Many students know that Ellis Hall has a pretty bad reputation around the Castleton campus. Students generally seem to have some sort of preconceived notion about it, whether good or bad. I’m here to tell you that that’s not true. I absolutely love my room on the third floor.

Ellis is not a bad place to live. My roommate, for instance, moved here from Castleton Hall. Yeah, that’s right, the infamous Castleton Hall.

Most of the time, Ellis is categorized as a rowdy freshman dorm because “no one else wants to live there.” Well, I did some research as to people that live in Ellis who aren’t freshman and found some pretty interesting results.

One of the first people I spoke to was sophomore Bart Kallgren who lives on the second floor of Ellis. I asked why he chose to come back and live in Ellis.

“I chose Ellis because it is a place where you can open your door and see every one in your hall, or you can shut your door and be left alone,” Kallgren said. “It is a building that people, who have never lived here, say is horrible; but to the people that do live here, or have lived here say is the best.”

“You get to meet more people because of the set up of the dorm, and those people become your friends,” he continued. “All the people that lived in this dorm last year are all my good friends this year and it was all because of Ellis.”

On top of having that corridor-style charm and convenience, Ellis is also the closest residence hall to basically everything. By that I mean it’s closest to Africa, Observatory, the Ellis Lot (obviously), Jeffords, and Public Safety. It’s the closest building to everything, except Huden, and even that isn’t that much of a walk. Not to mention, we have rugs in our rooms; most Residence halls can’t say that.
I spoke to a few other students regarding how they felt about Ellis Hall, and got nothing but good responses.

Freshman roommate’s Caitlin Torrey and Julie Whitman were very enthusiastic with their responses.

“Ellis is a wonderful place to socialize, and my first year would be completely different if I didn’t live here,” Whitman said.

Caitlin Torrey, who is not returning next year, responded with a similar send of fondness.

“I love it! If I had one reason to come back to Castleton next year, it would be to live in Ellis,” Torrey said.

Sophomore Tony D’ottavio agreed.

“I wouldn’t have come back to live here two years in a row if I didn’t enjoy it,” he said.

So, in the end, many who lives outside of Ellis thinks it’s rowdy and not very nice, but, for those of us who have lived inside Ellis, couldn’t picture living anywhere else.

So, next time you think about Ellis, I hope at least some good things come to mind, instead of just the bad that you’ve heard.