Happy April! I want to dedicate this post to talking about my experience living in dorms here at Wellesley, which I know is a top question on the mind of prospective students.
Firstly, the majority of Wellesley students live on-campus in residence halls for all four years. I think living on campus is the most efficient option and really integrates you with the community. I have lived on-campus all three years here and will be living on campus next year; I lived in a double—a dorm room with one other roommate—for my first two years and started living in a single—a dorm room with just myself—this year. I have been lucky to have good experiences living in residence halls and having roommates here!
My freshman year, I lived on the west side of campus. I met my roommate through Instagram the summer before freshman year, so we grouped together on the online housing platform. Freshmen are randomly assigned to residence halls a few months before coming to campus, and my roommate and I were assigned to a double in a dorm in the Quint, a “neighborhood” of dorms on the west side. The west side of campus is closest to Lulu Chow Wang Campus Center and our Academic Quad. The westside residence halls are older, have more of a traditional architecture style, and can have smaller rooms.
The Quint in spring! The Quint consists of 4 residence halls all next to each other – Cazenove (Caz), Pomeroy (Pom), Shafer, Beebe – and another dorm, Munger, which is right next to these.
My sophomore year, I flipped and began living on the east side of campus and this time, I was assigned a random roommate. I chose to live on the east side of campus to live in the Chinese Corridor, which are rooms in an eastside residence hall dedicated to students taking Chinese classes. Chinese cultural events are often hosted here too.
The east side of campus is closest to our Science Center and the town of Wellesley. The eastside residence halls are more modern, can have larger rooms, and are known to be a bit quieter. A nice thing about the eastside residence halls is that they have kitchens on each floor, so residents love to cook.
The eastside dorms in the winter! The eastside dorms in this picture are Freeman, Bates, and McAfee. The other eastside dorm, Stone-Davis, is a short walk away.
Currently, I am in the same residence hall as last year, so obviously I enjoy living on the eastside! During my time here at Wellesley, I have honestly enjoyed living on both the west and east sides of campus (if you don’t believe me, I actually plan to move back and live on the west side next year); I think both sides have their pros and cons depending on what type of person you are. If this is your first time living in dorms or residence halls, adjusting is definitely tough, but I think it simply requires a bit of time. As an only child, I am grateful for living in dorms because it has taught me how to share and accommodate other people.
If you want to learn more about Wellesley residential life, I highly recommend checking out the college’s page on Housing and searching on this blog for other bloggers’ posts about dorms or housing!
Thank you for reading!