All about Pitman Hall - Ryerson Residence Tips
- Sarah
- May 11, 2019
- 4 min read
Hey guys! So, today I thought I would offer any of you incoming freshmen, particularly those going to Ryerson in Toronto, some dorm advice.
I just finished my first year at Ryerson university, and I was through the good and the bad about uni residence.
I know last year, I was desperately looking for videos and posts that were specific to Ryerson and couldn’t find any that were overly helpful, so I want to make this post in order to help anyone who may be in my situation. So, I’ll start with some general tips for all dorms, and then move into some Ryerson specific information.
- First tip that I know you’ve most likely heard before is - don’t bring more than you absolutely need. Even if the rooms are big enough to store all of the stuff that you want to bring, you’re going to be busy with other things and cleaning your space and keeping everything in its home will be the last thing you want to do. But it is so much easier to focus on studying if your space isn’t a mess.
- Bring a fan!! You need one. Most uni residences are old and don’t have good air circulation units. Just trust me.
- If you have problems with your roommates, don’t wait until it gets really bad to make a formal complaint. This may seem to go against common sense, but the way the system works is that there has to be a certain procedure and steps of warnings, informal intervention and such before anything serious can be done in terms of changing roommates and such. At least that was my experience. So if you think you will be having problems in the future, bring it up sooner rather than later.
So, for Ryerson:
Ryerson has four student residences - Pitman Hall (PIT), International Living and Learning Centre (ILLC), Hoem, and Daphne Cockwell Complex (DCC). I personally lived in Pitman, so that is what I will be speaking about, but each building offers its own benefits.
In Pitman, there are apartment style rooms, where you have anywhere between three to five roommates. This is the style that I was in, but there are also paired rooms (like a single room but you share a bathroom with someone else), double rooms and single rooms. The single rooms are the most common. The residence website (https://www.ryerson.ca/housing/) has a bunch of information about each style of rooms, but for the most part, the bedrooms of each option all look the same.
I wanted to film a whole walk-through of the apartment before I moved out, but I didn’t get a chance to. I do have a video and some pictures that I’ll insert below with captions of what they are showing. Both these photos and the tips are specific to Pitman since that is where I lived.
The apartments all look slightly different, particularly for the bathrooms. Some of them look like mine and some have bathrooms like what you would find in a normal house. It just depends on the room you get, but this is what mine looked like.
- My number one, most important tip is to invest in a good, breathable mattress topper. I thought this wasn’t super important when I moved in, especially since they can be expensive and I’d only be using it for one year. Since I’m not normally bothered by hard mattresses, I didn’t end up getting one. But it’s not the fact that the mattresses are hard that’s the problem, it’ that they have the plastic cover like the ones at summer camp. They’re super uncomfortable to sleep on, and the plastic doesn’t let any heat out, so if there isn’t a lot between your body and the mattress, it gets REALLY hot at night. And sleeping well is really important to doing well in your classes.
- Related to this, bring a fan and some air freshener. Aside from dorm rooms normally getting pretty hot and smelling kinda dank, one entire side of Pitman has windows that open out over the exhaust fan from the cafeteria. Also, it's just hella loud in downtown Toronto. So if you need to open your window, you’re gonna want the air freshener so your entire room doesn’t smell like greasy cafeteria food. And if the smell and/or noise bothers you, you’re gonna want the fan to cool down the room.
- About the meal hall - a couple of things to say here. For most of the Ryerson residences, you’re required to have a meal plan. And it ain’t great, to be honest. So a few tips.
Make use of what you have. In Pit, they have a rice bowl bar and a salad and sandwich bar, along with whatever they are cooking for the day. Mix and match items from the various section to get what you need. If you’re making a salad, take some tofu or chicken from the rice bowl section to get your protein. Trust me, it makes things easier.
If you have any serious health or allergy issues relating to food, talk to the residence staff to see if they can offer any support. Some allergens are difficult to avoid, so it’s important to ask about right away. And regardless, I’d keep some food on hand regardless for nights when the options just aren’t great or you can’t find something that you can eat. There are kitchens on every floor, so if you need to, you can cook your own food.
- Final tip. If you can, get a cheap vacuum cleaner, like one of the $25 dollar ones from Canadian Tire. I bought one on sale before I moved in and it was a lifesaver. All the floors are carpet and while there are communal vacuums on each floor, they break a lot and sometimes you have to wait a while for them to get passed around to everyone. Just best off to get your own if you can.
Overall, my experience in residence was a good one, even though it can be pretty draining for introverts sometimes. If that’s you, worry not, I have some tips about that coming soon!
So, that’s all I had to say today! If you have any questions about living in Ryerson Residence, the school in general or living in Toronto, feel free to comment or email me and I’ll do my best to answer your question!
Until next time,
Sarah Anne
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