Commonly held beliefs about different dormitories often guide first-year students’ housing decisions. To offer a closer look at the housing situation beyond the myths and mysteries, The Daily Pennsylvanian interviewed first year students to learn more about their experiences in the college house system.
Rooms and Amenities
While some college houses boast apartment-style suites with individual bedrooms, others offer a more traditional dorm experience with single, double, and triple rooms shared with roommates. Before the start of their first year, students are given the chance to rank college houses according to their preference — a choice that reflects how they tailor their residential experience to their lifestyle.
College first year Katherine Quintanilla ranked Lauder as her first choice in the housing application because she desired more privacy. Given the number of students who rank Lauder first, Quintanilla said she was pleasantly surprised when she was assigned there.
“I was very surprised when I got [Lauder].” Quintanilla said. “I picked it as my first choice because I value having my own space. The [dorms] in the Quad are more social, but it’s less private and more communal.”
Outside of dorm rooms, each college house offers varying amenities in the common area. Hill has four lounges on each floor for students to study and socialize. All residents are assigned to one of the four lounge groups. College first year Jaynesha Mauvais, who is assigned to the blue lounge group, said she enjoys being able to meet new people easily by going to the lounges.
“The lounges are always occupied,” Mauvais said. “People [are] always talking, studying together. I feel very welcomed. If I ever need someone to talk to, it’s easy to just walk out and find someone.”
Dining halls also set the college houses apart. McClelland Cafe, a popular dining facility known for its express sushi line and Asian cuisine offerings, is located in the Quad. College first year Solinna Onwochei, a resident of Ware College House, commented on McClelland as a central feature in the Quad.
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“We have a dining hall right in our front yard," Onwochei said. "Hill has their dining hall too, but McClelland is especially popular, because of the Asian cuisine and sushi is very popular around here. So I think the dining hall [is] in the center of it all."
Lauder and Kings Court College House also have dining halls, with Lauder offering special entrees at its dinner services. Though it is less popular with students due to its small size, Quintanilla believes that the Lauder dining hall is “underrated, but good.”
Social Scene
With house events and open community spaces, Penn first-year dorms offer varying degrees of social living.
“Honestly, before moving here, I was a little terrified because of hearing how small the rooms [at Hill] were,” College and Engineering first year Anish Dahl said. “But when I first got here, it wasn't that bad. Everyone's super social, and super open to meeting people. … I would say even if the rooms are small I think the community aspect of Hill makes it really special."
Dahl, who is a part of the Vagelos Integrated Program in Energy Research, lives a section of Hill with others in his program. Most coordinated dual degree programs at Penn have similar pre-assigned college houses.
“I think [living together] brings us closer together, and it's nice to come into college knowing a bunch of people and have a built-in friend group,” Dahl said. “I think it was a great move from the administration of VIPER to facilitate that, and I'm super grateful they did.”
College first year Alexis Ebanks said she believes Lauder — which sits adjacent to Hill — seems to lack the community aspects some of the other college houses have.
“There are events,” Ebanks said. “But it's definitely not the most social place, which is kind of sad, but with Hill being nearby … it makes it [better]. [Still,] you're in a room within a room, so it really prevents people from getting out.”
All interviewed first-year residents said that the Quad dorms are the most social. The Quad features an open-concept design with a central courtyard, allowing for gatherings, events, and other activities.
“The Quad [has] good social scenes in general,” College first year and Riepe College House resident Hans Manish said. “There's a lot of common areas to hang out in and very large study rooms, but also the actual Quad itself and by McClelland, where there's chairs to hang out in the lawn.”
There are three four-year houses — Gregory College House, Du Bois College House, and Stouffer College House that host everyone from first-years to seniors, offering a different social scene from first-year only dorms.
Location
With college houses located in different areas around campus, many students reported that they chose their residences based on the houses’ proximity to their classes.
Though Quintanilla considered proximity to classes when deciding on Lauder, she ultimately felt ambivalent about the dorm's convenience.
“Since we are next to Hill, I feel like Lauder is pretty central to everything,” Quintanilla said. “Most of my classes are literally across the street, like in Fisher Bennett Hall or College Hall. But [Lauder] is also far from the high rises, [where] most of my club meetings are … So that’s a bit rough sometimes.”
Regarding the location of the Quad, Onwochei said that she does not think Quad residents are “being done a disservice, even though we have communal bathrooms.”
She believes that Lauder and Hill are “really out of the way of academic spaces," and the Quad, in turn, saves students from "the long trek to a math class, Huntsman, or Commons like the [college houses with] suites and bigger rooms would have.”
Pricing
Regardless of amenities, all first-years pay $13,132 for their college houses.
Students interviewed by the DP said they believed the standardized price was fair, with each college house having its own benefits and trade-offs.
“I'm paying the same price for a much smaller room than someone in Lauder, but at the same time, I don't have to clean the bathroom and I get such a strong community,” Dahl said. “It's not just about space, it's about the whole experience holistically. Looking at that, I would say it's fine that all the houses are priced the same.”
Dahl praised further how income disparities are not reflected in students’ college house experiences, adding that “if you had different pricing for each college house, all the more affluent people or those that come from more affluent families will be grouped together.”
Arti Jain and Alexa Smith contributed to reporting for this article.
