Based on my daughter’s experience and those of her friends, I think the traditional housing set-up of doubles/triples with a hall lounge is much better for freshmen than the fancier suite living arrangements. It’s so easy to become isolated in a suite made up of singles when you’re far away from home at a big school. That’s what happened to one of her good friends at Alabama. My daughter, on the other hand, made friends much more easily simply by keeping her door open and joining in with others on the hall playing marathon sessions of Settlers of Catan. Her dorm may not be as opulent as the suites at other schools, but it provided a chance for social interaction that, in my opinion, was much more important for a new freshman than air conditioning or a private bathroom.