I think the key for me of Random was having critical mass. Critical mass of people to do lots of things. One can’t play a 10 person game of Resistance at 10pm on a Saturday without previous notice…unless you live in a dorm that has lots of people who want to play games. You can’t have a giant closet of costumes that everyone shares for LARPing if you don’t have lots of residents who LARP.
But, for me, the most crisp example of how Random was the correct place for me came my senior year. I love learning things from my peers. Random hall has a seminar series where we would invite PhD students and undergrads to come to Random and teach us interesting things. Not only did we have many people show up for each lecture, lots of Randomites were interested in giving lectures. There are still more lectures talks now that I have graduated. Every dorm has people who love learning and teaching. But, in Random people hear “Type Theory lecture this Sunday at Noon!” and actually show up, learn and solve problems together.