Cary Quadrangle Reviews
Purdue University
Reviews Summary
Cary Quadrangle, affectionately known as "Cary," is a sprawling dorm with diverse room types. It is especially praised for its prime location, within walking distance to the academic campus, Armstrong Hall, Ford dining, and vibrant quad. For sports enthusiasts, Mackey and Ross-Ade stadiums are nearby. Students appreciate the suite-style rooms in Cary's outer buildings (West, NW, NE, East), which offer spacious, air-conditioned rooms with a semi-private bathroom. They also note a quiet atmosphere despite its size, weekly cleaning service, and exciting dorm-sponsored events. However, Cary has some downsides. Parking is limited, and access to laundry rooms is inconvenient, particularly in the South building where none exist. Some found game days noisy, and the distance to the central part of the Residential Campus was considered a drawback. Students were divided about Cary South: while many complained about the small, un-air-conditioned rooms famously known as "Cary Closets," others appreciated the community spirit they created. Despite these minor issues, students felt living in Cary was a memorable experience, thanks to its lively community atmosphere, student-oriented facilities, and iconic status. They recommend choosing rooms in the outer buildings and bringing a Brita due to lack of water bottle fillers in East.
Small Rooms
Great Location
Community Atmosphere
When students lived here
Freshman
Sophomore
Junior
Senior
Overall rating breakdown
Room
Building
Location
Bathroom
Browse 11 Student Reviews
Reviews with a Verified Student badge were written with a school email.
If you're not in the closets, Cary is great! The suite-style rooms are much bigger than my room in McCutcheon and having a semi-private bathroom is handy. Location is great, right next to academic campus and not too far of a walk from most big spots, besides other dorms. I love the atmosphere here too, the quad is nice to walk around and is lively during the warmer months. If you're a big sports fan, Mackey and Ross-Ade are right next door which makes game-day commute easy. Laundry can be a bit rough if you're not in the right building since only 2 of the 4 buildings have a laundry room (East and West iirc). My biggest gripes are that there are no water bottle fillers in East, which makes a Brita a must-have and that singles are extremely h...
Pros: - Very close to academic campus, only rival to closeness is probably Hawkins Hall. - Cary NW, NE, East, and West have renovated rooms, with decently sized rooms, modern bathrooms, and easy to use air-conditioning and heating. - Ford Dining Court directly across the street towards the Purdue watertower, and The Burrow is in Carry NE. - Believe it or not (atleast for Cary NE, and probably the renovated buildings) the dorms are quiet. - Many dorm/floor sponsored events during the semester. Cons: - Not enough Residence Hall parking at Cary. Plus you have to move your car when there is any games. - Can by noisy during game days, but simply leaving the dorm during those times or actually just attending the games solves this issue. - Argua...
Decent place to live after Wiley my freshman year. Although unless your top priority is the location get an off campus apartment and take the bus for the price the singles are.
Cary Quad was an amazing place to live. Granted- I lived in the suites (Cary has south, and the suites which are known as "outers") Outers include West, NorthWest, NorthEast, and East. All suite rooms are air conditioned and double rooms that are connected by a shared bathroom (so 2 rooms share 1 bathroom, which is cleaned by staff janitors once a week). Cary runs some amazing events like lego night where the RA gave out several thousand dollars of lego for free, rock the quad, and several movie nights where they inflated a movie screen in the middle of the quad and gave out free popcorn and drinks. My RA was very chill, laid back, and helped me out a lot.
For anyone feeling uncertain about living in cary in the future this place’s negative reviews are heavily inflated by the fact that most of these reviews are referring to cary south. The negative remarks you see in said reviews are not the case in cary west north and east. Cary west north and east are significantly nicer. They are on par with windsor and arguably even frieda parker halls. Cary west north and east only has semi suites. So every room has its own bathroom and sink as well as air conditioning. The rooms are also very spacious (much larger than frieda parker) and the building overall is a lot cleaner and less run down. If you’re looking for on campus housing that has a great location and a nice comfortable room I would highly ...
My room was quite large and wasn't a cary closet so not bad. It gets a bit dim when its cloudy out (so you have to turn on the lights) which is annoying. First month is quite uncomfortable with early fall heat but tolerable with a fan. Laundry being outside is slightly annoying but it's not as bad as the other reviews say it is. Otherwise, cheapest dorm you can get (other than temp housing hell) and prime location right next to Armstrong hall and Ford dining. imo, best location together with windsor/frieda parker location.
Live in a closet with a roommate. It took some work and rearranging, but we make it work. There's no laundry room in the south building, so walking outside in the winter to do laundry isn't great. We have a decent view from our room along with a working heater that can be adjusted. The lack of AC makes the first month or so pretty uncomfortable.
Fun place to live, but the rooms are very small and the doors are always slamming. Great memories though. Iconic dorm to live in.
Cary is very large and has many different types of rooms, most people tend to live in the tiny rooms like I did. Even though it was small, I still enjoyed it and met many of my friends through Cary.
Cary South rooms are very small, but you learn to enjoy living in Cary. It has a great community.
