Hi,
This year I'll be living in Brandon Hall, and I'm kind of worried about the bathroom situation. I was just wondering if anyone had any advice for a newbie in rez, and really how bad are the bathrooms?

I heard that they're a shit show on Friday and Saturday nights.
/no pun intended

I was just in Brandon last year so I know the whole bathroom situation pretty well. At first, it seems like its going to be terrible having to share a bathroom with all the other girls/guys on the floor, but after about a week or so, you become completely adjusted to it. The first few walks to and from the shower in a robe and towel are a bit awkward, but you get over that quickly. Everyone is in the same situation, so it's easy to get used to it.

In general, the bathrooms were pretty well cleaned. Weekends were a little gross sometimes due to people having guests over and such, but it still wasn't terrible at all.
As a side note- ALWAYS, ALWAYS wear shoes in the bathroom... I never understood how people could walk in there bare foot. It's just disgusting.

I lived in Woodstock a few years ago and had the furthest room from the girl's bathroom. The most awkward thing is walking back to your room in a towel, but in the entire 8 months I think I might have passed people while in a towel 3 or 4 times. You get used to it all very quickly, like others have said, and I almost never ran into other people in the bathroom.

It's not bad at all. I lived in Brandon Hall last year and honestly didn't have an issue with it. I remember being beyond pissed off that I had to share a bathroom with that many people but it ended up being perfectly fine. The girls on my floor seemed to enjoy the whole late night teeth brushing talks haha

I agree. You get used to the communal bathrooms. Having living in residence for 4 years, it really is not that bad (and three of those years were communal bathrooms).

I had a pair of flip flops that I designated for my showers. And when I moved in residence in first year, I didn't really think about having something to carry my toiletries in to the washroom so I was carrying them, so make sure you have something to carry your shampoos and whatever else you need for your shower.

I believe the story goes something like this:

First year, first few days:
See someone at urinal, pretend to wash hands.
If said individual does not leave washroom quickly, leave the washroom and wait for him to leave so you can poop. If individual leaves quickly, launch into the stall.

First year, near the end:
Don't give a f***, my ass is about to explode

Take your showers during off-peak periods (i.e. really early morning, early afternoon or early evening- you'll have to see which works out best for you based on the people on your floor). They're really not that bad though. And there's more than one bathroom per building, so you'll never have a problem if you go to another floor.

Even though the washrooms are shared for the entire floor, I don't ever recall not having a shower/stall/sink available. We even had girls come in to use the boy's washroom. Which the guys never complained about.

The worst is when the cleaning personnel are in there, and they lock the washrooms. Then I would have to use the washroom on another floor.

Communal washrooms RULE!

why?
-not in charge of cleaning them (like Mary Keyes and Bates).
-access to more washrooms...in case you want to dump and run.....unlike private washrooms in Keyes and Bates
-no one will be able to figure out who blocked the toilet
-no one will be able to figure out who stankkk the washroom

Cons
-have to pass gas/poo quietly
-lots of exploring involved in order to find the perfect washroom

Awesome, thanks for all the tips One more question, how big are the dorm rooms in Brandom? Are they a decent size and is there a mirror?

Room sizes are pretty typical of traditional residences. There is always a mirror in your room... unless it somehow got destroyed and wasn't replaced!