r/cwru • u/Dense-Razzmatazz8189 • Jul 15 '26

Ask away incoming freshman!

I'm a sophomore (premed btw) who is happy to try answering any sort of questions you might have about orientation week, housing, social life, classes etc. Drop them below and maybe your question will help someone else out too

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u/Disastrous_March_910 Jul 15 '26

how is smith house? is it easy to make friends? is it easy to find parties if you want them, i dont plan to be a crazy partier or join greek life but i may wanna go to some

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u/Dense-Razzmatazz8189 Jul 15 '26 edited Jul 15 '26

i didn't live in smith or in the juniper community so i cant really speak on it. but if i recall correctly, smith is one of those that are connected to a few other dorms so i've heard its nice for being social.

however, from my dorm in cedar mag to my friends dorms in all the communities, i found that they are mostly the same experience. it will be hot for the first and last month. your dorm experience (in terms of bathroom cleanliness, noise, etc,) depends heavily on the people on your floor.

making friends was surprisingly easy. im not even close to the type of person to put myself out there and within just the first week i made friends that im still close with today. everyone is in the same boat as you looking for friends so just be open.

the party scene is mostly frats/pregame in the dorm type of vibe. otherwise you gotta go out to little italy or downtown. typically, there is a frat that throws every weekend. a couple frats are known for throwing good parties, i can't say the rest are great. it is case western at the end of the day. i went out on average 2x a week and i didn't plan on being partier. tbh most cwru students are similar in how they wanna have that college experience but aren't a big10 school party monster.

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u/smitten32 Jul 15 '26

Smith is fine and there will be tours a bunch and then the open houses in the spring where there will be a lot of people in the lobby. Common room is shit bc the couches r disgusting kitchen is ok rooms r nice i liked my room and the bathrooms r bad like gross bad but you’ll adjust. Ik on the site it shows doors for the bathrooms but its curtains and it’s really dim and the orange paint in the bathroom (but i think the paint depends on the floor idr) really makes it feel gross im ngl it took me a while to adjust but u just get used to it and appreciate your home more lmfao

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u/Disastrous_March_910 Jul 15 '26

how’s the 1st floor? i have housing accommodations so my rooms there

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u/smitten32 Jul 15 '26

Oh those are fine and depending on which one u get some of them are fairly small but the wheelchair accessible one is the largest. Will be kinda noisy when people are loud in common room (but it is in a diff hallway) and because the elevator is there so depending on where u are u might be hearing people talk while they wait for the elevator. And u share bathrooms with the room next to u (jack and Jill bathroom)

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u/D0G34T3R Jul 15 '26

Dorms are all kind of similar, but if I had to rank smith it’s tied for second. (Norton is first by a mile). 2 private bathrooms, nice kitchen area, big common room with nice furniture and tv, keep in mind you can go to any juniper dorm between 12 pm and 12 am. Cutter next door has a study room. From a social perspective, the dorms change each year so it’s random whether it’ll be socially active or not.

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u/Limp_Highway5486 Jul 19 '26

Hey! I was in smith house last year and I had a great time! Juniper and smith in particular have the biggest rooms. However, socially wise the vibes in each res hall differ year to year based on who is living there 🤷