Thoughts on UF Dorms for Freshmen: Location vs. Quality

I have been looking through various forums and found quite a few yet many were outdated. For this upcoming year, all dorms have central air conditioning, which was a common complaint and major drawback for people in previous posts.

Given the AC fix across campus, I’d appreciate some feedback on a few dorms I’m considering:

I’ll be an incoming freshman studying engineering. I applied to the Honors program and waiting to hear back, so Hume is a potential option. I hear lots of positivity about it on the inside, but I am concerned about its location. When I took my tour it seemed relatively far away from a lot of things compared to dorms in the Murphree or Tolbert Area.

Does Hume’s quality of living (and higher rent rates) outweigh its location? I get the feeling that location is often overlooked by incoming freshmen who opt for Hume immediately because of the suite-style bathrooms. I’d do the whole communal bathrooms thing if the rest of the dorm works for me (perhaps Murphree Area dorms are ideal because they are shared with fewer people?). I’m not much of a bike or scooter rider, so I’ll likely be walking to classes, making location more important.

Also, any thoughts on Murphree (Sledd, Thomas, or Buckman seem ideal from what I’ve read from older posts), Tolbert (I’m thinking East, the engineering LLC), or Yulee Area dorms? They are some of my top choices, given my current research.

I wasn’t a huge fan of Beaty (a friend showed me around his dorm and a few others) and Jennings seemed fine, but I heard some bug complaints with regard to the kitchenette area.

I don’t know that I’m looking for a super-social dorm. I think I’d prefer a bit quieter of a dorm and instead meet people in clubs, etc. I would, though, like a dorm with a decently-functioning kitchenette on my floor (as I’ll probably find myself making coffee there often), though it is not necessarily a deal-breaker.

Any answers to these questions or additional advice would be appreciated! Thanks in advance.

My daughter is in Hume, is in engineering and brought a bunch of AP credit with her. First semester, she had the majority of her lectures( Calc, physics, physics lab, professional orientation) all in the physics building right across the street from Hume and one class in Hume. The other class was in MAE-A. Look at the campus map and decide what is right for you. If you need to take a bunch of gen eds ( she did not) then you might want to be closer to those other areas of campus. http://campusmap.ufl.edu/#/index

Hume is full of engineering students if that makes a difference to you.