When applying for housing this June, I scoured the North by Northwestern (shameless plug!) freshman housing guide, pestered my friends who were already students, and CollegeProwler’d the crap out of the dorms, in order to find the residence hall that was right for me. I was interested in “the college experience” whatever that meant. Going out seemed like a main part of it, and from what I heard and read, it seemed like if that’s what I wanted, not only was North Campus the place to be, but also Bobb-McCulloch was the place to live.
I was not disappointed. There’s something to be said about being greeted by CAs in “Bobb-McCulloch: Northwestern’s Social Network” shirts on move-in day. And from the first night kids in Bobb were raring to go. Most residents here go out more than three times a week. And the dorm has been described by our CSO as a “ghost town” on weekend nights. Without a doubt, this definitely creates the idea that Bobb-McCulloch is the number one party dorm at Northwestern , but does Bobb really deserve its new title?
I was waiting in line for Sunday munchies when I heard Northwestern’s own Bobb-McCulloch was ranked the #1 Party Dorm in the nation (that ranking can be found right here!). My friends and I were incredulous. Of course we loved the idea of it, but we weren’t sure of its accuracy. I mean, this is Nerdwestern we’re talking about here, right? Number One Party Dorm? In the nation? Think about what that means for a second. That puts Bobb-McCulloch above every state and well-known party school: Penn State, Ohio State, Indiana, Wisco and blah blah blah. I just didn’t know how Bobb's new title could be true.
So, I got investigative. Not sure myself, I talked to my roommate, friends on my floor, friends on other floors, and kids I saw studying in the lounge. Many of the girls I talked to echoed my idea that while Bobb was clearly Northwestern’s #1 party dorm, it definitely wasn’t the nation’s #1. Boys, on the other hand followed the sentiment that “kids in Bobb work hard, and party harder”, agreeing that the title fits the dorm. I loved the discrepancy in how girls and guys in the residence hall thought. While I definitely took pride in the ranking (despite some doubts in validity), the boys I talked to were almost vehement in defending the title and the dorm itself. Freshman boy, Harris Goodison, is quoted explaining: “If you work hard you have to party hard, so the kids living here work hard all day and they have a lot of steam to blow off at night, and we do it right.” Reiterating, freshman boy Tali Laifer says: “The harder you work the harder you get to play.”
The girls, seemingly a more rational and less proud gender, questioned the basis and were even prone to laughing at the new title. Weinberg freshman Eden Schoofs disagrees with the nomination, mentioning, “There are so many more schools that are known for partying…so I doubt that our dorm is as crazy as those.” Multiple female students who were interviewed said that Bobb could have gotten the title due to the fact that the dorm is so much more condensed with “partiers” than at most other schools, due to the prior stories about the residential hall. There were some outliers in the virgin vault, namely Weinberg freshman Jori Goodman, who believed the dorm deserved the title, due to her presence.
Students, girls and boys alike, were also prone to comparing Bobb to the dorms of the most local party school to them. California kids compared it to University of California: Santa Barbara, Colorado kids to University of Colorado: Boulder, Illinois kids to University of Chi—just kidding, University of Illinois, and New York kids (like myself) to Syracuse University. You can chalk it up to hometown pride, but I think it’s because doubters of Bobb are likely to compare it to what they find most familiar, which would be a school nearest to them.
After speaking to friends and acquaintances around the hall, I can safely say that Bobb-McCulloch does not deserve the ranking and stigma of No. 1 Party Dorm in the nation. But I’ll take it. That’s definitely some useful bragging rights, and if anything, we’re definitely the biggest party dorm at Northwestern.