Hey everyone!
While I’m living at home during remote learning, I am remembering all the good times I had in my dorm at school. It’s definitely bittersweet, but I thought I’d take this opportunity to talk about how housing works at Scripps. So buckle in while I reminisce, look forward to when we’re back on campus, and hopefully de-mystify housing for you all.
Scripps has 11 residence halls that all have a unique character. Our dorms have single rooms, doubles, triples, a couple quads, and 5- and 7-person suites. We have no housing divided by class year, so you get to meet and learn from all different class years. I know my first time doing laundry would not have gone as smoothly as it did if a sophomore hadn’t been doing laundry at the same time.
That being said, some dorms do have more juniors and seniors because of the room distribution. Juniors and seniors tend to gravitate towards singles and suites, so dorms like Schow Hall and Frankel-Routt have more suites, and therefore, more juniors and seniors. Dorms with more triples and doubles, like Clark and Toll, have more first years and sophomores. Granted, I’ve only lived in Dorsey Hall, so my experience with each dorm is purely through people I know, but those are my general impressions.
Last year, we were the Dorsey Dorsal Fins, and this greeted us upon move in!
Now for the all-important roommate situation. I was pretty nervous about my roommates because they were basically strangers I had to live with now. Before starting at Scripps, each student fills out a housing survey about their living habits. It is very important that you fill this out and that you fill it out honestly so that you can be placed in a good housing situation. From these surveys, our Residential Life staff places everyone in rooms. They will also take into account any housing accommodations you may have. You can choose roommates if you know someone, but it’s recommended to allow the staff to place you. Personally, of the three roommate problems I heard about my first year, two of them were from people who chose their own roommates.
For my year, we found out who we were rooming with in mid-July. We were placed in a triple in Dorsey. We connected with each other so we kind of knew each other before arriving, but it’s definitely a transition to all of the sudden be living together. It worked out pretty well though, and my roommate Grace and I decided to room together our sophomore year too. Our other roommate decided to room with one of her other friends, so it all worked out naturally.
This is the door of my first year dorm, which we decorated for the holidays!
In my first room, this is the bed-desk-dresser set up. It was quite compact and worked pretty well, although it was hard to change my sheets…
After the first year, each student can choose their roommate/s and room. Rooms are decided by lottery by year, so seniors are all in a lottery together, then the next day is juniors, then sophomores, and some rooms are reserved by Res Life staff for first years. While I won’t go into too much technical detail, you make a roommate group and can favorite rooms you are interested in. When it is your time, you hop onto the website and reserve your preferred room that is still available. Then, you know exactly where you will be living the next year and can even ask the current residents what the room is like! Grace and I chose a double in Dorsey, on the exact opposite side of the building from our first room, and we visited it to kind of plan what we would do with the space.
Our second-year room looked out onto the Dorsey courtyard.
My desk my second year was also where I kept pictures and some other decorations.
I never completed room selection for this year given our remote learning, but I was hoping to get a single, maybe by the Rose Garden. One of the Admission Ambassadors had a room right off the Rose Garden and I really liked it! Hopefully I can get a room like that at some point.
I really love our dorms. They feel like a home to me, and as a bonus they all have air conditioning! I look forward to when I can be back on campus enjoying my room, studying in the browsing room, reading in the living room, relaxing in our courtyard, and hanging out with friends.
The Dorsey living room
With love to our dorms,
Siena