For First-Years, Comfort Is Often Only Steps Away

For Tomy Perez, CC '09, it's hard to match the memories he has of his first-year on John Jay's 13th floor.

"Ten people sprawled out in a narrow hallway at 3 a.m. every night is just the right thing to create a lasting bond," Perez said. "It was all the corny, kickass moments that made JJ 13 what it was. ... Frisbee, jam sessions, watergun and shaving cream fights, and rental bin derby. ... And then again, it was nothing more than just the right combination of people."

Compatibility proves to be a deciding factor in whether many students keep fond memories of freshman housing. Incoming first-years routinely get placed in dorms that are not their first choice and have to build a whole new set of relationships with the people around them, while simultaneously adjusting to their first semester of college. But for those who click with their floor-mates, the first year housing experience can be a formative one, forging life-long friendships and shaping their time at Columbia.

The small things can easily make or break a housing experience, from residents who would routinely put goody bags on the door handles of everyone on the hall, to having, in Perez's words, an "incredibly chill and caring RA."

Last year had a significant impact on several of John Jay 13's residents, causing 11 of them to pick up and move to McBain's fourth floor this year. It is a regular occurrence in sophomore dorms and beyond, although few floors reach double-digit numbers of such students.

"To be honest, my freshman housing experience won't be matched, even if I continue to live with the same people," Perez said. "I'm not sure what I'll be doing next year for housing, but the JJ 13's are always close by."

Some students try to parlay relationships into posh living selections by glomming onto RAs and community programming assistants, following them into their preselected housing.

"I wanted to be a CPA-rider because the CPA suites in the LLC [Living and Learning Center] are enormous four-person suites on the 10th floors of both buildings, and the rooms average around 170 square feet apiece. It's the best housing on South Lawn, hands down," said Ashley Regazzi, SEAS '08, who was planning on tagging along as a CPA-rider this year, but ended up reapplying to the LLC because of the camaraderie she has with the people whom she's chosen to room with for years.

"I've entered the LLC lottery two years in a row with the two quiet engineers who lived next door to me in Furnald in my first year, since we shared a lot of the same ideologies about work, play, and the importance of keeping one's kitchen clean," she said.

Kellye Cung, SEAS '08, will be a CPA-rider next year. While geographic location is important, Cung said that, in the end, housing decisions usually come down to familiarity and compatibility.

"In my case, and I think in most cases, people basically just want to live with those whom they're on good terms with," Cung said.

Still, a few students each year, like Tiger Li, SEAS '09, who lived in John Jay last year, decide to skip Columbia housing altogether and pursue an off-campus apartment.

"I guess it's [a] combination of several reasons, mostly because that I wanted a bigger room," he said.

Li also said that he enjoys cooking and that he likes "to invite many friends over to cook together. "Living in JJ [or another campus dorm] cannot provide that," he added. "I wanted to have space of my own, to feel what it is like to live by myself and take care of many things on my own."

Though he did not feel like repeating it, Li said that he appreciated his first-year housing experience: "I enjoyed living on campus and living in JJ last year. [It was] definitely a great experience in term of making friends and meeting different kinds of people. Leaving on a college dorm is indeed a unique feeling."

Josh Dickinson, CC '10, who lived in a Hartley suite this year with students from several grades, shared some of the same sentiments, but also said that the drawbacks of first-year housing had driven him to get his own apartment.

"I'm living in an off-campus apartment next year because of disgusting smells that come from the kitchen, and the fact that I don't look forward to the prospect of sharing a room with even the best of the people I've met in my class so far, let alone the worst," Dickinson said. "Also, it's going to be hella cheaper than campus housing."

Dickinson acknowledged that the convenience of on-campus housing has several benefits compared to his apartment on 139th Street, where he will be living in next year.

"My freshman housing experience was a bit crazy, a bit lonely, too loud, damn dirty, and really fun," he said. "Actually, I wouldn't have changed it for anything. Freshmen can be really annoying, so only having to see a few of them is actually quite refreshing, and when I want to party, all I have to do is take a few shots, shove a roll of quarters in my pants, and head over to Carman for some action."