Metcalf Hall (Somerville, Massachusetts)

 dormitory  Add category

Metcalf Hall is a dorm at Tufts University. It is located on Professor's row across from the campus center. It is a co-ed dorm, but is single-sex by hall. The dorm is available to freshmen and sophomores. At maximum capacity, Metcalf can house 79 students, making it one of the smallest dorms on campus. It is also the dorm that houses all of the students involved in the Bridges program. Bridges is a program for students interested in increased interaction with professors and increased community involvement. There is one single-sex bathroom on each hall. The bathrooms each have a few showers, toilettes and sinks. Metcalf is a staffed residence hall, with two RA's living there each year.
Metcalf has mostly doubles and singles, with one triple for sophomores. The doubles, of which there are 27, are 10'X14' with additional closet space. The singles are approximately 10'X10'. They number 22 in total. The one triple is 11'X20'. All rooms are furnished with movable furniture, including a bed, desk, and a dresser. The rooms in the eastern wing of Metcalf have carpeted floors, while those in the western wing have linoleum floors. The walls are white plaster. There is a main view on the ground floor that has a good view of downtown and offers a TV, a ping-pong table, chairs and couches, and tables. There is also a smaller study room on this same floor. There is also a small lounge in the basement of the eastern wing. There is one communal kitchen located on the second floor of the eastern wing. Laundry machines and Bike storage is available in the basement of Metcalf.

Metcalf houses primarily freshmen interested in the Bridges program. That being said, students who are not involved in the bridges program, including sophomores as well as freshmen, do live in Metcalf. For sophomores, an average between roommates of around 2,200 should be enough to secure a double, give or take. For one of the singles, a number closer to the 2,700 range is necessary. Since Tufts does not provide exact information about what number historically have been sufficient to secure room in Metcalf, these are only approximations.

In sum, Metcalf is attractive for its good location and is a great place to live if the bridges program is something that interests you. The rooms are fairly large and nice. The building itself is also cool because it is so old. While the dorm itself is pretty attractive, sophomores often find Metcalf undesirable because it is a mostly freshmen dorm and it is not a very social dorm. The Bridges program does not exactly mesh well with students looking for a very social dorm and such students may be better off looking elsewhere. That being said, the extremely small size of the dorm fosters a really tight community amongst the students who live there.

Official Metcalf 2008-09 Group on Facebook :www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=81286845360