I'll be a student @ mac this year and i'm confused about the first year residence. This week, i visited the campus and i saw many resident buildings. How many resident buildings are there @ Mac(How many options?) Can i choose the building by myself? Which is better? Can i choose my roommates?

Thanks in advance!!!

There are twelve residence buildings available at McMaster University. You can find information about each residence and also other people's opinions in the following page: http://www.macinsiders.com/forumdisplay.php?f=11 6

You can also visit the Residence forum to read others' questions regarding residence life. This can be found here: http://www.macinsiders.com/forumdisplay.php?f=84

As for the actual application process, it was changed from last year's. You can order your preferences as you wish but in the end it's lottery based. They used to let you choose based on the residence buildings but now they do it based on the type of room/theme you want. So for example if your first choice was a double room, you could end up in any residence that has a double room as long as you get lucky in the lottery. The same applies for the other types of rooms. So if you get lucky in the lottery and spots don't fill up for your choice, then you will end up living in a room according to your preferences. Only a few residence buildings are themed so in a way, you can select those buildings based on the themes you chose in your preferences. Sorry if my explanation wasn't very clear but they changed the residence applications from last year. I know it may all sound confusing but if you have any other questions, feel free to ask. To answer your last question, yes, there is a box in the application where you can enter your desired roommate's name. Of course this is not guaranteed, but there is a chance that you'll end up rooming with them. For this to work, they'll also have to put down your name in their application. Personally, I lived in Brandon Hall. Due to unfortunate circumstances, there was a fire in the residence during the first semester. We were allowed to move back during the second semester. Even though we went through some rough times, in the end it was an amazing experience. A lot of students made their share of friends and memories. It was definitely a good residence if you want to get to know a lot of people, since it's the largest. The community there was wonderful and the staff was absolutely fantastic. Of course, you can get to know a lot of people at any residence and have your own share of experiences. So in the end, it does not really matter too much which residence you end up in. It's the people you meet in the residence buildings that will make your year an amazing experience.

More information about residence buildings can also be found here: http://housing.mcmaster.ca/Residence...Buildings.html

Hope that helped!

Also, check out this thread on the Pros and Cons of each of the residences on campus. There are a lot of comments from other students as well! Click here