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What is it like living in the school residence? What are the pro's and con's?

ahhh, school msn is fucked up and i think i lost you.

You mean the school's dorms?

I'm gonna be honest with ya Johnny, 'round here, the ONLY people who live in dorms are 19 year old freshmen. There's no way you could pay me to do it.

It depends on the school. At McGill it's like 95% first year students who live in dorms, and then they move out into the community after that. That's just the nature of this school though due to its context in the city and its facilities.

Last year, my dorm was absolute crap except for the internet connection. This year, it's fucking awesome except for the internet connection.

Single > room with roommate.

Semi-private bathroom > sharing a larger bathroom with your entire floor. Even if it means that you have to clean the bathroom yourself every once in a while. The bathroom in my dorm last year (shared with entire floor) was absolutely filthy. this year (shared between my room and the room next to me) is so much better, we could never even attempt to clean it and it would be better than the one last year.

I actually quite like living here this year, and don't intend to find somewhere else to stay until I graduate.

Not all dorms are like that. My friends' dorm had two bathrooms just for their unit. In my apartments (which is just as close to campus as the dorms), I share a bathroom with one other person. That is really nice. Next year, I'm getting my own bathroom! *dances*

Right, I'm in a dorm this year also by the way.

How come?

Because:

1) I was happy with the internet connection last year
2) I figured getting a single with a bathroom shared with only 1 other room was going to be pretty good
3) food is provided and I don't have to cook
4) don't need to worry about transportation to/from school, parking, or any of that

There are probably other reasons that I can't think of at the moment.

I share a bathroom with my floor but it's pretty damn clean, surprisingly, considering it's totally co-ed. It gets cleaned weekly by the cleaning staff.

You're really lucky. Ours was supposedly cleaned once a week too.

My floor's also good people.

There are some things you need to consider for sure...

1. res is expensive. It can cost up to 2000$ more per year to live on res.

2. Are you lazy? If so, having to cook food (other than kraft dinner) might be a deterrant from living off res. Having food prepared for you is good, but depending on the caf it could mean you're stuck with cetain meals on certain nights, or greasier foods that aren't good for you more often.

3. Find out if your school fees include a bus pass. At my school our student cards double as bus passes and I know this is the same at many other schools in Canada (particularly ones not in large urban cities i.e. Toronto, Montreal). This saves you the problem of getting to and from school.

4. Age. As mentionned most students in res are freshman. Do you really want to have to deal with horned up, loud drunks when you're studying for that big exam?

5. Convenience/Community. In res it's a lot easier to get involved in school stuff since you're already on campus. A lot of residence's have various activities going on, and it's easy to meet people that way. Also since you're already on campus it makes things easier in terms of getting out of bed and going to class and even going to the library quickly to get that book you forgot for your term paper. Off res it can be hard to meet people.

I think that's a good start. Personally I liked res a lot more last year than I like living off campus this year but that's because of a housemate problem. That is another thing you need to watch out for in both cases (unless you have a single room). Next year I think off-campus will be better since I'll be moving in with new people. Hopefully this helps a bit, but John seeing as how you're well into your twenties I think if I were you I'd be looking at living off campus.

im 25
i live in res
i like it
it helps you meet folks in your program (which im yet to do mind you, but not too many folks major in anatomy haha)

and as for what jim mentioned.. during exam time, the place is usually dead quiet, as was my res in queens... (cept for that one time 2 guys got into a fight haha.. that was funny.. my roomate and i broke it up)
anyways

here i have 5-6 (my floor this year has 5 and last year it was 6) rooms where we share a bathroom, kitchen and common area.

given that i live with 4 other guys, the place is relatively clean for the most part and is a lot of fun

i don't live in res, and i feel like i am missing out on the whole university experience.

you can come visit me for a week

woo hoo.

Dr. Hobo wrote:im 25
i live in res
i like it
it helps you meet folks in your program (which im yet to do mind you, but not too many folks major in anatomy haha)

and as for what jim mentioned.. during exam time, the place is usually dead quiet, as was my res in queens... (cept for that one time 2 guys got into a fight haha.. that was funny.. my roomate and i broke it up)
anyways

here i have 5-6 (my floor this year has 5 and last year it was 6) rooms where we share a bathroom, kitchen and common area.

given that i live with 4 other guys, the place is relatively clean for the most part and is a lot of fun

At the end of semesters they have quiet hours but during the year most people have exams and papers due at various times.
In my res the youngest person might have been 21. Maybe it is because its a smaller school. I dunno.

How ofen do you get a chance to be alone?

my roomates have been good
if we have a midterm/test the next day we've been respectful and if push comes to shove i know i can always goto one of the RAs and raise the issue
not that i would care cuz my roomates are good like i said
(well cept for that one time that olof didnt know brandon was writing a final the next day but he got over it)