Four-year colleges act as safety net for late upperclass draw times, students say

draw into all three of the planned four-year residential colleges

“I drew into residential college housing in case I got a bad draw time for upperclassmen housing,” David Levit ’10 said. “I ended up getting a great draw time for upperclassmen housing and decided to go with that option.”

But students like Alan Yang ’10 and Kevin Jeng ’10, both of whom said they were dissatisfied with their upperclass draw times, will move from their upperclass dorms to Whitman College next year because they had better Whitman draw times.

“[My group] didn’t get a good [upperclass] draw time,” Jeng explained. “[In] Whitman, we got a good draw time, and there was a nice suite.”

Yang is also a member of The Daily Princetonian multimedia staff.

Eva Curbeam ’10 also entered both residential college and upperclass draws but ultimately chose to live in upperclass 1903 Hall. Curbeam said she entered the residential college draws primarily as a backup choice in case she got a late draw time for upperclass housing.

“I ended up drawing into upperclass housing … because I got a draw time in upperclass that allowed me to live where I wanted to without worrying about rooms being gone,” she explained.

Some students, however, said that they were attracted to the residential colleges for reasons other than draw times.

“I think the rooms in Whitman are nicer than in many upperclass dorms,” Whitman resident Maura Mathieu ’10 said. “I also enjoy the other perks of living in Whitman, like study breaks and trips to Broadway. College Night gets a little excessive but is always entertaining.”

Undergraduate Housing Manager Angela Hodgeman declined to release any statistics about how many upperclassmen had drawn into the four-year colleges until room draw closes this week.

Several upperclassmen said they thought the four-year colleges provided better amenities than regular upperclass housing. Whitman resident Sheena Knights ’10 cited the college’s air conditioning, kitchens, study rooms and easily accessible dining hall as the main reasons for her decision to draw into Whitman again for her senior year.

Though Knights said she was generally satisfied with her experience living in Whitman, she added that the social elements have been slightly disappointing.

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“My only complaint about residential colleges is that as an upperclassman, I don’t really interact at all with underclassmen,” she explained. “Just because we share a bathroom doesn’t mean we interact in any meaningful way.”

The special events intended by the residential colleges to facilitate inter-class socializing are not very successful, Knight added.

“College-wide activities open to all Whitman residents are few and far between, and there’s really no sense of community here,” she said. “I don’t think College Night helps at all either, because people come with groups of friends and only interact with them.”

Concerns about social life in the four-year colleges have dissuaded some students from selecting rooms there.

Aaron Rifkin ’11, who applied for a residential college draw time but chose to live in upperclass housing, said he opted not to live in a college because he wanted to live with other upperclassmen.

“Basically, [we entered residential college draw] just in case my draw group got a really bad time for upperclass draw and got a good time for residential college draw. [Then] we would have contemplated going into residential college housing,” he explained.

Curbeam said she thought upperclass housing provided better locations and dorms than the residential colleges and noted that she did not want to buy a meal plan as residential college residents are required to do.

“I don’t like to be forced into paying for food that I don’t necessarily need or want, nor do I want my parents to pay for it,” she said in an e-mail. “I always had a ridiculous amount of meals left at the end of the year when I was an underclassman, I didn’t even really like the food I was eating, and I felt a little upset that my parents had to pay all that money.”

Dining options were a major factor for upperclassmen in deciding where to live, several students said.

Han Lim ’11, who will move from Whitman to Spelman Halls next year, said the cost of residential college meal plans was the main reason he decided to leave his college.

“I thought I would save more by cooking [for] myself,” explained Lim, who will go independent next year.

Other students, however, said they appreciated the convenience and variety of the residential college dining halls and shared meal plans.

Whitman resident Blake Parsons ’11 said he chose to stay in Whitman next year as an upperclassman partly for “the convenience of a shared meal plan.”

Charter Club member Connor O’Sullivan ’11 echoed this sentiment, saying a shared meal plan was his main incentive for choosing to live in Butler next year. “Charter’s far for breakfast, and it’s good to have an option if I want to go to a dining hall.”

But not all students who wanted shared meal plans for next year were able to obtain them, leading some to choose not to live in residential colleges.

John Tang ’11, who plans to draw into upperclass housing, said he would have considered staying in Whitman if obtaining a shared meal plan had been possible.