The dorms on this campus can take on different personalities. Between the stacked halls of nearly closet-sized rooms, communities form between co-inhabitants and reputations emerge. I, as I assume many were, was clueless about this as a freshman. Housing options were stripped down to just a list of locations, hall facilities and the occasional living learning community title. The Six Pack shone like a landing strip for all incoming freshman wishing for social interaction. But after living for almost two years in University housing, I know better.

I spent my freshman year living in an Allen Hall double, and now my sophomore year in a Hopkins Hall single. The two have been drastically different living situations.

Allen Hall is known as the Unit One living learning community, housing 650 residents in a co-ed split of singles, doubles and triples. I paid an extra $200 in room and board for the uncountable hall facilities provided for its artsy aura: unique weekly clubs, music practice rooms, ceramics, photography and digital video editing labs, free music lessons and an almost monthly guest-in-residence program. “Allen Notes” is a weekly schedule printed and posted throughout the hall just to keep track of it all. Some of my classes were located right in the building. The rooms were filled with the creative and their subsequent energy: writers, musicians, artists, thespians, dancers and the like. There wasn’t a moment’s thought of boredom while I lived there; Allen Hall doesn’t allow it.

The hall was social, yes, but with an added agenda. I lived on the fourth floor “forgotten hallway” — located in the adjacent turn at the end of the building, surrounded by mostly international students who seemed to have an insatiable love for playing GameCube. Even though dominantly composed of freshman, like most halls are, the majority of people were busy throughout the day, so the small, familylike dining hall or the community’s numerous activities were where you would socialize. It was friendliness with a shared specific interest in creating. During the day, the halls would bubble over with underclassmen chatter, the flowing sounds of someone practicing for the next Coffeehouse or groups of people covering the hallway in beautiful decorations. At night, it would fall politely quiet.

Because of a last-minute roommate fallout, I was thrown into a Hopkins Hall single for my second year, and it’s been quite a different year. As part of the Ikenberry Commons, Hopkins houses 468 residents in a co-split square of a building, allowing for tight-knit groups to form by floor. I felt relieved in the freedom of having a room to myself, but my Allen Hall net was gone. 

Without constantly having some sort of activity offered, neighbors simply become close with their floor mates. But if Allen was the introverted artsy type, Hopkins is the extroverted jock. I have a single on the first floor, surrounded by nearly all out-of-state female athletes, and I am astounded at the amount of energy these girls can exert throughout the day. While the RAs provide the occasional hall social gathering, social interaction is as simple as walking into your neighbors open door. It is friendliness for the sake of being friendly.

When comparing the two though, or any other dorm for that matter, it really comes down to trade-offs. Allen Hall caters to more creative, activity-focused individuals, but Hopkins is for the socially vivacious. I had to put in more work to coordinate weekend night plans while at Allen, while in Hopkins it takes me less than five minutes to figure out where everyone’s going. Getting eight hours of sleep at Allen was as simple as going to bed at a reasonable hour, where at Hopkins I’ve come to rely on my noise-canceling headphones to mute out the relentless hoots and hollers of my neighboring party animals.

I value the experience I’ve had at both halls, each having provided a uniquely different environment with its own pros and cons. It all depends on what you want to get out of your year in the dorms. I would encourage anyone willing to give housing a two-year try to change up your hall, even if your freshman living experience was a good one. While I cannot wait to live in my own apartment next year, I realize I’ll never live in University housing again. Students should learn from and experience the different vibrant communities this campus has to offer, and that starts by finding a hall personality that matches your own. 

Sarah is a sophomore in Media and can be reached at [email protected].