTC (link)
	i had a pretty good lottery number, and i wanted to live in harkness! a lot of people choose to live here, not just because it is their last choice. the convenience of being 30 seconds from most classes is hard to ignore! (Reply to this) (Parent)

electricpotato
2004-01-14 04:55 pm UTC (link)

the real harkness: it is full of different and interesting people, has a really nice and cozy lounge, wonderful food, and is not any dirtier than other dorms. we aren't hippies, we aren't dirty, we are not that different from the rest of campus. anyone who spends any time here knows that. i am a second year, and i wish i had lived in a co op last year because it is such a wonderful way to meet new people, especially people from different grades instead of just freshmen. i would recommend avoiding barrows and dascomb at all costs because of their tendency to become cult-like. and i am basing that claim on experience and complaints from people who lived in those places, not random rumors i have heard floating around campus and decided to treat as fact.

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congirli
2004-01-14 07:42 pm UTC (link)

ok so im going to talk about the dorms i spend the most time in.
First off I live in Fairkid(Fairchild) and i LOVE it. Dearly. I'm a first year and so are i'd say at elast 1/2 the people and people are really interesitng. Almost everyone is artsy in some way and we have really good community. It's also open doubles which I don't know if you want but I personally like. I also really like the location. I can get to King(one of the main classroom buildings) in about 3 minutes. Also i'm biased as I also EAT in fairkid so it's literally the most convientent thing ever. WE also have group showers with kinda curtainish stuff between the little areas. I don't find it a big deal an honestly I have only showereed a few times with otehr people.
Some of my best friends live in barnard and while they like it for the divided doubles there is basically no community.
A lot of my friends live in BUrton and love it. Lots of first years and its BEAUTIFUL. I would say its the prettiest dorm on north campus.
Also North is confusing as hell to me but I've been in there very few times so I can;t comment much. But its big(the biggest dorm on campus) I personally don't like North or South as I find peopel don't really know each other there who i've talked ot, but I haven't lived there so I can't say much.
Random words of advice. I think almost all science classes are in the science center which is on north campus so if youre planning on going into science i would reccomend living on north campus for convience. The Con and a lot of the humanities/social science stuff is on south campus. Also if you want to eat in a co-op most of them are on south cmapus. The exceptions to he rule are asia(pyle), tank, and keep. SO take that into consideration if you have to go walk across campus to do KP in freezing snowy february. ALso there is a stereotype( I don't know how true it is) that south campus is artsy-er and hippier thn north campus. Also in this stereotype north cmapus is more jockish/science-y and "mainstream." I don't know hwo true it really is though.

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pontiuspilates
2004-01-14 08:28 pm UTC (link)

Now that I've vented my indignation on behalf of my former co-op (Harkness), I'll talk about other dorms I've spent lots of time in.

Asia House: Very beautiful building, with its own little private courtyard. It's a program house, so you have to apply to get into it and also participate in program activities (I think). It has open doubles and an apartment, also the last smoking lounge still open on campus (a bonus if you smoke and don't like standing outside in the freezing cold). Pyle Inn Co-op is also in it, which is nice, and there's really nice lounges.

Burton: Where I lived my freshman year. It looks nicer to live in now than it was back in the day. Newspaper offices are in the basement, if you're interested in journalism, and I made a lot of friends in Burton my first year. We bonded in the (now-defunct) smoking lounge, commiserating about work, the frequent shortages of various drugs, and the scary flies in the drains of a first-floor bathroom. I had a love/hate relationship with Burton; I liked its convenience to Stevenson and the Science Center, but I hated the perpetual boiling heat in my room, the flies in the sink, and the drama which is the downside to a close-knit community that all has to live together.

Keep Co-op: I've spent a little time in Keep, mostly visiting friends. The building is beautiful, and has a really nice living room with couches I love to curl up in. There's also a porch with a swing. (Tank has one too.) People in Keep seem to get along pretty well with each other; really, if you're looking for a strong sense of community, I recommend living in co-ops - Harkness probably has more of that community feeling than either Keep or Tank, but Harkness definitely isn't for everyone (as I'm sure you've deduced).

South: I spent a large part of spring semester of freshman year crashing with my friends in South. South is big, labyrinthine, and confusing. Southies don't really seem to know each other all that well (exception: Classics Hall); my friends weren't even friendly with the other people on their hall. It's close to the Con, Fairkid Co-op, Harkness Co-op, the Environmental Studies Building, and reasonably close to King. But if you're gonna major in any of the sciences, you should live a little further North; even the (shorter) walk from Harkness to the Science Center is really horrible and arduous in Oberlin's six-month period of unabated gross weather.

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hmmm

pittnat
2004-01-15 01:46 am UTC (link)

I lived in Burton my freshman year (nineteenfishes was my next door neighbor) and liked it a lot. i basically felt like it was the freshman dorm that didnt suck.
my biggest problem with a lot of dorms on campus is the cinderblock walls that many/most of the dorms on campus have. best example of this is east, where i lived my sophomore year, which sucked (although mitigated by the fact that i had a single)
this year i live in Harkness, and wish that i had lived in a coop before. harkness rocks, and all that stuff you hear about coops (especially harkness) being dirty and smelly is (mostly) untrue. by the end of the week things get a bit messy, but we keep things pretty clean for the most part

in general, a coop is a great place to live for community, and to make a lot of friends who arent just other freshmen, but they have the potential downside of being a little insular (ie you might not have that many friends outside of the coop to begin with)
i dont think that dascomb is anywhere nearly as bad as its reputation either, and has the advantage of being really close to everything.
i would say that being ED, i would say try to live in Talcott, Burton, or Fairkid, or if you want to try a coop, Harkness, Tank, or Keep, in those orders

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erf_
2004-01-15 06:12 am UTC (link)

From what I gather from my friends at other college, Barrows is pretty much as ordinary a college dorm as you can get. It's different every year and it occasionally lacks that distinctive Oberlin "flavor", but if you think a dorm is a dorm is a dorm, Barrows is a great place to start. Contrary to what other people have said, Barrows is not ghetto. Barrows is not cult-like. It is, in terms of sanitation and friendliness and community and facilities and everything, exactly average. Sure, a small number of Barrow-dwellers always hang out with each other, but the rest of us branch out and hang with other people or don't hang out with anyone at all. The key element of Barrows is diversity. We've got extroverts, introverts, party people, loners, gay people, straight people, even a few conservatives. We have a reputation for being rowdy and noisy and rebellious since there's a lot of noise from around our area every morning around 3am, but most of that noise actually comes from the seniors across the street--they're the ones throwing wild parties at the wee hours of the morning and shouting drunken obscenities at no one in particular. Barrows is a nice place to live, actually. Not gorgeous like North, but not nearly as run down as Dascomb or the Asia House basement, and we always have hot water in the showers and working indoor heating and all that. There's always people out in the halls hanging out and having conversations, if you're into that kind of thing, but if you want to turtle up in your room and take a nap or chill out by yourself, people will respect that. I guess the only thing I really hate about Barrows is the random fire alarms. (Bastards! Go smoke your pot outside!)

Oh, and about the weird smell in Barrows--almost every dorm in every college I visited as a prospie had that smell. Dascomb, on the other hand...yick.

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	treefox 2004-01-16 04:43 pm UTC (link)
	Though I think one of the nice things about Oberlin's housing is that it's not divided by class, with the exception of Barrows. Living in Dascomb my freshman year meant I knew people from all class years, and so could get their advice on the various odd intricacies of Oberlin. (Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

	erf_ 2004-01-17 01:18 am UTC (link)
	shrug I know sophomores, juniors, and seniors. I have to reach out just a little more to hang out with them, but it's not like I'm totally isolated from the other classes. (Reply to this) (Parent)

centaur
2004-01-15 09:53 am UTC (link)

I think there is almost a consensus on Oberlin campus. That the student's love their own dorms. This is because usually those who don't like their dorms leave them. That's the nice part you can always change your mind.
Now about Dascomb (my dorm). It is in the middle of everything, I never have to walk more then five minutes to get to a class. The bathrooms need plenty of help and the random holes in the lounge kinda suck too. But in our defense there is no way we could have made the holes in the bathroom ceiling and its not exactly the sort of thing we can fix either. And I over and over again am told how nice my room smells so I don't know what this Dascomb has a smell thing is. But again the great thing about Dascomb is the community. It has the advantages of Barrow's all freshman concept without being quite as focused on "we're all freshman". If that made any sense. The other nice thing is with the dining hall in our basement I could spend my entire day inside if I wanted to.
The important thing in my opinion about dorms is choosing the right room format. You need to be honest with yourself about what you need. I personally wasn't and it can suck. My example I tend to procrastinate and stay up really late the night before papers are due. This doens't work that well in an open double.

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apresdemain
2004-01-15 05:54 pm UTC (link)

My several trips to Harkness, I noticed a few things: large amounts of clutter, broken things everywhere, and an everpresent smell of marijuana and body odor.

From what I've heard of Barrows, there is an excess of high school melodrama, there is an abundance of sex, drugs, and alcohol, almost all of which take place any day of the week. It's also a very dark and not well ventilated dorm. I think this is the nature of the official freshman dorm-- students take their "new freedom" a little too far.

Now, I'm going to have to stick up for Dascomb because it's my residence and I'm the president of it: the residents of dascomb aren't cultish, but certainly more like a family. At least, this is true of the second floor. The first and third floors are different stories as the first floor is all upperclassmen and the top floor is co-ed by room.

There is a relative amount of partying in the dorm but this is mostly reserved for the weekends. The second floor is divided into male/female sections, which is nice, but there are a select few on the male side of the hall who like to trash things. However, I'd imagine this is true of any dorm.

The closeness of Dascomb to everything is perfect, and the ability to walk downstairs and take a meal back up to your room is heaven. We have a large downstairs lounge with a pingpong table, foosball table and... well, this is an executive secret, but we're getting an air hockey table and a new offical size pingpong table.

I can't speak for everyone on the dorm, but most of the people I know here aren't cultish at all. It is family-like, but of the people I associate with in the dorm, most have friends all over campus. Personally, I have friends in Asia House, Third World, South, Barrows, North, Burton, East, Spanish House, Russia House and more... if this is not branching out, I don't know what is.

And we have visitors quite often. I know several people from North and Barrows who spend a lot of time here, as well as South, Talcott, Keep, Burton, East... isolated? Cultish? With the influx of visitors I'd have to disagree.

I honestly don't know what smell they're talking about. Dascomb seems to me to be one of the better ventilated buildings. There is a musty smell that I noticed when I came back to visit, but I noticed this same smell even moreso in Barrows.

Dascomb has become a wonderful place to live. It's social and strongly community-oriented and the RAs are the best I've met on campus yet. I suggest you ignore the rumours-- they're there about every dorm on campus. You can't really judge the character of an entire building until you've been inside and talked to people who live there. And this is what I have to say about Dascomb: Home of the Dasques.

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treefox
2004-01-16 05:11 pm UTC (link)

So okay, several spots haven't been mentioned...

Lord/Saunders - if you're African American, or perhaps grew up in an African American community, you may find it to be pleasantly supportive. Excellent parties too. Attached dining hall, but hours are odd and it could use some refurbishment. Also tends to be very insular.

Language Houses of various sorts - if you're into a foreign language, you might very well feel like joining one merely for the living arrangements. Excepting Russia House, all the language houses (as well as Lord Saunders, TWH, and Zeke) are bland cookie-cutter style archetecture. Divided doubles and quads abound, though, and they tend to be in reasonably good condition. French house tends to be socially dead. German house isn't much better. Spanish house has a bit of an identity crisis as those who want it to be a latino/a house grapple with linguists. Their kitchens are all rather small too, but the lounges are nice, if a bit sterile. Russia house is fantastic. It's the oldest building owned by the college and feels like a real house (in size too).

Zeke - I'll admit ignorance to the affairs of Zeke. It went co-ed starting my senior year after being the wannabe frat house and I can't say I know anything about its current existence.

J House - Soooo far away but soooo beautiful. Huge rooms, gorgeous surroundings, it feels like you're in a park, which, very nearly, you are. You have to be Jewish though, and hold a deep-seated animosity to anyone or anything who wants to do anything to the abandoned barn out back. If you're not in Old-B co-op across the street, it apparently helps to be distrustful of them.

Third World House - Very very very politicised. If you aren't oppressed, you have to pretend to be to live there. It's also very very very politicised. Cool mural in the lounge though.

East got a bit of a mention, but I'll just toss in that the carpeting makes it feel like a Days Inn. So does the eerie silence and lack of interaction between residents.

Tank is a lovely co-op. A bit of a walk, but wonderful building with very nice rooms. A few have balconies.

Asia House is like something out of Oxford or Cambridge, though they somewhat ruined the hallways by putting tiling all over them that makes them feel like long dark bathrooms. They're also not so well lit. Look closely and you'll find gargoyles (same for Talcott and Baldwin). Randomly placed lounges and disused libraries hold odd hidden secrets like dusty old artefacts taken from Asia long ago. There's also a hidden underground basketball court in the basement. Although it's technically a program house, much of its population are just regular folks who aren't part of the program. Other people joined the program for their love of anime and manga. My favorite co-op occupies the dining room and basement kitchen - good food, doesn't bother with messy politics and squabbling.

Old B co-op is generally not open to first years, last time I checked, at least not right off the bat; I imagine you could immediately get on the waitlist though and maybe move in later in the year???

But it almost seems like a waste to not choose Talcott if you've got the ED card to play. You're not likely to ever be able to live there again until your senior year otherwise. Fairchild, I think, has the least issues of any dorm (I don't think I've seen anyone say anything negative about it here); I'd recommend it as a second choice.

And a nifty fact: there are no urinals on south campus. That's because south campus used to be the womens' campus and north campus was the mens' campus (excepting the co-ops). Nifty eh. That's also why all the south campus dorms have dining halls attached (though most of these dining halls have become co-ops or are disused), but none of the north campus ones do - they thought it improper to make ladies walk to meals, but gentlemen were assigned to a south campus dining hall they had to walk to. The only exception is Asia House, which was a seminary.

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erf_
2004-01-17 01:23 am UTC (link)

I should also mention that Lord Saunders has some of the awesomest quads ever (in terms of space and general comfort). If you're not African-American the atmosphere can be a little intimidating, but it's not as bad as you might imagine. Every Friday I hang out with bunch of friends who live in a quad in Saunders, none of them black, and they love it there. Be forewarned, though, that the dividers between the common room and the bedrooms do not block out sound at all.

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	little correction pittnat 2004-01-17 02:19 pm UTC (link)
	in response to the comment on J-House, you most definitely do not need to be jewish to live there. about half of the people i know who live or have lived there are not jewish. i definitely agree on the big and beautiful bit though. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	autumnspark 2004-01-18 07:29 pm UTC (link)
	wow, kids. I wasn't expecting this many responses. Thanks a bunch, and keep responding because it's a pleasure to go away for the weekend and receive 25 new e-mail notifying me I have 25 new comments. I feel loved. <3. -Sara P.S. I've noticed much tension between the Dascombs and the Harknesses. You both are getting really "West Side Story" on each other's asses. (Reply to this)

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