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a note about this site
First off, congratulations on being admitted! Good luck in deciding where you will attend next year; know that we’d love to have you here at Rensselaer.
Now that you’re in, you have to decide where you want to live, and who you want to live with. As far as finding a roommate, make use of the “Admitted Students Website,” accepted students day celebration (if you live close enough), Facebook groups, and other helpful websites. You can choose a roommate, if you find someone you share interests with, or go “pot-luck” - allowing ResLife to assign you to someone.
About rooms: Freshman have 8 residence halls that they can live in, if I’m not mistaken. These are:
- Quad (The Quadrangle)
- Barton
- Bray*
- Cary*
- Crockett*
- Hall*
- Nason*
- BARH (no pictures, yet)
These halls have varying availability about singles, doubles, and triples. *’d halls, called the Freshmen Five, are mirrored versions of the same floor plan.
Kitchens are located in each stack of Quad, each of the Freshman Five, and each wing of BARH. Some are bigger than others, but they each should have stoves, ovens, sinks, and microwaves.
All rooms have (for each student):
- a bed
- a dresser
- a desk
- a closet
- a chair
- a shelving piece (typically fits over desk or dresser)
When I mention moving the desk in these slideshows, I also mean that the chair and shelving piece can be moved. Desks, chairs, and shelving pieces can always be moved. (In a very few rooms, shelves have been screwed to the wall by residents. You will be fined if you screw furniture to the wall, but it is often left in place after you move out.)
Some rooms have the closet and/or dresser built in with the walls as a large piece of furniture. Some Quad rooms have built in closets.
Last general remark: bathroom arrangements vary between residence halls. Some set-ups are suite (or “shared”) arrangements and some are shared for the floor. (A suite bath means two rooms share the bath.) Suite baths are cleaned weekly and floor baths are cleaned daily.
Check out the individual posts to see PHOTOS and commentary about room set-ups and hall commodities. Also, go to reslife.rpi.edu to see floor plans of various halls. Thanks for checking this out. I hope it helps, as I know I would have liked to have this. If you have any questions about residence halls, feel free to e-mail me at nockb@rpi.edu, contact me on Facebook, or post questions on here.
Enjoy,
Brian F. Nock (Civil Engineering ‘13)
This blog was originally published in mid-March of 2010. I’m doing this as a favor to the Freshman Class of 2014 and future classes. All information is accurate to the best of my knowledge, and as time allows, I am verifying and changing information. This blog is not run by the Office of Residence Life.
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Thanks for visiting!
Take a look at the two links to the left: Room Photos! and Answered Questions.
I expect to start receiving questions and inquiries from the incoming Class of 2016 soon & I look forward to hearing from you!
PLEASE NOTE: room rates and photos are dated! The dated photos don’t really matter, but rates/prices have changed.
Also, as a side note: I probably won’t accept your friend request on Facebook. Take no offense, I just prefer to limit my Facebook friendships to people I know in person. If you want to message me, though, that’s fine!
- Brian F. Nock
@brianfnock
nockb@rpi.edu
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Anonymous asked: Can you please tell me about polytechnic commons apartments and can you post pics of the inside of the 4 bedroom apartments? Tahnks
Yes. Polytechnic Commons Apartments are located at the intersection of Congress St. and 15th St. and it’s about a 10 minute walk from campus. This building is restricted to junior and senior students, I believe. Each apartment has 4 single rooms with a full bed, desk, chest of drawers, and hanging space in a dresser. In addition, there are two bathrooms each with a shower and toilet. Each bathroom has 2 sinks. In total, there are two showers, two toilets, and 4 sinks for the 4 residents. Finally there is a sizeable kitchen and living area. The kitchen is furnished with a table, 4 chairs, stove, oven, fridge, and sink. The living room is furnished with an arm chair, coffee table, and TV stand.
As I lived there last summer, I happen to have photos that I have posted here - enjoy!
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Polytechnic Commons Apartments are located at the intersection of Congress St. and 15th St. and it’s about a 10 minute walk from campus. This building is restricted to junior and senior students, I believe. Each apartment has 4 single rooms with a full bed, desk, chest of drawers, and hanging space in a dresser. In addition, there are two bathrooms each with a shower and toilet. Each bathroom has 2 sinks. In total, there are two showers, two toilets, and 4 sinks for the 4 residents. Finally there is a sizeable kitchen and living area. The kitchen is furnished with a table, 4 chairs, stove, oven, fridge, and sink. The living room is furnished with an arm chair, coffee table, and TV stand.
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Anonymous asked: What is the probability of a freshman getting a Quad Triple with a shared bathroom vs a floor bathroom?
I really don’t know how to answer this because the question is kind of uninformed (which isn’t really your fault). In the Quad, you can end up in a variety of setups:
- Double room with a floor bath
- Triple room with a floor bath
- Double room with a shared bath
- Triple room with a shared bath
By far, the most common is the double room with a shared bath. There is a rare chance that you will get any other setup, but it is possible.
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Anonymous asked: I just pulled up from the waiting list so everything seems a bit late. Will I be assigned to a residence with a bad location since there may not have enough room left? Can I fax my residence preference form to them instead of mailing my form? Thank you!
You will not be assigned a residence hall with a “bad location” as we don’t have residence halls with “bad locations.” In all seriousness, though, you should submit your preference form ASAP by the methods available according to the form. You may not get your first choice, but you won’t be worse off as an incoming student for that. We allocate plenty of space for the incoming students. I’m not very familiar with the process, as it’s been a while since I’ve done it, but if it says you can fax the form in - go for it!
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Anonymous asked: I've been trying to find out through the official RPI site but I can't find anything that will say whether halls are co-ed by floors (one half of a floor is girls, the other is boys) or by buildings (alternate floors are alternate sexes). If someone would like to bring a bike, are there specific places to chain them up to? Lastly, how accommodating is the staff if things don't work out between roommates? Thank you for all the help.
Floors can be co-ed “by floor” (as you defined it) or “by hall.” It just depends on how things fall. All bathrooms are single sex.
Bikes can be secured to racks that are located outside of each residence hall. Some also have bike rooms inside.
If there is a ‘roommate-conflict,’ your RA will be willing and able to talk through this with you. The RA will help make a decision on the best way to resolve the situation; rarely does it end in a room change, but it happens.
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Anonymous asked: Are the quads hard to get and is there a high demand for them as a freshman?
My honest answer to this is that I have no idea. Statistics on demand for housing are not published. I don’t hear a lot of people saying that they tried to live in the Quad and were denied because it was full - in fact, I’m not sure I’ve ever heard that said. My advice to you: send in your housing preferences and hope for the best. No stress.
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Anonymous asked: What do you know about the themed housing ? - Vashuda , Leadership & Wellness. Is it located separately from the others ?
Nason, Hall, and Bray are all halls located on Freshman Hill and each of them also has other non-themed housing residents. Themed housing is very integrated with non-themed housing, in this way.
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Anonymous asked: Are girls mean/stuck up because they are surrounded by guys who probably give them a lot of attention? I asked because I am an incoming freshman female and don't want to be around a bunch of girls with bad attitudes. :( Thanks!
Some girls can get self-centered due to the attention they receive, but it’s not a common issue and it’s easily avoidable. I don’t regularly interact with any girls (or guys) who feel like they are more privileged than others in terms of whose attention they have… and to be fair, I interact with a pretty large group of people on a regular basis.
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Anonymous asked: Sorry if is this has already been asked but, 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.
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Anonymous asked: do you think being in a sorority/frat is too time-consuming? are the greeks here really strict? at my friend's school, they fined her every time she missed a social event to study.
It depends on the individual, but wholistically, it’s not too time-consuming, as many students participate in Greek Life, do well in academics, and are involved in other places on campus. Is it time-consuming? Yes, it is a commitment. Is it too time-consuming for you? Well, I don’t know you…. so I can’t say.
Are “the Greeks” strict? Well, I’ve never heard of anything like the example about your friend being fined for missing a social event at RPI. Getting involved in Greek Life is meant to build your character in many dimensions (personally, socially, professionally, academically, etc.). You should attend rush events in the fall and ask these questions of the Greek students.
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Anonymous asked: do you know how hard it is to set up a club at rpi as a freshman? i want to set up one similar to what ive seen at other schools, and im hoping that if i am able to find enough interested people and be able to set it up within a few months. would this be impossible?
To save myself time (and because it offers the most complete response), I will link you to a recent article by the Poly (RPI’s student newspaper).
My brief response would be: if the club (or something similar to it) doesn’t already exist, you can create it within a semester.
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Anonymous asked: why is sharp so desired?
I’ll have to answer this with a kind of jaded perspective, but I’ll do my best. Most current students would probably agree that Sharp is the nicest available residence hall for sophomore students. Sharp is close to academic campus, has suite-style living, and a living room. There is also a kitchen and some work-out equipment downstairs. All-in-all it is kind of the whole package. The other sophomore residence halls are still nice, but they may not be as close, or are not suite-style.
I’m kind of inclined to believe that you are an incoming student, so I will note that Sharp is restricted to sophomore residents. -
Anonymous asked: Hi, do you know if all of the beds in the Quadrangle are like the ones in your photos (attached to a closet), or are there movable/debunkable ones too?
Yes, I do know. In the Quad, there are some beds that are bunked in a permanent way, while some beds are on frames that are low to the ground. Double rooms often have one of each; one bed is bunked (attached to the closet) and the other is free and low to the ground.
Aside from making a visit to the room that you are assigned, there’s really no telling which beds are attached when it comes to the Quad.
