They mentioned that Miller Hall was slated for demolition; also, they discussed the fact that the dorms at State were new. They looked pretty nice in the picture, though. :)

What dorm did you live in?? :)

Man no research went into that article. Rust College in Holly Springs MS should have been number. Them things still look like slave quarters.

I purposefully chose my dorm because it was all female, close to the (then) art building, and old and pretty. I lived there for two years, and then into suites (still dorms, but four individual bedrooms, 1.5 baths, and a nice living room/kitchen/dining room) for two years. I liked both of them.

Because my first year, the dorms were all female (or all male), it was pretty quiet. But there were the common complaints of hair in the showers (and not really enough showers for how many women lived there), and male guests, and no AC, and visiting hours, but all in all, it was a nice place to be.

Sophomore year, they made the top two floors female and the bottom two male, with locks so you had to be invited on to another floor. Then our complaints were of the REEKING of Axe deodorant, and of the boys general slovenliness, but still, the dorm was nice.

Our suite was truly nice though, and I loved living there. I loved the campus living experience, and I think it's a key part of the college experience overall. I see huge differences between how my husband, who lived at home for school, and I view our alma maters, and I think that has a lot to do with living on campus.

Now, Otterbein had some pretty heinous dorms that were meant to be "temporary". Thirty years later, they're pretty dire...cinder blocks, dingy, etc. They're called the Triad, but one of the Triad, "Engle"....was truly horrendous, and was/is the most frequently complained about, most vandalized, most shenanigans hall on campus. It would be funny if not for the gross shit I've heard about happening there. *shudder*

But we've had two new halls built in the past three years, and renovations are underway on the others, so I'm sure they've got way better digs than I did, but I was happy with what I had.

Back in my day, Walton and Putnam were the International dorms. Phelps was the male freshman dorm and Sellers was the female freshman dorm. I believe that's been reversed now? I was in Putnam and worked (and met my first husband at) DC1.

And the cafeteria was open until 3am!!!

Also, it's pretty funny that Forbes, Weston, and Garner all made the list, because, well, THEY ARE ALL THE SAME DORM. I know they are technically different buildings, but the 6-pack is the 6-pack.

Back in the day at my school, we had dorm rush. You arrived on campus, got a temporary room somewhere in the dorms, and then went through fraternity, sorority, independent living group, and/or dorm rush. (ILGs are coed fraternities, aside from one which is all female.) Men who pledged fraternities moved into the house the second they signed... same with anyone who pledged an ILG. Women stayed in the dorms as only one sorority had a house when I rushed. So everyone went through dorm rush - women as a necessity, men as a choice (if they didn't want to go greek) or as a backup (if they did). And then the dorms had floor/entry rush on top of all that.

I ended up on a decent floor in a good dorm. We had suites with bathrooms and kitchens (very important as the cafeterias sucked - we're talking food poisoning here). We had our assholes, but what living group doesn't?

My dorm actually ranked pretty decently on the web site in question, aside from parking - although parking is almost irrelevant as you can take the T anywhere you'd want to go.

Hell just froze over. We agree on something. This whole article was a waste of time and stupid as well.

How UNC's dorms stayed off the list is beyond me.

Stop trying to usurp my superiority of dream crusher.

Also, we only lived in dorms for one year prior to moving into on-campus apartments as upperclassmen (off-campus Junior or Senior year, if you wanted). I can't lie - the dorms were fine. I was right close to the bathroom and my room was big (and we kept it so clean we were a regular stop on campus tours - #winning?). My roommate only sucked about 10% of the time and I made lifelong friends. In our on-campus apartment, my roommates were messier and ate my food, but it was about the same quality as living in the dorms we just had a private bathroom, living room and kitchen.

I lived in the sorority house after, which was fun but noisy, and then in an off-campus apartment that was FREAKING HUGE. I mean, it was run-down, but I have yet to ever have a bedroom as large as the one in that apartment (for $350 a month per person - absolutely incredible). We had stalls and two toilets in the bathroom. Great for parties.

Yes it will be. I'm not sure when they're supposed to come down, but I'm hoping they're still there by the time my brother moves in (he'll be a freshmen next year!) I want to stop in just one more time. :(

WHOA! Late night was only open til midnight (and 1am on weekends) when I was there. That 3 am would have come in handy...

Was it still called Chomps? The bars used to close at 1, so you still had time to get back and get food.

I think it was officially called eChomps (don't know what was up with the "e", were they trying to be all Internet-aged??) but everyone called it Late Night.

I didn't think my dorm was that bad. It was old, but I enjoyed the people I lived with. We had suites so I had some crazy suite-mates. I remember one day I came back to our bathroom graffiti'd with tide and black lights on the ceiling.

One of the RA worked amateur nights at the Vu occassionally and he actually invited people from the dorms to cheer him on lol

The dorm was a "meal-plan-optional" dorm so I just worked in the cafeteria and never paid for any type of meal plans (well, if you consider "free" was a choice)

I never really have any problems with bugs or mice....the only problem I had was this one chick that was really loud while having sex...Everyone down the hall could hear her and her room was kitty corner from my room.

Fun times.

Oooh the FYC. Now it's all coed by floor. International students are all mixed in. I lived in Downing my freshman year and of course went to DC-1 all the time. :)

Oh geez, I messed that up. I worked at DC-2. My freshman year, my boyfriend (a sophomore) and my best friend from high school (his roommate, which is how I met my boyfriend) lived in Buell so I ate at DC-1 all the time. After we broke up during my sophomore year, then I started eating at DC-2. I was also a campus operator and the switchboard was in that basement tunnel between Wise and Downing.

What on earth is DC-2? The place in the Walton-Putnam-Phelps-Sellers complex?

Yes, that's what it was called then. Above the Eastern Eateries (is that still there?)

Yeah, it has two levels. The bottom floor houses part of the Holman Success Center, where students can get one on one tutoring, group tutoring, and writing help. There are also some old pianos down there... I've never been to the lower level but I ate at the Eateries a lot when I lived in the dorms. They have an Asian place, a burger/grill, a make your own pizza and pasta, a chicken place, a sandwich place, a Freshens, a salad bar, and other random food. There's also a little convenience store on the lower level.

Ok, the lower level used to be the Eateries and a convenience store and the upper level was a Dining Commons. The Eateries wasn't that extensive back then, they had hamburgers, hot dogs fries and the BEST nachos ever. I only ever got nachos there... lol.

The campus has gone through a lot of changes over the past few years... they built a brand new student center with a ton of food places (Taco Bell, KFC, Wendy's, Subway, Sbarro), they're completely renovating Pray Harrold, they're almost done with gutting Mark Jefferson and giving it a major facelift, they plan to renovate Strong, and they plan to turn the old Jones-Goddard residence halls into some sort of arts village that connects with Alex and Quirk. We have classes in pretty much every building now, even McKenney.

Yeah, they have done even more than that since I was last a student there! The lake house and the library are new since my time too. Our big thing was the IM building. That was really new when I was there. The whole college of business complex was built after my time too. The third tower on the Hill was bascially a hotel when I was there. (Hill and Pittman were dorms.. those folks had to come down to Phelps/Sellers/Walton/Putnam for meals too) The walk from the Hill to the Eateries area was scary too, nothing but woods and the big parking lot along there.. not real safe at night, especially.

Thankfully they built a food place right next to the Towers and put a whole bunch of street lamps and blue emergency phones on all the sidewalks, including the scary woods one!

Good! And that, GC, is the evolution of Eastern Michigan University from 1983 to 2011..lol. /end hijack

And we didn't even talk about Greek housing ;)

I thought you said food places. :p

Back in the day, we had two types of dorms, food-plan-wise. If you chose a dorm with a cafeteria, you were required to put a (considerable) minimum dollar amount into a food plan - it was a declining-balance, use it or lose it plan. If you chose a dorm without a cafeteria (as I did), you could put whatever you wanted into your food plan, and you got a refund at the end of the year for whatever you hadn't used. Which saved my butt, as I lived in a non-cafeteria dorm with kitchens in every suite and I love to cook. The main cafeteria in the student center had various stations, including a Burger King (or was it a McDonald's?). No matter what I got there, BK, pasta station, salad bar, etc. - I got food poisoning. So I gave up. The student center also had a small market with a deli counter, so when I met my sisters or other friends for lunch at the main cafeteria, I bought a sub at the market (they made really good chicken subs) and went into the dining room through the back door.

I threw a couple hundred bucks into my account every year so I could get tea and a bagel on my way to morning classes. I typically got lunch at the food trucks (surprisingly cheap and healthy unless you went to the pizza truck :p ) and cooked my own dinner or went out. There was a small but good Indian food store a short walk from campus... good source for dhal, basmati rice, and Indian spices.

My alma mater wasn't small by any means, but we only had one main cafeteria. When I started, it was sub-par. The raised the bar after I graduated, though.

Our meal plans were "x amount of meals per week, plus y Mav Bucks." The number of meals per week and number of Mav Bucks varied based on the type of plan you got. Meals could only be redeemed at the cafeteria, but the Bucks could be used at any of the food vendors on campus and at various locations throughout the city (including McDonald's, Wendy's, etc).

The meal plans weren't required, though, so I never got one. I preferred to cook at my apartment and go to campus when they had midnight breakfasts for finals.

IIRC, our Student Congress had an agreement with the nearby restaurants, so our regular IDs somehow managed to work.

Eventually, though, our school made a deal with Wells Fargo, so our student IDs were also debit cards. The meal plans included some Mav Bucks, but after they were gone, you (or you parents) could add more to it.

You could use your campus meal plan at off-campus places?

JEALOUS. Our off-campus restaurants only took Flashcash (debit money that you put on your acct) and there weren't many that did that.

If Chipotle had taken meal plan, I would have been a.) 900 lbs and b.) out of meal plan money by Thanksgiving.

LOL

The "meal plan" couldn't be used, but the "Mav Bucks" could. The money was rolled up in your room and board, but still could be used separately.

Sidebar: I hate Chipotle. If I could send them all to Ohio, I would.

This is part of the reason I chose a dorm that had no cafeteria and that had a suite setup with kitchens accessible to all residents. I could get a (crappy) meal on campus if I wanted, but there was really no need. Why buy a generic cafeteria meal when I could make kheema and rice?

My friends with "use it or lose it" plans would hit the on-campus convenience store and buy up shit-tons of ice cream, chips, dip, etc. at the end of the semester. It made for some interesting finals-week study breaks. :p

My husband lived in one of the "required food plan" dorms during his freshman year. I made kheema - and he proposed. The way to a man's heart is indeed through his stomach ;)

Ha! They ranked Goddard... of the 5 freshman (i think 6 now) residence halls (I still can't say "dorms" without my RD saying "dorms are places you sleep, our students live here") NYU has, I can think of dorms WAY WORSE. Weinstein for one (though it makes up for it by having 2 dining halls), Cliff St (an upperclass hall, but apparently doesnt exist anymore and UBER small for the price, even for NYU/NYC), even Brittany was pretty gross. Plus, Goddard was grographically prime ResHall real estate - across from the park, kitty corner from the library and student center, on top of a Starbucks, and really, every important building was within a block or two.

Easily wouldve lived in Goddard but i'm Team Hayden ALL DAY. /NYUdormrant

Srsly. I LOVED living in campus housing. One flat rate for everything (heat/hot water, cable, electricity, laundry room, doorman/security, front desk, dining hall, study lounge, game room) makes way more sense to me.

1. Our meal plan was very similar, and I was surprised what it covered. The money shot was when Weinstein got Quiznos and Chik-Fil-A on meal plan...it was so on like Donkey Kong.

2. you, cooking, and midnight breakfast - wouldve totally wifed you before graduation. believe that.

There was a definite shift in the meal plan concept after I graduated. Our meal plans were:
20 meals a week
13 meals a week (no breakfast)

The cafeteria was closed for Sunday dinner so Sunday was Domino's night. $5 and you got a large with one topping and a cardboard carton of Coke. I don't know how Dominos kept up, honestly. We could substitute a dinner at the tiny lil fast food place/convenience store) by using your meal card, but there was a dollar amount limit. It was enough for nachos though, which is what I got when I did that. The food was mediocre and really unhealthy, but nobody cared about healthy eating back then..lol. The desserts were first in the line. You stood there staring at the desserts while you waited in line for the hot food. On rice krispies treat day, boys were seen with as many as 10 of them on their tray. There were basically two entrees, and a few sides to pick from and it was typical American food.. roast beef, meatloaf, baked chicken, spaghetti, etc. There was a huge, nicely stocked salad bar always.