Before I arrived to Northeastern, I had been trying forever to see what my dorm looked like. I’m living in International Village (IV), a building that’s been open since 2009. Pretty new.

In order to know what to bring to college, I wanted to know what my dorm room looked like. No such thing. Photos are impossible to come by online. When I went on a campus tour of Northeastern, we didn’t visit IV– it had a tour of its own.

Dorm rooms are notorious for being small. I’ve seen some of the dorms at other universities. The dorms are petite. Rather cramped. Storage space is hard to come by. Knowing this, I packed to maximize storage space for my dorm.

IV rendered many of these things useless:

Adjustable bed frame.

Drawers under the bed.

Closet with shelves.

Desk with drawers.

I’m in what’s called a “semi-private double.” Meaning, I’m in a double– I have a roommate– but we don’t have to share a communal bathroom with the whole floor. Instead, we share a toilet and shower with the room adjacent to us. Each room has its own sink. All the rooms in International Village are like this– you won’t find a communal bathroom anywhere here.

Desk with drawers.

So that’s the deal with my dorm! A dorm this nice isn’t the norm– IV only houses upperclassmen and honors freshmen. Visiting freshmen have commented on the cleanliness, size, and modernity of IV. Man, I lucked out again, didn’t I?

And for the incoming honors freshman– here is what the dorm looks like.

The area at the door.

Our microfridge and microwave. These can be rented, for the low, low price of $207.19 a year. In IV, you can bring your own fridge, but not a microwave. Oh, and the TV? Definitely not included in the dorm.

My side of the room!

The shared portion of the bathroom. Bathroom carpets, toilet paper, toilet cleaner, and toilet plunger not included. Also, a shower curtain is provided, but my roommate provided this nicer one.

Hopefully, with this, future freshmen will be less confused! It’s a common problem for freshmen everywhere to not know what your dorm looks like. So…

I’m so excited to live here! More on IV to come!