So far, being a sophomore is vastly different from being a freshman in every way possible. It’s surprisingly similar to the progression of independence that is also granted high school students as they work their way up through the food chain, but the leaps between years are greater in college.
It starts with the biggest change of all, the living situation. During freshman year, students are either in one of two places: Sue B. or The Quad (the latter of which is the better place to live, in my completely unbiased opinion). This scarcity of residence options for freshmen serves as a sort of unifying factor in your first year of college, as it means that everyone is having a very similar residential experience.
Skip to the next year and you have the opposite: what seems like a never-ending set of possible scenarios. Students can live in singles or doubles on The Quad, singles or doubles in 6-person suites in Towers, regular doubles in Towers, singles or doubles in 6-person suites in Phase, singles in 2- or 3-person apartments in Southside, or singles in 2- or 4-person apartments in Riverview (if you’re a lucky sophomore who got roped into a group of seniors and thus were awarded a fantastic lottery number). Another big difference is that you can live with whoever you want, which means that suites and apartments can be mixed gender. After sophomore year, you will even encounter a number of people with houses off campus.
I’m sure I’m forgetting some housing options, but you get the basic gist that residential life at Rochester after freshman year suddenly becomes more personalized and more focused on what set-up you’re looking for — in addition to allowing you to choose to live with your friends — rather than being assigned a roommate and a room in only one of two places.
I’m living in Southside this year, which is arguably one of the nicest dorm set-ups available, but with the worst reputation possible. Everyone thinks of the two Southside towers — DeKiewiet and Valentine — as too far away to bear. What they don’t realize, however, is that it gives students the opportunity to have a really independent experience. The set-up is that of a legitimate apartment that you might find off campus somewhere — everyone gets his or her own single, which has bookshelves, real closets (not armoires like you get freshman year), a 6-drawer dresser, a bed, and a desk; a kitchen with an oven, full fridge and freezer, sink with garbage disposal, plenty of cabinet space, and a kitchen table with a chair for every roommate; a private bathroom with a medicine cabinet, a shower and tub with massaging shower head; and lastly a small entryway with a coat closet. If that’s not a good college dorm, then I don’t know what is.
I really haven’t minded that Southside is a little farther off campus, because there are busses that run between my dorm and campus, and the only time when they’re less frequent is the weekend, but during the week they come every 15 minutes and are always quite prompt.
The feeling I get living here is that I go to school during the day and when I’m done I come home at night. Last year, I kind of felt like I was going to boarding school where my classes were right up against my home and there was no separation at all.
Anyways, the point of this big introduction is to say that upperclassman housing is much more conducive to having friends over and entertaining them yourself, instead of relying on campus activities to have a fun evening. A few nights ago, I invited one of my friends over and we spontaneously decided to make chocolate soufflés, which we, along with my two roommates, sat down to eat with ice cream, and it was so impromptu and wonderful and only possible because of the greatness of my living situation this year, so I can only imagine that it keeps getting better.
