| Sample Room in Sulz |
(All rooms don't look like this.
Look at ResLife's website to see other sample rooms.)
What I Wish I Knew:
For those living on campus next year, congratulations, You've applied for housing! Whether you picked your own roommate or Barnard will be hand-picking your roommate(s) for you, this marks the beginning of a new phase in your life. Living with a roommate taught me so much about myself and made me so much more self-aware. Living in the quad allowed me to forge so many beautiful relationships with people from all over the world! Now that you've applied, here are some tips/things I want to share with you that I wish I knew:
1. It really helps to establish a form of communication with your roommate(s). Whether it's text messages, snaps, IG DM's, phone calls or in person, it's inevitable that you will both have comments and concerns. An example could be that your roommate gets ready really loudly in the morning when you're trying to sleep and it's waking you up earlier than you'd like to be awake, or you get back really late when they're already sleeping and don't realize that you're waking them up. Or it could be something minor like checking in with them to see if they need groceries at the store. Whatever the specifics, you will 100% need to establish a form of communication if you want things to go smoothly. Take it from me. My roommate and I eventually texted to communicate, though I wish I had spoken up more during the times I needed to.
2. On that note, speak up! I never knew how hard it would be for me to speak up when something made me uncomfortable until I had a roommate. Don't get me wrong, things ran smoothly most of the time, and my roommate and I spoke a lot about random things like our favorite artists, TV shows and life back home. But for fear of ruining the relationship, when small things bothered me, I didn't say anything. You'd be surprised at how easy it is to just let things slide. But guess what, you didn't come to college for your roommate(s)! You came to college to start the journey of becoming the best version of yourself. And to do that, you need a comfortable place to come back to! So, speak up!
3. With that in mind, please be considerate. Put yourself first, but do so respectfully. Make sure that at the very least, you're respectful to the people you're living with. Be open to compromise, listening and possibly making changes. Points 2 and 3 may seem a little contradictory, but you will quickly learn how to find the balance between speaking up/asking for what you need, and respecting the needs of your roommate(s).
4. Don't worry! The housing contract that you will go through at the beginning of the year is actually very, very detailed. Spend as much time as possible going through each question. It's the best thing you can do to be proactive, rather than reactive!
5. Your roommate(s) do(es) not have to be your best friend(s)! ResLife isn't matching y'all based on potentially becoming life-long friends, but rather how you would get along living together. They don't foresee you finding the Grace to your Frankie and neither should you! In fact, while your roommate could become your bestie, the majority of people that I know are only in contact with their roommates through dm'ing each other on IG, or the smiles/head nods that they exchange if they cross paths. The likelihood of you finding the Grace to your Frankie somewhere other than your room is much higher, and you should be excited for that!
Dorms at Barnard:
2. On that note, speak up! I never knew how hard it would be for me to speak up when something made me uncomfortable until I had a roommate. Don't get me wrong, things ran smoothly most of the time, and my roommate and I spoke a lot about random things like our favorite artists, TV shows and life back home. But for fear of ruining the relationship, when small things bothered me, I didn't say anything. You'd be surprised at how easy it is to just let things slide. But guess what, you didn't come to college for your roommate(s)! You came to college to start the journey of becoming the best version of yourself. And to do that, you need a comfortable place to come back to! So, speak up!
3. With that in mind, please be considerate. Put yourself first, but do so respectfully. Make sure that at the very least, you're respectful to the people you're living with. Be open to compromise, listening and possibly making changes. Points 2 and 3 may seem a little contradictory, but you will quickly learn how to find the balance between speaking up/asking for what you need, and respecting the needs of your roommate(s).
4. Don't worry! The housing contract that you will go through at the beginning of the year is actually very, very detailed. Spend as much time as possible going through each question. It's the best thing you can do to be proactive, rather than reactive!
5. Your roommate(s) do(es) not have to be your best friend(s)! ResLife isn't matching y'all based on potentially becoming life-long friends, but rather how you would get along living together. They don't foresee you finding the Grace to your Frankie and neither should you! In fact, while your roommate could become your bestie, the majority of people that I know are only in contact with their roommates through dm'ing each other on IG, or the smiles/head nods that they exchange if they cross paths. The likelihood of you finding the Grace to your Frankie somewhere other than your room is much higher, and you should be excited for that!
All the first-years, unless they commute, live in the Quad (which consists of Hewitt, Sulzberger, Brooks and Reid), and have a roommate or even roommates. So this pretty much means you don't have to walk very far to see your first-year friends because the buildings are all connected! Rooms come in 1, 2, 3 and 4 person setups, with many of the "multiple occupancy" (meaning over 2 people) rooms being in Sulz or Brooks. You will be sharing bathrooms with people on your floor, but there are 4 or 5 bathrooms per floor, so don't fret. Most places have fairly normal big room type setups, but Brooks has walk-through rooms as well:
For the combo double above, the open door leads to a common room connected to another double. These three rooms together make a quad. The common room above with the four desks is in the middle of both doubles. The Sulz quads have a different setup with four people living in the same room. Also pictured below is a Sulz triple!
As for furniture in these layouts, triples have a bunk bed and a lofted bed (essentially a bunk bed with no bottom bunk). Quads and doubles normally have individual beds, but many of these beds have the capacity to become bunk beds - so if you wanna save a little space, hit up facilities and request that they do it for you!
Every floor has a lounge in Sulz near the elevators, that includes a tv, tables and chairs, and a small kitchen set up that consists of a couple of cabinets, a sink, and a microwave. These are pretty common meeting spaces and you will probably be having lots of hall activities with your RAs there!
Final advice:
Adjusting to dorm life is hard. But good news! You'll have a whole class of people going through the same thing! No matter how many roommates or which dorm you get, try to be open and accepting through the entire process, while clearly communicating what you are and are not comfortable with. There will be something new about this experience for all of you, so make sure to be cognizant of learning curves or comfort levels! I'd just like to re-emphasize: you do NOT have to be best friends with your roommate(s). What's MOST important in this entire process is that you are a respectful, responsible and communicative person to live with! This is easier said than done, but if there's anything you remember from this blog post it should be the word: communication. So important!
What I gave you was just a little snippet of all the advice and input ResLife has to give, so check them out! They have a super useful list of what to bring (and what to leave at home), and information for all of the residence halls + many other resources.
Overall, I LOVED living in the Quad and will miss it. You can wake up 15-minutes before class because classes are that close! You can use the underground tunnels to get to most places on campus and avoid extreme temps in the process. Millie (The Milstein Library) is a two-minute walk away, so you can study late and not have far to trek when you're finally tired. Also, Hewitt Dining Hall, which I am a big fan of, is super close to the dorms. As I mentioned previously, the four dorms in the quad are all connected so seeing your friends is so easy! You all have so much to be excited about.
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| You get a roommate! You get a roommate! |
If you want to hear more about our experiences, or still have some lingering questions, don't hesitate to hit us up at first-year@barnard.edu!
