Thank you all for your responses. Are there any places to avoid?

Last Milner Hall Resident May 1972

Definitely avoid Lechner

I liked living in Leggett.

It would probably be about impossible for him to move in Leggett now days, though.

By the way, when Milner was renovated and the Math Department moved in, a couple of the profs remarked that they had lived there as undergraduates.

I wouldn't necessarily go for a corridor style hall on Northside....I know Davis-Gary is going to be turned into student apartments, and the rumor is that the university is going to do that to all the corridor style halls on Northside, eventually, at least according to what they said in a hall meeting at D-G.

When was Walton condemned?

A serious answer:

1st I would recommend looking into the Corps. It is an amazing experience but if not for you, look at part two.

2nd, most incoming fish look for a dorm that is the nicest, bc that is all they have to go on. You can look at a dorm and say "this one is really nice and newer, I will live here." But what you cant see is the experience you can get from your dorm. For this reason you should live on North Side. I lived on South Side for a few years and had some good times but then moved to North Side and had a BLAST.

The biggest complaints are that the rooms are too small and the bath room is down the hall, but once you move in, that is not what if feels like at all. The dorm is more like a huge house. You have your bath room down the hall (just like at home) and all your brothers have their own room.

Anyway, for whatever it is worth, that is just my opinion.

I would avoid a modular dorm. It feels like a hotel.

I am just saying avoid the corridor style becuase you might become attached to it and really like it (like I have) just to have it taken away from you next year....BTHO Student Apartments!! But corridor style is awesome...we build community through community baths

You have choice in it if you
A. apply early to A&M
B. respond about housing the DAY you get any forms that need to be mailed back or filled out online.

I don't know exactly how the process works since it's changed in the last 3 years, but if you wait a week before mailing stuff back it decreases your say in the matter of dorms substantially. Your preferences are given consideration in the order of date of admission to A&M and also the number of days that elapse between when housing info is mailed and when they receive it back from you. So minimize those two factors and you should get a pretty good choice. (Also, make sure any desired roommates do the same since their response time effects you too.)

And I'd go northside for girls, southside for boys, considering the dorm options available for each gender. In general. I lived on Northside and am not impartial in the matter.

Moses Hall!
RAB!
MMFOC!

Moore Hall Truckers!! Bad Mother ......s
Crocker Sux

Aston Hall

C1-NRB

The commons rule, I can't believe no one has posted Aston yet.

But your son will want to move off after about a year. It's alot better off-campus.

quote:

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Your son would definitely enjoy living in Mosher

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I'm sure he would but would they let him?

I'm still tied to the best damn non-air dorm on campus! Non-air was a blast after the end of September and before the end of April. The other four weeks of the year it sucked major teet!

quote:

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sleep,..what's sleep?

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unknown Aggie Architect

AggieEyes-I'm right there with you!

Moore Hall Truckers, Bad Mother****ers
Best damn dorm on campus...

As a former Orientation Leader...there are no dorms except on the Quad. Non-regs live in 'Residence Halls'.

bwahhahahahaaaa

I used to hate spouting off that load of BS every summer.

Northside all the way. I think FHK looks like the best choice all around at the moment. Co-ed, middle of the road as far as quality (modular vs. corridor),and it's close to Northgate and the MSC/Kyle Field. I had buddies in Schumacher. Their hump-it was pretty funny.

Happy Meal '97
Clements Bonfire Rep '95
Clements Hall...Biggest 2%er dorm on campus...WHOOP!

Moses Hall, first in, last out!

for community, Moses Hall... Walton (never thought I'd say this) comes in a close second...

Walton, by far. Nobody has the tradtion as being as redass as us. It goes all the way back to Bonfire. Nobody pulled more numbers than Walton when they became the load dorm.

Not serious...but do you think Walton would have pulled such great numbers if there were a little AC pumping? When it's 98 degrees with 98% humidity, kinda makes it hard to sleep in.

Haha
I seem to remember it being very hard to wake up from my nice warm room in Walton to go load trucks on cold november mornings.

Walton is the best choice, my room is 15x13! and less than 1K!

quote:

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...there are no dorms except on the Quad. Non-regs live in 'Residence Halls'.

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I'm a Non-reg, and I lived in Dorm 1 for two years.

To answer the topic though... this is my .04 cents:

I'm going to have to back up my Walton buddies. They have maintained traditions and continue to pass them on to each new class. The friendships seem to last through anything. The guys have respect for other "residence halls" and welcome competetition to keep campus life fun. It's close to Sbisa (this could be a pro and at the same time a definate con), and like most northside "residence halls" they eat together everynight. In my opinion, they are the closest knit group on campus. My brother will be applying to A&M this year, and WHEN he gets accepted, I'm going to tell him to consider T.O. Walton Hall.

Definatley go Northside though. I lived on Southside, and as much as I liked it, I wish my dorm would've been more active so I could've met more people.

Whatever dorm he chooses, I give this advice:

At the beginning of the fall semester, there will most likely be parties or get-togethers for all the incoming fish....GO TO THEM! It's his chance to meet fellow fish from all the floors. Without Bonfire as a way to get to know your dormmates, he needs to take every other opportunity available to meet people. And of course, get drunk.

Unfortunately your son will never have the opportunity to live in the greatest dorm ever on campus...PURYEAR!

In a conspiracy involving the other dorms, the school was convinced to tear down Puryear to create a parking lot (which is still not built.)

The actual reason was that all the other dorms got tired of getting their butts kicked in intramurals by a small dorm on the North-side

McInnis: Stumbling distance from the chiken and AC. what else you need?

Lechner rocks!

Aggie Eyes and rob2003,
Moore Hall-BMF since '42
They still shoot water balloons at Crocker through slingshots of surgical tubing. If not, they should.

Dorm 11

One Southwest Conference band director of the (Adams) era reportedly said "I dread going against the Aggie Band...It takes two weeks to recover from the trauma."

Essayons,

Flaggie
FTAB '69

My Callaway House comment is almost completely ignored.

At least BF03 got it.

Dorm life was an experience (Lechner Summer '94,Crocker Fall 94-Spring 95), but was nothing compared to living off campus. I would have never lived on campus if I'd have known better.

OCA-hall - Last in, first out, when's lunch?
Seriously, my biggest regret at A&M was never living on campus, and that was my fault (paperwork error). I did live in Moses for a summer, but that's nothing compared to the full year. I tried to move on my junior year, but it's extremely difficult to move on once you've declined as a fish. The important thing here is to get your son to live on campus - choosing which dorm is important, but any dorm will be better for him than off campus.

If I had it all to do over again, I'd probably join the Corps and give that a shot. I didn't, and it sounds like your son isn't going to either, so here's some advice about where to live.

What hall (I prefer the term dorm) he ends up in will have a lot to do with what friends he makes and who he ends up hanging around with for the next 4,5,6,... years and who his buddies are after college.

The amenities of the various dorms are what most incoming freshmen go by, and it is generally a mistake. Modular dorms (mods) tend to be the most requested, and are the most expensive, but they have the least atmosphere. Students tend to go into their room and close the door. They don't hang out with their neighbors as much, and aren't generally as social. On the other end of the spectrum, non-air, ramp-style halls (there used to be four, now only two, and one of those has window-unit A/C now) are the most social. Partly because of the architecture of the buildings and partly based on the non-air history, students were forced to have more interaction with their neighbors, if only for air flow in those hot months. Bonds of camaraderie form more readily when you interact more. Not to mention, these halls tend to be the cheapest, not only in overall price, but even more so in $/sqft, due to the relatively large rooms.

The other hall types track between these pretty closely by price, with a few exceptions. A good rule of thumb to follow would be to get him in the least expensive hall you can, and not just to save money. Since this post is already pretty long, I won't go into the semantic differences of each hall. I've considered the price a small factor in the following list, but the overall experience more important. Here's a summary of what I would recommend, in order:

-first tier-

• Walton -leader by a solid margin-
• Moses
• Hotard

-second tier-

• Moore
• Schuhmacher
• Hart
• Keathley-Fowler-Hughes (aka KFH or FHK)

-third tier-

• McInnis
• Crocker

-South Side (I don't recommend, but not bad)-

• Dunn
• Aston
• Appelt

You can get the various bits of information re: dorm types (modular/commons/balcony/corridor/ramp/non-air-ramp) and prices from the materials that the Department of Residence Life and Housing mails to you.

I didn't include Lechner because it is only available to Honors scholarship recipients, by invitation - don't know if your son will get this invite. If he does, that's another topic altogether. I also didn't include Wells/Eppright/Clements because all these are co-ed and generally are already filled with upperclassmen, not to mention that all four of these are expensive modular style halls. Cain Hall is the athletic dorm, and is very nice (especially the food), but I would not recommend it for a non-athlete as a freshman. IMO, it would be better for your son to consider this hall after a year on campus in another hall. If I counted right, all of the other halls I didn't list are for women only, or have been demolished or changed to office space.

My opinion is only worth what you paid for it, but I think I am qualified to put it up here. I lived in a number of dorms as a student, and have kept in touch with some current residents of campus even through today. I lived in Appelt (1 semester), Lechner (2 sem), Schuhmacher (1 sem), Puryear (4 sem), and Moore (6 sem). I had friends or acquaintances in every dorm except for a few on the quad (which is generally corps housing). I also worked for the Department of Residence Life for 3 years, including a brief stint inspecting/measuring every type of dorm and type of room within them as well as the furniture styles.

Please keep in mind that whatever your son chooses will be fine. He will be with a whole lot of Aggies no matter where he lives on campus. Making sure that he goes to Fish Camp is more important than which dorm he chooses.

88AginCT- No, they don't do that anymore, but they do throw oranges stolen from Sbisa at Moses Hall. So far they have broken a couple of windows, and the university went and slipped notices under the doors in the dorms about that...

I would definately recommend Nside dorms. Dorms like walton are defintately close knit. I lived in Schuhmacher my first semester and had a blast yellin at Walton and thier antics. It is definately a blast. Great time and you meet alot of people.