Dorm review: East Neighborhood: Holmes Hall

Hello!

This is another post in a series that I'm trying to do on the dorms of Michigan State University. Today, I'm working on reviewing the last residence hall in East Neighborhood, Holmes Hall. I also did a review on Hubbard and Akers.

I did not live in Holmes, but I spent a LOT of time there first semester as one of my close friends lived there. Holmes Hall is known as the home of Lyman Briggs College, which is a residential college focusing on science and math majors. Usually, you have to be accepted into Lyman Briggs College to live there, although my friend was only there because her roommate was an LB student.

And actually, this dorm post will have no pictures. The dorm is set up the EXACT same way as Hubbard Hall, so if you want to see what it will look like, take a look at the Hubbard post. Everything is the same, the beds, the closet and shelf, the dresser, the mirror, the desks, the modular shelves. This will mostly be a review on Holmes Hall itself.

I disliked Holmes Hall the most out of any of the dorms that I visited. It had an odd smell in it (although I suppose if you're a Lyman Briggs student, you're used to it. And it's probably because of dissections and chemistry and stuff, but still). I hated the dining hall. It was where I had my racist experience. It was far away from Hubbard (okay, not really, but it was far enough away that I complained like crazy for having to walk over to visit my friend).

The dorms: Like I said, they are exactly like the Hubbard dorms. There's six floors. My friend lived on the sixth floor, which was supposedly haunted (although I never met anyone/thing coming down at 3AM).

The dining hall: I wasn't very fond of it (to put it mildly). They are the only dining hall in East Neighborhood to serve late night (which means they're open until midnight). They have Today's Features, which has different foods each day; Levels, which has pizza (usually cheese, pepperoni, and then a special one) and made-to-order sandwiches (those are to die for. That is the only reason that I ever agreed to eat at Holmes); Origins, which has made-to-order waffles and omelets in the morning, and vegetarian stir fry at lunch and night; Mosaic, which has smoothies and parfaits and Halal entrees.

The rest of it: Since Holmes Hall is home to Lyman Briggs, there are a lot of classrooms in it. It also has a Sparty's Express, which is a much, much smaller version of the Sparty's in Hubbard and doesn't have a grill or fryer--it's more like a convenience store, so you can still get your Combo-X-Change there.

They have two study lounges, which are actually pretty nice. The study lounges are very comfortable and I did spend quite a bit of time in them.

Overall, chances are that if you're in Holmes, you're a Lyman Briggs student so none of my issues with the dorm will bother you. Otherwise, if you're trying to switch dorms, I would stay away from Holmes.

Go green!
Rakuzen

Dorm Review: East Neighborhood: Akers Hall

Hello!

This is part of a series that I've begun, since I know that a lot of people are starting to figure out their dorm assignments and want to take a look at what their dorm looks like. (I know that the official assignments aren't out yet, because they come out in August. But like I mentioned in my Hubbard Hall review, if you check StuInfo, then they'll have posted a room to your account. They say that this is not the official room (and a lot of people that I know had their rooms changed) because it's for billing purposes, but it's always nice to check and get a little bit excited. My assignment was right, but I did end up switching out.) I will only be doing a few of the dorms, the ones that I have personal experience, but if you want to request your dorm, leave a comment and I'll find some friends who lived there. I will probably do East Neighborhood (Akers, Holmes, Hubbard), South Neighborhood (Case, Wonders, Holden, Wilson), River Trail Neighborhood (Owen, McDonel, VanHoosen), and Yakeley.

Note, I did not personally live here. I was assigned to this dorm, but I ended up switching out. However, one of my friends lived here and I visited the room often, so I can give a little bit of insight but not a lot of pictures.

Akers is special, because it is the only suite-style dorm on campus. Four people live in the room, the bathroom is inside the dorm (as opposed to sharing with another room like in Hubbard, or a community bathroom), and there is a tiny "living room" in the dorm.

The first picture that I have of Akers is from the LiveOn site. When I was first searching my dorm last summer, I found this picture, but I can't seem to find it on the site. This is just a floor plan that shows you, basically, what it looks like. There's two "bedrooms," that have two beds and a dresser in each, with a mirror. In the floor plan, the beds are lofted, so there's more space. My friend had his beds end-to-end, so it was kind of cramped. The desks can move around, too, so they had their desks in the bedroom which meant they had to jump on the beds to get around. 

It has four "closet" style areas, which you can see in the picture is across from the bedrooms. The closet areas have a pole and a shelf above it, which actually provides a lot of space. 

MSU has virtual tours on the bedroom, bathroom, and living room of Akers now, so I won't bore you with the details of the room. If you click the link, you can go through a virtual tour and see how other people set it up. Although, as I look at the virtual tour, make sure that you notice the yellow wall that divides the two bedrooms. At first glance, it might look like it's not there and that the room is huge, but the wall is there. 

Now that there's some pictures, I'll do a review on the rest of Akers. Akers was, apparently, remodeled. The inside is super nice. Both East and West Akers have a study lounge area with tables and chairs that is really nice and comfortable. The walls are gorgeous on the first floor. There are classrooms and there's a full computer lab, which is nice. 

I spent a lot of time in that cafeteria, because the food is decent--better than Akers, but not as good as some of the other dorms. It has three stations; Bamboo, which serves "Asian" food like sushi and a made to order wok meal of the day (as in, Ramen one day, Moo Shu Pork another, etc.), Publisher, which serves sandwiches and wings, and Today's Features, which is just a hot line with different food every day. It has two lines of salad bars, and a dessert area. Akers dining hall is beautiful because it has windows along half of one of the walls, where you can look out at people walking to class and the beautiful grass and trees. 

Overall, Akers is decent. I didn't want to live in a suite-style room though, so I didn't live there. The dining hall is pretty okay sometimes (I know, high praise). The study rooms are nice, as is the study lounge. 

Hope this helped. If I scrounge up any pictures from my friends' experience, I'll be sure to update the post! 

Go green! 

Rakuzen