also re:#39: I can’t recall now ever being inside Baker et al, so obviously I can’t speak to their current condition.
But I seem to recall that they had bigger rooms, or at least bigger than the U-Halls that were torn down.
And I think at least one of them was all-female and was purported to be cleaner. Back then anyway.
I can say that if you don’t like paying for those, take a big gulp if your D decides she next wants to live in lower Collegetown. For my D2’s last two years she lived in a house that appeared not to have been renovated since the time I attended. And they were considered to be hovels back then.
But on the other hand, that house constituted a very intimate living environment where everybody got to know everybody else, and they all became friends. Which was also true of the house I lived in there. It became the central focal point of her social life there.
In general I think sharing an apartment in a house near campus is superior to living in any dorm, for upperclassmen who have already lived a year on campus. More physical space, living with people of your own choosing, common areas, kitchen, live like adults: no campus rules or RAs to enforce them, house parties , better social situation. But physical condition is not one of the pluses, in the older houses.