Like 40% of my classmates in the Boston College Class of 2017, I spent every weekday morning of my freshman year huddled on a crowded bus, with a heavy bag of books on my back, praying I wouldn’t topple onto someone. If it’s not obvious from my description, I lived on Newton Campus. Although I knew I would always miss the cozy café-like Stuart Hall, the picturesque daily walk up Linden Lane, and “going home after school,” as the year came to an end, I was ready to leave Newton and start a new chapter, where I’d finally get to experience life on main campus.
And then, the (seemingly) unthinkable happened. I found out I would be spending sophomore year on the dreaded College Road.
Every BC student’s worst housing nightmare had come true for me: I was getting the short end of the stick for the second year in a row. This time, not 60%, but a whopping 75% of my class would be on the other side of campus. At first, I felt like I might as well give up on having any form of social life sophomore year. But after living here for almost a month, I’m going to tell you what you may not be expecting to hear: it’s not so bad! I said it about Newton, and I’m saying it again about CoRo. I’m not going to lie, there are some drawbacks, but it’s my personal opinion that the three traditional-style dormitories just across from Upper Campus have an undeservedly bad reputation. Here’s the complete truth, in pro and con form, of following the unpopular housing path of Newton to CoRo.
Con: Every time you want to experience a typical weekend activity like going to a party in Walsh, cheering on the football team in Alumni Stadium, or verbally abusing the opposing team’s hockey goalie at Conte Forum, you have at least a 10 minute walk ahead of you. Unsurprisingly, this walk can be even rougher on the way back.
Pro: Your legs will undoubtedly get more toned from doing this walk a few times a week. If walking isn’t your thing, although this might bring back bad (or good!) memories of living on Newton, you could always hop on the Newton or Comm Ave bus on Lower Campus and get off at the Mac stop. This saves time and a whole lot of energy.
Con: Similar to Newton, living on CoRo pretty much guarantees you’ll never host a party in your own room. You’ll probably spend all of your weekend nights in your friends’ suites on Lower. After all, as my wise RA says (shout out to Bethany!), “you can’t throw down in a double.”
Pro: You know that feeling you get when you wake up on Sunday morning and you remember all the homework and other things you have to do that day? Well, never being able to host parties means cleaning up your room will never be on your task list for the day. Parties are fun, but being able to wake up without any puke stains on your carpet or empty beer cans stacked in your corner is a completely underrated concept.
Con: Living on Newton and eating dinner at Stuart is just like living on CoRo and eating dinner at Mac. When you look around, you can pretty much guarantee everyone else is a freshman. The only difference in Mac is that you’re no longer one.
Pro: Eating amongst all the freshmen in Mac means you get to exert some seniority (if only a little). I know, I know, you wish you could leave your newly renovated 8-man in Vandy or 90 and take the 30-second stroll over to Addie’s for a flatbread pizza with all the other non-freshmen, but when you show up at Mac on a Saturday morning still in your pajamas and all the Upper freshmen are in cute outfits and perfect makeup, you can walk in with the swagger of a Mod senior, and the freshmen are sure to notice your confidence. Plus, you only have to worry about 25% of the sophomores and 60% of the freshmen seeing you looking like a mess, not the entire upperclassmen population of BC.
Con: Everyone, and I mean EVERYONE, including freshmen and professors, feels the need to show pity for you whenever you say you live on CoRo, and proceed to tell you that you’re “always welcome” wherever they live. It’s nice when others express sympathy, but it can get annoying after a while, especially when people’s reactions to you living on Newton were usually the same.
Pro: You get to use people’s pity to your advantage. That random girl you sit next to in one of your classes who told you to stop by her room in the penthouse of Walsh “whenever”? Take her up on the offer! If someone acts surprised you showed up, simply say, “Well, you told me I was always welcome!” If you visit a different sympathetic person’s 8-man every weekend night, you’ll never be aimlessly wandering around the Mods looking for somewhere to party.
Con: After a year of living in a double with only one roommate, you were looking forward to sharing an entire mini-apartment, complete with bathrooms, a common room, and a kitchen, with your seven closest friends from freshman year. On CoRo, you’ll get three roommates max, and the closest thing you’ll have to a kitchen is a microwave.
Pro: When it comes to sharing communal bathrooms, I’ll reiterate another point I made earlier: no cleaning – and even better, no fights over who has to clean! Besides that, living on a floor with 40+ other sufferers of the BC Housing System opens doors to friendships with girls whom you may never have even known existed freshman year (especially coming from Newton)! You’ll bond over your mutual “bad luck,” just like how Newton kids shared the bond over riding the struggle bus last year. Your friendship circle will expand way beyond what it would be if you were confined to an 8man.
To conclude, there’s one major, major pro of living on College Road, or actually, living anywhere, that most people forget about. You still get to go to Boston College. If you ever need a reminder of that, on one of your late-night treks back up to your room, take a second to look behind you at the gleaming tower of Gasson Hall. I can’t speak for anyone else, but having experienced both Newton and CoRo living, I can wholeheartedly say that I wouldn’t trade either of them for living at, or going to, any other school in the world.
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