Welcome!!

Welcome to our blog on life in Clemson dorms! We would like to give you some pictures of our rooms to start off so that you can get an idea of all the different things you can do!!! We hope this helps you make a decision about what you will do when you get to live on a college campus!

Community vs. Suite Style

Community style can have may different looks to it but for Lever, Manning, and Byrnes there are 2 showers, 2 toilets, and 4 sinks for each section of the building per floor (A, B, C, or D and then 1, 2, 3, 4, etc.).  So you are talking about asking 13 girls or boys to share these showers because that’s how students and the RA live on one side.  However, occasionally you will have to share with people from whatever side of the hall is attached to yours.  The ways the buildings are laid out, A and D are connected and B and C are connected. The bathrooms are also connected so I guess you could say that you are asking half of a floor to share 4 showers, 4 toilets, and 8 sinks.  There have been many times when I have gone into the bathroom ready to take a shower only to find out that people from the other side of the hall are occupying them.  While I’m perfectly fine with sharing, it is a little irritating to not be able to shower because the other girls are in it because the showers on their side are full.  So be prepared to wait!  Other than that, it really isn’t as bad it sounds.  I’ve been doing it for almost a semester now and I haven’t really had that many problems.  The people that we have cleaning the dorms are amazing.  They are in the bathrooms at least twice a week cleaning everything and the water pressure is really good in the showers.  The sinks have some problem getting warm but just wash your hands fast and the only other tip I can really give you is just to wear shoes in the bathroom and the showers and be thankful you are a girl cause I would imagine that the guys dorms look nothing like ours. 

            Clemson House is the only choice in campus that is not community style.  The shoeboxes and the low-rises in the horseshoe with Lever, Manning, and Byrnes are all community style.  In Clemson House, you either share a bathroom with one other person or three other people.  And every room has its own private bathroom in the room.  So you don’t have to walk out into the hall to pee late at night.  Freshman just recently have been allowed to live at Clemson House but it is a really good choice if you don’t like the idea of community bathrooms. I hope this way helpful when considering where you want to live.

Room size and Lofting

Alright. Your future dorm room at Clemson is 125 cubic feet, and that is small. Now if you’re put somewhere besides Lever, Burns, or Manning I can’t help you. However, if you are, then you’re in luck. First thing to understand is that you must cut this space in half. You now must adjust to living with another person. This most likely means you will have to part with some items in your room at home, they just won’t fit. To make this fun, buy new stuff. Now on move-in day you’ll show up with car loads and people will help carry it up to your room for you. Finally, once everything is unloaded into the room your first thought will be, “There is no way all of this is fitting in here.” Don’t worry, it will. It may take some time but it will.  Clothes is another tricky subject. The closets aren’t bad, but if you have an outfit for everyday of the year then you might want to think about bringing summer/fall clothes and then trading out summer and winter clothes over Fall break. Then bring heavy winter clothes after Thanksgiving and so on. Now they give you a desk with four selves, this is where I put pictures, books, etc. Then you have a vanity with five drawers where you will most likely put clothes. I suggest buying some sort of shelf structure to add more drawer space, but that’s just me. However, if you do, you need somewhere to put it. This brings me to another subject: lofting. Now I know some are scared because they fear of falling off, others don’t feel like crawling up to their bed every night, and I understand. BUT, loft. I’m not kidding. It opens up the room, adds space, and allows your bed not to be in the middle of the socializing space. Trust me on this. (You can loft in Clemson House too.) Now in our room we each have separate chairs under our lofts, with tables and lamps, and then have our TV on our fridge under the window. Others have put futons under one side and TV on the other, and so on. Any set up is fine, but lofting gives you a lot more options. One more thing, this doesn’t really have to do with space but make sure you have two serge protectors. There simple aren’t enough outlets in this place.

You would think that in one building, on one hall all the rooms would be the same size.  In Clemson House, they are not.  All the rooms are different sizes, shapes, and styles.  I personally live in a two-person suite, which means that I live with one other person and we have our own private bathroom.  However, there are also two-person and four-person apartments on our hall that have kitchens.  Whether or not there is a kitchen obviously affects the size of the room.  However, in Clemson House one style of room does not have a standard size.  All of the two-person suites are not the same. One thing that is the same for all the rooms is that you can loft the beds.  This can make effective use of a small space.  My roommate and I live in a particularly odd shaped room, which is smaller than most.  When we were planning out our room over the summer, we assumed we would be in a standard rectangle.  When we got here, we were surprised.  However, we lofted our beds, moved the furniture 5 times, and finally achieved our vision of a perfect room.  So, do not assume that all rooms are the same size and try to be flexible.  My room might not be what I expected, but I love it!

Roommate Perspective

Our names are Emily and Caroline and we’re going to tell you a little about what its like being roommates freshman year and how to make living with a random stranger a little easier.

Growing up with a sister, specifically a messy sister, I’m used to sharing a space. But, coming to Clemson I had to adjust to living with a person I haven’t known all my life. I started out requesting a random roommate, but after a few months of imagining the worst possible outcome ever, I was a little skeptical about that. I met Caroline at orientation and we decided to be roommates after both agreeing that the random roommate thing was not the most reassuring idea. I still got to meet someone new without having to meet her for the first time on move in day. We talked over Facebook during the summer, exchanged pictures, and met one day to go shopping so we had some idea of what was going to end up in our room. I suggest making a shopping trip with your roommate if you don’t know her that well. That way you get to meet her off campus AND get some of your shopping out of the way. Sharing your space with someone is intimidating. The thing I had the most trouble with was trying to get ready when she’s still sleeping. After a while you’ll figure out that it will happen that way sometimes and to just not to worry about it. Now, if your roommate decides to blast certain songs out of her computer that you don’t particularly care for, it’s okay. Just plug in your earphones. And if she decides to throw her entire closet on your side of the room during Rush Week, don’t worry. She will clean it…eventually. For real though we haven’t had any problems. I guess the best advice I can give you is if your roommate does do something you don’t like or that bothers you, just find a peaceful way to work it out. It’s way better in the long run. And if it’s not a big deal, let it go. There are worse things in the world.

Well, you girls are lucky…in this blog I will tell you my roommate perspective and how to create and manage a successful roommate once you are at school.  I happened to meet my current roommate thanks to my mom.  While this is not too common it helps knowing your roommate before transitioning to college and meeting her for the first time on move in day.  I recommend at least trying to contact her via facebook or email.  As of now, I have not a single complaint about my current roommate, except for the fact that she sometimes forgets to turn off her alarm when she spends the night at a friends, so I am occasionally waking up for no reason at 7 a.m., but we all make mistakes right? I know during Greek Recruitment room I was a constant pain throwing clothes all over the room.  While no one is perfect, we have learned how to handle each other’s unique preferences and personalities.  That is the biggest thing I can stress--- learn to accept the things your roommate does because you both have certain qualities the other is not used to but if you can learn to live with them it will make for a great relationship and even friendship.  In the beginning your roommate is the only person you’ll have to go eat with or workout at Fike with so you want to keep things on good standing.  As you will soon learn, living with a stranger is strange at first but is easy as long as you remain kind and open minded. 

Laundry!! Oh the Joys!

One of the many problems you will run into as a new college student living in a large dorm such as Lever or Manning has to do with completing your laundry.  Unless you have an endless supply of clothes or you live close enough to do your laundry at home, you will be frequently traveling to the basement of your dorm to clean your clothes.  Although, each dorm houses over 400 girls, Clemson believes that (8) small washers and (14) dryers are sufficient enough to meet everyone’s daily demands.  One of the biggest problems is finding an empty washer, and if you do, be careful—those are usually the broken ones that are filled with dirty water or don’t spin clothes properly.  Another thing I find odd that you must be aware of is the proportion of washers to dryers.  Usually, I put two loads of wash into one dryer; however, there are more dryers so it is extremely difficult to find enough washers and they are much smaller in capacity in relation to the dryers. Also, while there are many considerate people at Clemson, some times people forget they put laundry in the washer, so it sits in the washer occupying precious space that another person would love to have.  While some people feel its okay to remove the wet laundry and set in on top of the washer.  However, this is frowned upon by many people,  so I don’t particularly advocate doing this. Another issue you must remember is that it costs money to do you laundry, and it can really add up.  One load of wash costs $1.25 and one dryer session is a dollar.  So just doing two loads is almost 5 dollars! Overall, while its not one of the biggest problems at Clemson, laundry is just another every day hassle. I hope these tips will help in your transition to Clemson!

Clemson House Laundry Room

Food!!

Food is very important to me.  I love to eat, so one of the things I was concerned about when coming to college was the dining halls.  At Clemson, there are 3 different dining halls on campus.  There’s Harcombe, Schilleter, and Clemson House.  All of the dining halls are actually run by different companies, so the food selections are always different.  Harcombe is the largest and is located in the Student Union by Tillman.  Schilleter is the second largest dining hall and is located in the horseshoe, next to the high-rises.  The Clemson House dining hall is obviously located on the first floor of Clemson House and it is the smallest.  No matter where you live on campus, there’s a dining hall no more than 5 minutes away. My personal favorite is Clemson House.  I think it tastes the best, however they all have great food (better than I expected) and a lot of it.  If you’re a healthier eater though, you’re in for a bit of a challenge.  All the dinning halls always have some fruits and vegetables, but they have more french fries, hamburgers, mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, soft serve ice cream, and anything else you can imagine.  I used to be a really health conscious eater, but unless you want to eat a salad everyday that will change.  So, beware of the freshman 15! 

Location on Campus

That saying  “Location, Location, Location.” was the first things that popped into me head when I found out that I was the one that was going to be talking about location on campus.  I live in the horseshoe, which is pretty much the dead center of campus. The picture of the campus is displayed below.  The classes are in the big circle and the dorms are in little squares.  For the horseshoe, there are apartments to one side and classes on the other within a 10-minute walk.  Everyone says that we are kind of off on our own but I would say that we are in the perfect location because classes are so close and we have a dining hall right in the horseshoe.  But all you need to know about dining halls had already been discussed.  I would also say that no matter where you are on campus, you are going to have to walk so invest in some good walking shoes but the horseshoe is where most freshman live because Lever and Manning are Freshman girls and Byrnes is Freshman boys.  You are in a dorm with everyone else that is just like you, scared and not really knowing exactly how everything is going to go. 

            The one disadvantage of Clemson House is how far away it is from the main part of campus.  You have to cross a two-line road to get back on the main campus.  Clemson House use to be the hotel for the city of Clemson but then Clemson University bought it and made it into dorm rooms.  There are many advantages to living there but you have to be prepared to walk to class and up and down the hill that leads to it.

Parking is always a big issue that students want to know about.  The shoeboxes are much closer to their cars than those living in Lever, Manning, or Byrnes.  The shoeboxes park their cars right behind the stadium, which is also an advantage.  They have a two-minute walk on game days.  Lever, Manning, and Byrnes have to park all the way past the apartments up a hill all the way.  It is a good 15-minute walk so most students move their cars on the weekends to the parking lot across from Hendrix, which is right behind the Lever.  Green spots are free on weekends and it is best to take advantage of that so you don’t have quite so far to go.  No matter what you pick, you are always going to find something wrong.  Just write down the things that are most important to you and compare those to the three main areas you can live!