I would actually not rank Sharp as number one. I personally would rank the Freshman 5 as top. Everyone has a different opinion. That being said, if I were to give mine, it would be the following:
- Freshman Five
- Davison/Nugent
- Warren
- Barton
- BARH
- Sharp
Barton
Which dorms for freshmen have air conditioning?
- Davison
- Nugent
- Barton
- Sharp
Which res halls have kitchens with a stove top?
The following freshman halls have kitchens with a stove top:
- Freshman Five (Bray, Hall, Cary, Crocket, Nugent)
- Davison & Nugent
- Warren
- Sharp
- Quad (each stack has a kitchen on the first floor with a stove and oven)
- BARH
For freshmen, does any room have a bathroom or are they suite bathrooms shared between 2 rooms?
Suite bathrooms: Davison, Nugent, Barton
Hall bathrooms: Freshman Five (Bray, Cary, Hall, Nason, Crocket), Barton
Individual room/suite bathrooms: Warren, Sharp
Are there doubles, not just triples in Barton?
No Barton is just triples
Two questions: 1) Are you allowed to paint the walls in your dorm in Barton Hall on the third floor? 2) Are dorms in the third floor carpeted? If so, are we allowed to remove the carpeting?
- No
- Yes carpeted, no to removing
How is the internet in Barton Hall? Is it good enough to play games like Overwatch without connecting to ethernet?
It is recommended you connect to Ethernet
Do BARH triple rooms with suite, shared bathrooms have showers in the bathrooms?
Yes 1 shower is shared between 6 people.
My son will be residing in a triple at Barton Hall, How do they determine bed assignments? He is a rather large person and sleeping up top in a bunk bed would be challenging.
Bed assignments are decided among roommates. If there is an issue go to the Resident Assistant on the floor who can help.
Have there ever been accidents at Barton Hall involving bunk beds?
I do not believe so
One of the Barton pictures show a room with three raised beds, instead of a bunk bed and lofted bed set up. I’m assigned one of the larger Barton rooms. Is it now possible to have all the beds unlofted? Can my roommates and I do it ourselves?
Barton rooms are all the same size, give or take a couple square feet. They’re all triples, and they’re all three raised beds by default. The bunk and lofted bed setup was used before last school year. You can still opt to bunk two of the beds or loft any of them, but there’s a fee associated with doing so—I can’t remember the fee off the top of my head, but it was something around the $150 mark
Will be coming in the Fall, Class of 2021. Which Freshman housing options have a/c and which ones do not?
- Davison
- Barton
- Nugent
- Sharp
Which Hall is the one with triples?
Barton Hall is all triples. BARH sometimes has forced triples as well.
Will we be able to sneak a peek of our assigned dorm at SO?
Normally you stay in Barton and Davison during SO because they are air conditioned. If you are living in either of these dorms during the year you can preview your room, but other than that you are unable to see your assigned dorm room.
In Barton do 2 of the 3 people have to deal with a bunk bed situation, or is it possible to have 3 separate beds?
The set up for Barton is that there is one bunk bed and one lofted bed. This means that 2/3 will be sharing a bunk bed. At this time there is no way to do the 3 single separate beds.
Can you you raise your own bed? What tools are needed?
Beds in the Freshman Five & BARH are adjustable. You just need to pop out the bar and place it in the selected height. A hammer is beneficial, but you don’t need it to adjust the bed. Risers are not recommended for the Freshman Five & BARH as the beds are heavy. You can also choose to loft the beds.
For beds in Nason and Davison, these are not adjustable. You should get risers to raise the bed or choose to loft it.
For Barton, the beds are already lofted and you do not have to do anything.
What are the dimensions of the barton rooms without suite style baths? (I know they are 231 sq ft but that’s it)
Sadly, at this time we do not know that answer. What I can tell you is Barton rooms with suite bathrooms are slightly smaller than those with hall bathrooms, but in general Barton has large rooms.
Does Barton already have a loft bed in the triple rooms or do I need to order one from the 3rd party company?
No you do not need to order your bed to be lofted, they already are.
Hello, for rooms with a shared bathroom (like in davidson), would we have to bring our own bathroom supplies (like plunger, toilet bowl brush, soap dispensers, etc) or is that stuff included?
The shared bathrooms in Davison and Barton do not come with plungers or toilet bowl brushes. They may come with soap dispensers but I recommend you bring your own cleaning/bathroom supplies.
Do all the bunk beds have rails along the sides so we don’t fall off the bed? Is there a ladder in the room for the upper bunk bed? Also, how much weight can the upper bunk bed support? (I might be putting my laptop and schoolbag on the bed with me.) Much thanks!!
If the bunk bed does not have a rail, you can ask for one (at no cost). I wouldn’t be terribly worried about falling off, though; do you fall off your bed when it’s on the ground? Barton (which has a lot of lofted beds) has some beds with a railing and some without. Some students use a ladder and some students climb the end of the bed which has rungs.
I don’t know with certainty how much weight a bunked bed can hold, but I will say this: students sometimes hang out with 3-4 students sitting on the top bed. Some students also have significant others sleep overnight in the same bed. This is an engineering school – we aren’t going to put you in a bunk bed that can’t stably hold a student, a laptop, and a backpack…
Then what would the major differences amongst the dorms be? How do people choose their preferences?
All of the freshman residence halls have some amount of lounge/kitchen space, but it does vary.
- Quad – two double rooms share a suite bath. Rooms are irregularly shaped. VERY close to class. No long hallways – often quieter. Upperclassmen on the third floor. Close to Sage Dining Hall. A/C.
- Freshman Five (Bray, Cary, Nason, Crockett, Hall) – all very similar. Kind of plain-Jane rooms. Long hallways, lots of social-ness. Part of some of these halls is devoted to: Wellness Housing (Bray), Vasudha Housing (Nason), Leadership Housing (Hall), Design and the Arts Housing (Cary). Close to Commons Dining Hall. Community/floor style bathrooms.
- Barton – newest residence hall. A/C. Mostly triples. Close to Commons Dining Hall. Two triples share a suite bath in some cases. In other cases, there is a community/floor bathroom.
- BARH – very close to ECAV/athletic facilities. Similar plain-Jane as Freshman Five. I believe two doubles share a suite bathroom. Has BARH dining hall within. Farthest from classes. Lots of lounge space.
Are there elevators in all of the halls?
No, not nearly. The only halls with elevators are:
- Barton (freshmen)
- Blitman (upperclass)
- Polytech Apartments (upperclass)
Hey, so I know that the Barton suite baths have someone who comes to clean it. Is this true for warren, nugent and/or davison halls? Or do you have to clean it yourself?
Most halls have a cleaning staff of some sort. With Warren, Nugent, Davison, and Sharp (WNDS), a cleaning staff person works daily to clean the building (lounges, floors, etc.) and will clean each room’s bathroom once per week.
Is there room for storage under a bunk bed in barton? What is the height of the storage bin that would fit under the bed?
Bunk beds in Barton can be raised and lowered with a system of notches along the bedposts. At the highest notch, the bottom bed should handle anything 27” tall or less.
Which of the freshman dorms have elevators? Also is Barton the only one with ac?
Only freshman residence hall with an elevator: Barton.
Freshman residence halls with AC: Quad, Barton.
Other ammenities: http://reslife.rpi.edu/update.do?artcenterkey=53.
I want to live in a pretty social dorm that has non-communal bathrooms, (meaning at most 2 rooms per bathroom), not too far from classes, and mixed gender. Which is the best dorm for me?
All dorms are mixed gender.
The Quad is closest to classes. Hall, Cary, Barton, Bray, Crockett, and Nason follow closely in that order (they’re all within about 100 yards of one another). BARH would be the farthest.
Quad and Barton are the only ones for freshmen that have non-communal bathrooms.
So, it sounds like you want to live in Quad… but do some of your own research. I’m not a match-making service.
What is the temperature like in each building? Are there any that are especially hot or especially cold? As someone who can’t stand the heat, are there any dorms that I should try to avoid living in? Thanks!
Barton and Quad have central air conditioning. In Barton, each room has a thermostat and in the Quad, you control the temperature and amount of heat/AC. It’s really only hot outside for a few weeks in the early fall and a few weeks in the late spring (if even).
From what I’ve heard, the other freshmen five (Hall, Crockett, Cary, Bray, and Nason) are heated the same – some people say they are overheated/hot, so maybe avoid those. They also have no central AC.
So I’m trying to figure out my housing preference, but I guess I’m not clear on a few things. 1) For suite style-the bathrooms: how many people share that bathroom, 3 (for one room) or was it (6 for 2 rooms)? In that bathroom, is there only one shower, toilet, etc? Or multiple, in in the bathroom? 2) If I decide to go for suite style, and if a roomate is in the suite style bathroom, am I still allowed to use the floor bathroom? And another thing: I heard there are printing rooms in the housing itself, so I wouldn’t have to walk to the computer lab, is that the case for all housing: do all of them have that? There seems to be no facebook group, or anyway to contact future rpi kid: all there was, is a form that asks simply 6 questions and randomly pairs with you someone, so I’m a little worried.
1) It depends on what hall you’re discussing. In the Quad, almost all of the suite bathrooms are shared by 4 people (2 in each room). In Barton, all of the suite bathrooms are shared by 6 people (3 in each room). As far as I know, each suite bathroom (no matter where) has only 1 toilet stall, 1 shower, and 1 sink. Good question.
2) Yes, you can use floor bathrooms whenever you want.
Printing) I believe that the Quad is the only freshmen residence hall without an in-house printer. However, to clarify, there are printers all over campus not just at the “computer lab” (which you are probably referring to the Voorhees Computing Center (VCC). There are also computer labs all over campus. For a full list of public printers that students can use, take a look at this: http://helpdesk.rpi.edu/update.do?artcenterkey=301 . You should recognize some of those as names of the freshmen residence halls!
Freshman year roommate) When I was admitted two years ago, there was an admitted students site operated by RPI. If you’re not aware of this, they’ve probably done away with it (and moved to Facebook). This is where we went to find out (electronically) if we had been admitted, and we each had a profile. There were forums and chat rooms, etc. I found a guy on there who had similar interests as me and we made the arrangements. If this doesn’t exist, I would encourage you to make use of the RPI Class of 2015 Facebook group. Perhaps you could organize something off of this and get things moving?
Two things actually; Which housing option do you think is the best for freshmen? Dorms like Bray, Crockett, Cary, etc, or Barton, the Quadrangle or BARH? And how exactly does the whole laptop situation work? I know they offer a deal on a really good laptop, but what was your experience with that?
Calling any residence hall “the best” is an impossible choice to make. Depending on your lifestyle, you may prefer one hall over another. For starters, athletes tend to live in BARH, as it’s close to ECAV and the dining hall is open until 8:30pm. That being said, if you want to live in BARH and you’re not athletic, you can still fit in.
The Quad is often considered quieter because there are no hallways. This is where I live, and there is still plenty of social life. Also, BARH and the Quad hves upperclassmen living on the third floor; it can be nice to know older students. Quad is also really close to classes, especially compared to BARH. Quad residents typically eat at Sage.
Barton and the Freshmen Five are essentially equal in distance to ECAV, Commons, and the academic part of campus. Barton is just nicer and sometimes called “Hotel Barton.” These dorms overall are the most social because of their hallways and openness. Really though, everyone makes friends.
The laptop situation: RPI offers a Lenovo laptop for about $1800. The laptop comes ‘imaged’ with most of the software you need for classes and a four year service plan. This year, we got W500s. Some students complain about the quality of the laptop, but I’ve found them to be pretty high speed and the service plan is nice. Laptops with any problems can be taken to the Help Desk at the VCC and they will try to fix the problem or lend you a loaner laptop while they work on yours, if need be. If you don’t have the RPI laptop, the Help Desk can help you, but you won’t get full replacement parts and you have to chase down (and sometimes pay for) the software. You can find more information here: http://www.rpi.edu/laptops/
RPI Rooms 