So you picked your housing for next year based on the propaganda; perhaps you even prospied at Day at NU to get a taste for where’s a good place to live.Whatever you picked, you were wrong.
There’s no good way to get a flavor for the dorms at Northwestern without living here for roughly nine months. While it may be too late to change your room now, the Chron nevertheless will present you, the neophytic freshmen, with the inside scoop on housing at NU.
600 Lincoln - This is NU’s northernmost dorm, which is its biggest drawback. While Tech’s a reasonable distance away, 9 a.m. classes in Harris or Fisk are a good 15 minutes away from your warm, comfy bed; stay away if you’re in Medill, Speech or any CAS department with offices on South Campus. It also houses the football team, which isn’t such an embarrassment now that the Cats are worth the money the University puts into them.
Hinman House - Inconveniently located next door to 600 Lincoln, this dorm suffers all of the same disadvantages as its twin, but doesn’t get to host Damien Anderson in recompense. It does, however, have the North Side Coffee Company in the basement, so you don’t have to go outside to nurse a mocha while bitterly cursing your bad housing draw.
Elder Hall - This dorm has the northernmost dining hall on campus-convenient on those days when the icy wind off the lake is the main factor in human existence. It’s also near the frats, if that’s your thing. However, to get to class or pretty much anything else on campus, you have to dodge across Sheridan Road, the town’s main drag which thoughtfully runs right through campus. Makes for many fun games of chicken with BMWs.
Kemper Hall - Ah, the Shangri-la of Northwestern housing. Spacious accommodations, bathrooms that you share with only 3 other people, climate control - most people refer to Kemper as ‘the hotel.’ However, the fascists in Housing decreed that no freshman will live in Kemper ever again. Sorry.
Bobb and McCulloch Halls - It is true that the freshmen freeze keeps you out of frat parties for much of Fall Quarter. That’s why Bobb-McCulloch exists - to provide 4 floors of Caligula-style boozing and debauchery. Experts estimate that at least one keg is flowing at any given moment; drawing an assignment here has been known to make RAs sob uncontrollably. A perfect dorm for everyone out there with a seething vendetta against their liver.
Goodrich House - Putting an all-women’s dorm in the middle of the frat quads seems roughly akin to putting the state of Israel between five angry Islamic states. It’s only on bad days, though, when you get a contact high from the alcohol fumes wafting over from the nearby parties. Also of note are the fold-down beds; watch that you don’t get trapped like James Bond did in the beginning of You Only Live Twice.
Foster House - Now, an all-male dorm in the same region makes a hell of a lot more sense. The architecture looks nice, to boot; it doesn’t have the same institutional feel you get so many other places (See “Foster-Walker Complex" below). In addition, you can have a nifty rollerhockey throwdown on the linoleum floors in your room.
Sargent Hall - This dorm houses the other North Campus dining hall, making it ridiculously easy for its residents to partake of the Sodexho-Marriott goodness. The sex-segregated floors are also a nice reminder that NU was founded by a bunch of staid old Methodists with nothing better to do with their time than to keep others from having fun.
Foster-Walker Complex - If you drew a room here, make sure to check your soul at the door. With its prison-style long narrow hallways, complete lack of common areas and exclusive offerings of tiny singles, the Plex seems designed to wring the joy of human contact from your wretched frame. The only upshot of living here stems from the side benefits of the pity you’ll engender in people who reside in real dorms when you tell them where you live.
North and South Mid-Quads - These are among the nicest-looking dorms from the exterior, and they’re pleasantly situated in the gorgeous sorority quads. However, they possess no character or presence; this reporter has never actually met someone who lives in either building. A scattered few who fled to the Plex of all places will sometimes admit to having lived here, though they tend to shudder when speaking of the experience.
Allison Hall - Some of the advantages to living here are the spacious rooms and the in-house dining hall, which resembles nothing so much as a crystalline blimp hangar. The best part about living in Allison are the bathroom newspapers, which consistently turn out some of the funniest writing on campus outside the Daily Forum page.
1835 Hinman - This place is air-conditioned and the suites are huge; some call it the Kemper of South Campus. However, the rooms are unconscionably small and the whole thing is on the wrong side of Sheridan Road, next to a particularly treacherous curve. Add to that the fact that CRC humiliates them once a year and the in-house dining facilities are hideous, and Hinman isn’t all it’s said to be.
Residential colleges
The residential college system is a subset of dorms at NU. Each res college is organized around a theme, except for the two that aren’t; these are the bastard children of the res college system who still get included in all the family pictures. The main advantages to living in a res college are being placed with likeminded individuals by virtue of the themes and the fact that living in one guarantees you housing for next year. They’re kind of like a Greek system for people who think they’re better than the Greek system.
CCI - This res college, located in spacious Ayers Hall, is dedicated to commerce and industry. While rooming with Alan Greenspan types may seem about as appealing as removing your own sex organs with a rusty spoon, those who live here have a reputation for being heavy drinkers. Besides, they’ll own us all in about ten years, so no big deal either way.
Lindgren Hall - This res college barely exists. How they manage to cram even 40 people into this hole-in-the-campus blows the mind. It’s fairly close to Tech - a nice touch for all the engineers who live in this engineering-themed res college. The whole damn thing’s slated to be evacuated once construction on Slivka Hall is complete; perhaps the university’ll transform it into a pantry.
CCS - The College of Cultural and Community Studies hosts even fewer people than Lindgren, as scary as that is. It’s also badly placed; most of the majors that study cultures and communities, like Sociology and Political Science, have classes predominantly on South Campus, making it quite a hike to fulfill major requirements. Pure brilliance.
Hobart House - The theme of this res college is estrogen. Everyone who lives here is a woman, giving all of you a nice chance to sync up your menstrual cycles and enjoy the atmosphere in the middle of the sorority quads. It’s a good place to live, though, if you don’t want your libido to distract you from your studies.
Willard - This dorm has no stated theme; however, judging from the attitudes of the people there, it revolves around being cooler than everyone else. Willardites host the massive Fall Quarter Frances Willard party, earning them some - but not nearly all - of the chicness they confer upon themselves. Good times if you need desperately to be associated with the in-crowd.
Chapin Hall - Here lies the ‘humanities’ res college; this nebulous theme apparently encompasses a whole lot of literary types along with some wannabe social scientists. The hallways and rooms are astoundingly big, though; if you’re stuck cramped in Foster-Walker, envy these people with a white-hot fury. Then kill them and become them in the style of The Talented Mr. Ripley.
Shepard Hall - This res college also doesn’t have a theme, but it also has none of the pretentiousness of Willard. So far, the pluses outweigh the minuses. In practice, this res college seems directed towards that large class of ‘undecided’ CAS students with the added benefit of providing housing continuity. All in all, a net good.
PARC - People have been known to get a housing assignment here without actually putting it down as a choice on their form. That should tell you a lot about this res college’s character. They were in their element leading up to the 2000 election, but a dorm that’s only worth it once every four years isn’t all that great in the first place.
West Fairchild - The International Studies res college has one huge advantage over all other dorms on campus - honest-to-God co-ed suites! A high percentage of international students live here, enjoying the enlightened benefits of mixing the sexes. However, it’s a less-than-ideal placement on campus for Tech majors.
East Fairchild - The dorm that the Chron is proud to call home, the Communications res college is home to a number of CAS, Medill and film students. Incredibly insular, it is a brave CRCer who ventures outside the cozy confines of 1855 Sheridan. The proximity to Fisk, Harris and Kresge halls makes it convenient for many liberal-arts majors.
Jones Hall - This is where the art students go to do their artsy things. Aside from the times when they attend performances in the spacious Great Room, outsiders tend to view Jonesites with a wary eye, afraid of a sudden outbreak of bizarre performance art. The numerous practice rooms are a good place to rehearse, create or get your freak on.
