<p>Most of your classes during your freshman year will be on the main quad. As in anything else, your choice of dorms should be dominated by location. You mention not wanting to party, and the “six pack” dorms have a reputation for that, which is way overblown. You’ll get “partiers” in any type of housing. They don’t last long, but, again, there’s always a few. You won’t be swept up in some sort of a mosh pit in the halls, if that’s what you’re worried about. Noise levels are relative, and situational, but there are study areas in each dorm, and there’s always the library.</p>
<p>Other dorm pluses:
(1) Dining privileges in any dorm as opposed to certified private housing (Approved by the university, but privately owned and operated), where you can only eat there. Not a big deal depending on what should be your main consideration…location.
(2) A plus or minus, depending on how you view it, is a common bathroom down the hall serving a set of dorm rooms. This means you’ll be flip-flopping it down the hall and into a shower to scrub up. Wear the flip-flops, or you’ll be visited by athlete’s foot and/or a variety of other fungal baddies, which will not endear you to anyone, nor improve your athletic abilities in the least. Having said that, however, you rapidly get used to it, and it’s not a big deal. The public washrooms serve another, more social purpose. Seeing as how people frequently use them, there’s more foot traffic in the halls, thus increasing the likelyhood of mingling, meeting, and developing friendships that will last a lifetime. At first, people leave their dorm doors open to encourage visiting etc. This is minimally harder to do in suite-style dorming, which is largely unavailable to freshman anyway, but, hey, if you’re headed to the washroom, you’re likely not in the mood to chat anyway, and there are many, many other opportunities to meet people and form friendships (clubs, class, study groups, breakfast, lunch, dinner, wandering aimlessly on the quad)…you get the idea. Bousfield is a suite-style dorm, where each suite has it’s own washroom, and common area. Upperclassman snap these up very quickly, and they get first choice, so don’t expect them to be available. Bousfield is listed as an upperclass dorm, and I’m not sure it’s even an option for freshman.</p>
<p>Certified Private housing:
There are several options here, but for location, you can’t beat Newman Hall. Suite style dorms, and you can roll out of bed, jump into jeans and be in class in 5-10 minutes depending on whether you’re rushed, and your personal hygiene routine. Most of these CPH options have a religious association, and, if you’re into that, that’s great, but, in no case do they care whether you partake, and there is never any coercion. You can come and go, smile at any religious types you see, or not, and come and go as you please. The drawbacks are two-fold, you can only dine in the dining hall associated with your CPH, which is not a big deal. They even allow you to pack a lunch if your schedule doesn’t allow you time to head back for a mid-day snack. Lastly, they cost moderately more that university dorms, by about 3-6 bucks a day depending on the CPH, and room choice. I think that’s about it. Remember, you’ll be fine wherever you end up housing. Even FAR, PAR, LAR, although definitely not as close as ISR (upperclassmen snap that up too quickly to be available to all but a few freshman anyway), are emminently walkable to the main quad, where, no matter what your major, most of your freshman courses will be.</p>
<p>I think that covers most everything. Congratulations on being admitted to the state’s flagship university. Good luck!</p>