How thin are the walls, floors, and ceilings in the student housing? Is it a constant thumping that reverberates through the rooms when someone upstairs walks around? Do stereos blast through the walls as if they were made of rice paper? Or, is it of a sturdier construction that offers more privacy?

Thanks

I stayed in the dorm on a recent trip to the island. I couldn't hear anyone making noise. The only thing that kept me awake was the constant tap of microphage pounding away on his keyboard.....

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AUC Class of '99
Bored certified
I may be a jerk, but I'm a Jedi jerk like my father.

Some say I look like Buzz Lightyear....
(They're right)

DISCLAIMER: I have no financial stake in ValueMD, or any medical school.

that was only after you didn't ask me to go for the gyro run.

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Finally beat Super Mario Bros within 7 mins.

the building is solid steel frame construction with conctrete block cement walls. in the US only the outside walls would be done this way with wood frame and dry wall on the interior walls with fiberglass in the middle serving as insulator and noise 'proofing', most places in the US also have carpet that insulates the noise. since the walls here are solid concrete and the floor is tile, they transmit more sound.

its not a thin wall that is the problem, its the solid wall that does it.

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OBGYN PGY II
I see light at the end of the tunnel!!!...wait a minute its just another freakin tunnel!

i have lived in the dorms for 20 months so i have gotten used to the "noise".

you will hear the people living above you from time to time. if your a/c is on all the time, it muffles out most of the noise. the biggest noise complaint that i have heard about is the slamming of doors. usually, if someone slams their apartment door, it can be heard through several floors due the building being so solid. if a neighbor has many guests, you can hear them through your a/c vents.

most people in the dorms are aware of these problems and try to be as careful as possible. i had to deal with a few complaints this semester but nothing big. usually if you tell your R.A., it gets taken care of one way or another.

later,

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AUC, Class of 2007
Internal Medicine (PGY-2)

"if you tell your R.A., it gets taken care of one way or another."


1st offense: warning and a nice request to keep it down
2nd offense: another waring with possibel write up to the hosing office and a few colorful explatives mixed in for making us talk to you again
3rd offense you just get thrown off whatever floor you are on and pray that you get taken to the french hospital.

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OBGYN PGY II
I see light at the end of the tunnel!!!...wait a minute its just another freakin tunnel!

there goes our secrets!!

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AUC, Class of 2007
Internal Medicine (PGY-2)

I think you're asking will people be able to hear if you make the beast with two backs at the rodeo in your room late at night? And for the most part, yes. We've pretty much figured out who's doing who around us.

For the most part, the walls between rooms are pretty hollow and thin. However, if you're like my room, I only have one thin wall, the rest are thick blocks of cement that hold up the rest of the apartments above me.. though the walls seem to be cracking.

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"though the walls seem to be cracking"

they are minor stress cracks from the foundation settling. they happen in every building you just don't see them in the states because the hosues are coverd by siding or drywall on the inside.

even steel sky scrapers are built with settling tolerances that allow a building to bend into its final shape....did you know that some skyscrapers can swivel back and forth 12 feet? imagine the strenght of the material needed to withstand bending stress of a 110 story building waving back and forth 6 feet in each direction....next time you go to the empire states builing go to the top, stand still, and close your eyes....its an interesting experience. another architectural factoid, a 100llb woman wearing 3/8inch heels exerts more pressure per square inch on the floor than the a footer from the empire states building...that was one of my midterm questions.

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OBGYN PGY II
I see light at the end of the tunnel!!!...wait a minute its just another freakin tunnel!

And they've figured out the same for you... or are you not gettin any?

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Finally beat Super Mario Bros within 7 mins.