Brown Dorm Room
Where do most students live at Brown?
The housing options at Brown reflect the lively, diverse community on campus. Seventy-four percent of undergraduates and all first-year students reside on campus. If you wonder “Where do most students live at Brown?” first-year undergrads reside in Brown dorm rooms with roommates in tight-knit communities of 50–60 students within residential halls. Through a lottery system, returning students select their living arrangements, which might range from private single rooms to suites and flats for friends and groups.
Brown’s residence halls are comprised of 49 buildings with a total of roughly 1.6 million square feet. The newest was constructed in 2012, and the oldest in 1822. Any first-year residence hall is only a five to ten-minute walk from Main Green. There is no smoking inside any residence halls. Brown’s residence halls are coed, meaning that men and women are typically housed on the same floor.
Unless they are enrolled in a study away or study abroad program that has been approved by the Office of International Programs, degree-seeking undergraduate students who are actively enrolled in courses at Brown University are required to have a housing assignment in an On-Campus Residence Hall for every semester of enrollment until semester level 7.
In the Brown-RISD Dual Degree program, students are expected to live in an on-campus residence hall. In semesters 01 and 02 at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), and in semesters 03 and 04 at Brown. After the fourth semester, students have the option of living either off-campus or in a residence hall at Brown or RISD.
Special housing arrangements
The opportunity to live and learn with others who share your interests is provided via a network of program houses, with options including Casa Machado (Spanish language, Hispanic culture), Environmental House (sustainability, social action), and St. Anthony Hall (literary society).
There are 9 residential Program Houses. Program Houses promote a sense of community by bringing people with similar interests together in a living space, with the underlying premise that the shared space is crucial to the success and operation of the house. Students can learn a foreign language and about different cultures by participating in Language and Cultural Houses. A topic or activity in which the residents share an interest is the focus of theme houses.
More than 1,100 students participate in the University’s Greek letter organizations, some of which also provide housing on campus. There are 11 residential Greek organizations and 3 non-residential Greek organizations that make up the thriving community.
In addition to housing options for undergraduates on campus, Brown also provides a range of services, resources, and events for graduate and medical students, visiting scholars, university teachers, and staff.
A small number of residences on College Hill, ranging in size from efficiency apartments to four-bedroom apartments, are made available to graduate students. About 150 residential housing units, ranging in size from efficiency/one-bedroom apartments and homes to multi-bedroom ones, are rented out and managed by the Office of Auxiliary Housing. These housing units encircle the school and take up space that reaches as far north as Lloyd Avenue, west as Brown Street, south as Power Street, and east as Hope Street. Around 175 graduate, medical, and undergraduate students are housed there.
How do dorms work at Brown?
How do dorms work at Brown? A written contract governs University Housing. The student’s and the University’s responsibilities are laid forth in the agreement after it is signed. The agreement is required to be signed by each resident student. No one who is not authorized may occupy a Brown dorm room. Non-Brown students are not permitted to live in Brown’s residence halls.
Roommate assignment
The New Student Housing Questionnaire must be filled out. When it goes online, you will get an email. Based on your answers to this questionnaire, a computerized method assigns roommates to you (e.g., sleep and study habits). Without considering a person’s race, color, creed, sexual orientation, or country of origin, your residence hall, room, and roommate assignments are made. Brown dorm room assignments are made at random.
From the start of school for about two weeks, no room changes will be permitted. Requests for room changes after this housing freeze may be submitted and will be reviewed by your Area Coordinator. By early to mid-August, you will be notified of your roommates and assigned residential hall.
Concerns about housing and roommates
Every first-year student lives in a “neighborhood,” a community made up of 40 to 60 other freshmen as well as several peer counselors known as Community Coordinators (CCs), who work to foster polite and enjoyable living conditions that improve the student experience. Depending on size, a neighborhood may be two neighboring halls or the entire building.
The peer counselors of various neighborhoods receive direct supervision and direction from area coordinators. Upper-division students may also live in singles or suites in several first-year neighborhoods.
Students should start by speaking with their Community Coordinators if they have any worries regarding their residence, their roommate(s), or the residential community. Additionally, students are urged to consult with their Area Coordinator (AC). Professional staff employees known as Area Coordinators maintain a daytime office at Residential Life while residing in the residence halls.
What do Brown dorms come with?
What do Brown dorms come with? Information on the furniture Brown provides for residence hall rooms, including storage for mattresses and beds, under-bed space, and furniture removal policies.
Each renter receives the following furnishings:
- Bed frame
- Bookcase
- Bureau (a chest of drawers)
- Closet or wardrobe
- Desk and chair
- Mattress (twin extra-long; 36″ x 80″)
- One recycling bin per room or suite
- One garbage can per resident
Some of the objects, in various buildings, might be “built-in” in Brown dorm rooms rather than free-standing. There is general room lighting available, but no additional desk or floor lamps. Pull shades, curtains, or blinds are available for windows (fire retardant).
The variety of housing options Brown offers on campus includes furniture that might be particular to various areas. For example, Perkins residents have cork bulletin boards in their rooms, Andrews residents have private sinks, and Wriston Quad residents have towel bars on the inside of their room doors.
Couches, chairs, and occasional tables can be found in both apartment living rooms and suite common rooms. The University owns the furniture in the common areas, so it is not permitted to borrow it to decorate dorm rooms or off-campus apartments.
Any fireplaces that may be present in Brown dorm rooms for students have been shut off and are inoperable. Under no circumstances should a fireplace be left exposed or used in a student’s room.
Features and amenities
- Elevators: The following housing halls have elevators: Emery Hall, Gregorian Quads A and B, Minden, Andrews Hall, and Keeney Quad. Most of the buildings in Wriston also have chair lifts.
- Vending: Brown University Dining Services oversees the vending machines that are installed for students’ convenience in several residence hall sections.
- Bicycle and Scooter Storage: In most residence halls, there are rooms for storing bicycles and scooters. In any public area of the resident halls, including the stairwells, foyers, archways, and hallways, bicycles and scooters are not permitted. Bikes and scooters may be seized and impounded for blocking these spaces, which poses a major fire risk. If a scooter or bicycle is recovered, there will be a fine.
- Kitchens: Kitchens in residence halls include a microwave, refrigerator/freezer, and sink; some kitchens in dorms also have an electric burner and oven. Residents are not permitted to change the university-set controls on the refrigerator and freezer. Please keep in mind that all tenants of the building may use these kitchens. Thus, residents must clean up after themselves.
How much is the room and board at Brown?
College is a significant financial commitment, regardless of a family’s financial condition. Direct fees and anticipated indirect costs are combined to form the cost of attendance. It is crucial to prepare for these. Now, you might ask “How much is the room and board at Brown?” Let’s take a look at the cost of attendance at Brown.
Academic Year 2022–2023 Cost of Attendance
| Direct/Billed Charges* | |
| Tuition | $62,680 |
| Fees (includes $100 Academic record fee for first-time students) | $2,466 |
| Room | $9,368 |
| Meals | $6,472 |
| Subtotal (Direct Charges) | $80,986 |
| Indirect Estimated Expenses** | |
| Personal Expenses | $2,700 |
| Total Cost (Direct and Indirect Charges) | $83,683 |
*Each semester, costs like tuition, required fees, room and board, and other expenses are sent directly to student accounts as invoices.
**The amount of indirect projected costs varies for each student and is not listed on student accounts (bills). These expenses cover books, miscellaneous expenses, and perhaps travel. The values listed above represent allowances given for the academic year, while students may incur varying amounts of indirect costs
What is special about Brown’s residential life?
What is special about Brown’s residential life? At Brown, students meet in their favorite lounges, on-campus eateries, and the common areas of their dorms to enthusiastically discuss what they have discovered, gone through, and fallen in love with. For students to have a complete and rich educational experience, Brown believes that life outside of the classroom is just as crucial as what they study in lecture halls and labs.
Students are immersed in the traditional New England college experience on campus, which includes brick quadrangles, picturesque greens, soaring modern buildings, and historically significant buildings. Many academic and staff members dwell close to the university, frequently in historical houses that have been renovated and are now for sale through the Brown-to-Brown homeownership program. All of this can be found in the center of historic Providence, the dynamic capital of Rhode Island, which is renowned for its avant-garde cultural scene, delectable cuisine, and laid-back atmosphere.
There are adaptable food plans available at Brown. Two all-you-care-to-eat dining halls are available to students: the historic Sharpe Refectory (also known as “the Ratty”) and the enticing Verney-Woolley (also known as “V-Dub”), in addition to four campus restaurants, three coffee carts, and two convenience stores.
Plans offer alternatives for graduate and medical students as well as those who live on and off campus. Many of Brown Dining’s cafes and retail outlets, like the consistently busy Blue Room at the Stephen Robert ’62 Campus Center, are frequented by faculty, employees, and guests.
Living in Brown dorm rooms and experiencing the fun in the residential community in this prestigious school, might be the dream of thousands of students. But before this comes to reality, you must get through the competitive admissions at Brown. The University received the most applications in its history during a record-breaking admissions year, but only 5% of the candidate pool was accepted. Just 2,546 students were accepted out of the 50,649 applicants.
If you want to raise your chances of getting in, seeking professional help would be the best thing to do. For more than 10 years now, AdmissionSight has assisted students to get into top universities in the US. If you would like to know more about what AdmissionSight could offer, feel free to book an initial consultation today.
