Any advice for choosing a dorm and dorm preferences, preferably North campus?
If you're set on North Campus it depends on if you prefer your own private bathroom, which you would maintain (Baits) or if you want easier access to dining halls and are cool with a shared community bathroom (Bursley) I lived in Bursley and preferred the shared bath. Didn't have to clean lol.
Really good point. I forgot how miserable it is to not be able to walk to anything on north. If you get sick of dorm food your only option is to order delivery or bus to central. On north even when its nice youre less likely to be walking around campus.
Just hope you get a good roommate(s) and all will go well.
You don't want north campus as a freshman. The majority of your classes will still be on central, and that is where EVERYTHING you'd want to do/see/go to is.
I lived in Bursley as a freshman, and while I had good memories (it is still your freshman year at Michigan, duh) being on north and having to take the bus was definitely a bug, not a feature. In particular, riding the bus back up after a football game (or late at night after basketball/hockey) was always unpleasant.
West Quad was much better in nearly every way.
However, I wish I would have had a chance to live on the hill though. Always seemed like there were many more people over there doing things.
I graduated with a CS degree from the Engineering school in 2016. Lived in Markley as a freshman. North Quad as a sophomore. You definitely want to put your preference as central campus. As an engineer, you have a bunch of math/science classes you need to take that are all on central and if you're computer science, 280/281 are both offered on central as well. Looking back at my schedule, over 50-100% of my classes each semester were on central campus through my first 2 years. And then as an upperclassmen, most classes were on North.
The bus ride really isn't that bad either.
As far as dorm preference, just avoid Markley and Oxford (unless you want to be in a nearby frat) on central and prefer Bursley on north.
Whoa.
Looking back at my schedule, over 50-100% of my classes each semester were on central campus through my first 2 years
How'd you do in those math classes?
and I'd still prefer that to North Campus. My son lived in Bursley as a freshman in engineering and even though he was fine with it, having to take the bus to Central for classes, etc was a bit of a pain
You definetly want to be on central over north even as an engineer. Better to have to bus just for classes than to bus for everything outside of class.
I loved south quad and they recently renovated it and the dining hall is nuts. I don't think too many non honors/athlete freshman get south quad though. Most of why I did honors.
First thing you need to do is change your campus preference ASAP regardless of where the bulk of your classes are. Think about it -- would you rather drive to work and back every day or drive from work to every other thing in your life and back?
East Quad-Best Quad. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.
And, really: Friends don't let friends live on North Campus.
In terms of central campus, but putting an eningeering student in a dorm surrounded by RC hipsters sounds like the setup for a sitcom. 20yrs ago, SQuad was the best quad, you just had to know that West Quad had much more snow at their disposal with their courtyard, so you'd better hope the baseball team was in SQuad for that first snowfall of the year (is that still a thing?).
Is there still an RC?
you forgot "not"
seriously, live anywhere on central, it is a great time
I lived there for two years, because my user name checks out.
I lived in South Quad. For me, South or West are ideal. Close to central campus, closest of the dorms to Michigan Stadium, Crisler, Yost, and able to access all of what downtown Ann Arbor has to offer.
My problem with the Hill dorms is that it is a longer walk to the Athletic Campus. Not a big deal for a few football Saturdays, but if you're into basketball or hockey, that's a lot of walking in the winter.
Maybe things are different now (I recently toured North Campus with my almost college age daughter) and there are some LSA classes offered up North, but I doubt it. Like others have said, almost all your freshman classes will be on Central Campus and many of your sophomore classes.
Also, for studying, the UGLI, the graduate library stacks, and the Law Quad are all right there if you're on Central Campus. North Campus is *way* better now than when I was a student (89-93) but still not as extensive as Central.
Central campus will be: math, chemistry, physics, biology, language and all the other LSA disciplines. To be fair, you won't have time for many LSA electives as an engineer, but your core requirements will be there.
By the time your sophormore year ends, you'll know more about what you like. Where your friends are, what things you like to do, and what lifestyle is important to you. The North Campus off-campus housing options are cheaper and provide better access to your engineering classes which will take up the majority of your time as a junior and senior. Even so, I chose to live off-campus near Central Campus and drive to North Campus for class.
LIkewise....I lived in West Quad and it was amazing. The student union was attached as well which was a nice perk but the best was easy access to the South Quad food (best around) and quick bike ride or walk to anywhere on campus. Would highly recommend the area.
It's not too late . . .
Yes, as the blog spokesperson for Bursley Hall, I can attest that you are the first person in the history of the world to request North Campus as your first choice. My choices (in order) were West Quad, South Quad and Markley. I got sent to Bursley.
That said, I loved the North Campus lifestyle. Waaaaay back then, we had our own parking lot, and you could park your car there for free. I doubt that's still the case. The bus was a pain, but you got used to it, and I loved having the NCRB right across the street.
Study-wise, there were less distractions, so that probably helped. Once I came back to the dorm after classes, I didn't have a lot of options, so I probably got more done.
Bottom line: Totally different vibe and lifestyle on North Campus, but there are a lot of benefits to it.
no one is going to read this, but I requested North Campus (Bursley). As you mentioned, it was the only dorm where I could get a parking pass (1990). And my truck was my lifeline to everything I did in college.
Unfortunately, it also meant I ended up the DD for EVERYTHING, since, duh, I had the only vehicle among my friends. But that was ok--it meant my incredbily wasted friends always got home safely. So yeah, I never got to drink heavily, but whatever. Looking at the big picture of life, I'll take it.
I once got to drive my RA home so wasted he didn't even remember it. That was pretty funny.
NCRB was great too--I spent so many hours in there playing basketball that it was my second home.
So, yeah, living up north can suck. I don't know if you can still get parking passes. But I actually liked it quite a bit, and once I had tons of engineering classes, I could just ride my bike to class in the morning in about 4 minutes, which rocked. Riding back home again--not so great.......
I lived in Bursley my freshman year and enjoyed it, but I would still have preferred central campus. I had a lot of engineering friends that were on central campus almost as much as I was. Central is just a better place to be, because you can walk to basically anything.
That said, the only time bussing was a pain was for football games. During the school day, they come every 5 minutes or so, and it's a really quick ride to central campus. On weekends, they were less frequent, but still came enough to get to campus and back quickly enough. It's still easier to get around and do stuff on central, so I would recommend trying to get there.
I was in Bursley for 2 years and enjoyed it (back in '04-'06). As others have noted though, most of your classes are going to be on Central, so I did a lot of busing. Not that the bus is all that bad except on the weekends when the time between buses is longer.
I also was in Solar Car (lots of late nights on North) and had my own car, so Bursley (which had a cheap lot for residents) had some advantages that may not apply to you. This was also before the big renos of the Hill and Central campus dining facilities.
Were I to do it again I'd probably prefer the "directional" (East, West, North, South Quads) dorms to Bursley, but I'd still prefer Bursley to Markley and be 50/50 on Bursley vs the Hill.
I should add as well that Bursley obviously has more geeky engineer types than Central campus. Which could be a good thing or a bad thing depending on your preference for friends. If nothing else, the North Campus crowd is more likely to "feel your pain" as an engineer while on Central you're somewhat more likely to end up rooming with a brah who parties till 2 AM Wednesday through Sunday.
Back when I was at UoM, it was assumed common knowledge at least within my sphere that we had a lot of students from New York who tended to both be a) Jewish and b) very often assigned to Mary Markley - has anyone else heard of this and is it or has it ever been A Thing?
As a dumb freshman, I loved living in South Quad for all the reasons others have mentioned. I almost had too much fun and nearly flunked out. As an adult, and with the benefit of hindsight, I think I would have told myself to go to North Campus. The inconvenience of having to bus back and forth, I think, would have forced me to treat the school day as a 9-5 job and go to the library between classes instead of going back to my dorm in S. Quad to take a nap, nurse a hangover, play video games, and ultimately decide to skip my afternoon classes because pick up basketball on that side court of South was just too important.
Not North. North is lame. As an engineer I was on or near the hill all four years and never considered having to take a short bus ride to/from most of my classes/labs/whathaveyou a nuisance.