<p>USC dorms are pretty nice...as mentioned, Parkside Suites are pretty amazing, and the food is pretty good. and Parkside II should be even nicer, because it'll be new (duh haha) and it'll have common rooms in the suites. Webb Tower's sophomore apartments are right on campus and it was as good as rebuilt, so everything's pristine in there as well.</p>
<p>other housing for freshmen is at least alright (bar the honors dorms...). the only problem with most of them is that they get boiling hot in the summer without AC. IMO, New/North is pretty crappy...extremely hot, old and smelly, and inconveniently long hallways...but for most people, the social life of the building more than makes up for it. i've heard of full-on "around the world" parties (international "drinks" included...) going on.</p>
<p>I wonder how much merit should be given to the Princeton Review. Dorms can be so inconsistent between buildings. From what I've heard some of the University at Buffalo dorms are bad while others are very good. This is despite UB being on the list of worst dorms.</p>
<p>Princeton Review's rankings come from student surveys. How well a school does is a reflection of how many students respond and where they happen to live on campus.</p>
<p>It's safe to assume that any school that makes the top 10 has either generally excellent dorms (especially relative to other nearby/comparable schools where students may have looked) or, at the very least, a generally excellent OPINION of its dorms (which is in some ways just as good).</p>
<p>Beyond that, schools flip-flop, fall off the list, and appear differently each year. It's not a be-all-end-all source of info, but you can look at the last few years' lists and get a decent idea!</p>
<p>Scripps has varied between 4-7ish in the last four years, and I don't recall any of the other Claremont schools even being on the list too many years ago, whereas now they're vying for the top. I seem to recall Pepperdine being #1 recently whereas I don't believe it was on the list at all when I applied. </p>
<p>So...the list is a more-than-rough estimate, but it's safe to say that you don't get on to it by being totally gross (or anywhere near it) :-)</p>
<p>worst ever has got to be colombia's Wien hall or Wein hall dont know how to spell it, its infested with cockroaches, no running water 1/2 the time, 12th floor has one shower, one toilet, and the rooms are smaller than the size of one queen mattress, it is a freshmans worst nightmare, ugg its terrible when i saw it i almost threw up they need to tear that monstrosity down</p>
<p>I visited Columbia 2 years ago, and even the dorms they showed students and PARENTS on the tour were awful. The hallways were dark, full of trash and dingy, the rooms were like matchboxes, and the windows all had bars on them. This dorm I think was called Carmel Hall, and I heard from someone that one of Columbia's dorms used to be a hospital for the clinically insane, thus explaining the bars. </p>
<p>I currently go to Princeton, and I would have to agree with Quirkily on most counts. The dorms are usually quite nice, but the differences can be immense at the individual room level, and also even within residential colleges. Some of the older buildings (Mathey Quad, Junior "slums", Cuyler/1903, etc.) are beautiful dorms, but the plumbing is often very antiquated, featuring few bathrooms and obscenely large radiators in some rooms. Other buildings, like the original Wilson Quad buildings and Butler Quad all have that ugly 60s international architecture, but the rooms are actually quite spacious, and can serve a variety of purposes. The plumbing is also up-to-date. </p>
<p>Then there are dorms like Holder, Edwards, Little, Bloomberg, and the to-be Whitman College that have the best of both worlds, so its pretty much up to fate. Lucklily for the class of 2011 and onwards, Butler Quad is being torn down, so no one will have to live there anymore.</p>
<p>university of illinois-chicago has realllly nice dorms. I just stayed in SRH in the medical district...we had a gym, pool, cafeteria, 3 huge lounges, pool, arcade, large screen TV to watch in the breakfast lounge, convenient store, travel agent, barber shop, movie renting machine, coffee shop, grille, starbucks, computer labs...it was beautiful. the floors were really colorful, with translucent colored paneling and large windows looking out at the city in the 2 loungeson each floor. maple furniture in lounges, kitchen, colored carpet, beautiful bathrooms.
in the dorms, we had walk in closets, color painted walls, and pretty sconces. the furniture was verynice also. i loved it! the community atmostphere could not have been any better...we were family within a week. family.</p>
<p>I love Amherst dorms; they're beautiful and very conducive to community-building. Some have fireplaces... it's amazing. Mt. Holyoke dorms have fireplaces, but we're not allowed to use them. Some girl tried to set a fire in the fireplace this past year and made the alarm go off, causing the school to put up signs that say the fireplace is <em>not</em> for use. Smith dorms are beautiful too. I love the houses and how they're all so close to each other. It's homey.. at Mt. Holyoke, you have a wide selection of dorms to choose from- some homey, some not, some big, some small.</p>
<p>by far, the nicest dorms i've seen are at my college, St John's University (staten island campus):
we get apartments and only have to share it with two other people...and if you pay 1,000 more a year you get a single room and your other two roomates share a room. seniors even get the option of having a studio apartment!!!
best of all is that we get a full sized kitchen, bathroom, dining room and bedrooms. we don't have to share the bathroom with 5 other people it's just the three of us.</p>
<p>Stanford IS next to...uh...exorbitantly priced residential neighborhoods, and Palo Alto, one of the most expensive college towns that isn't really a college town. The campus, although lacking a beach, is very nice. I would recommend bringing a bike for sure.</p>
<p>i just have to say that anyone saying princeton has nice dorms has not been to laughlin hall. it's disgusting. i stayed there for a 3 week program and found cockroaches in my room on at least 5 occasions, plus the bathroom was like infested with them. i can't even talk about how disgusting the bathrooms were. i couldn't even imagine having to live there. i hope no one does.</p>
<p>itla if I were to guess, you stayed during the summer, which is when the insect population in that part of New Jersey goes bonkers. It happens every year during the summer because of the humidity and the abundance of water. Laughlin Hall is not nearly as bad during the school year (I have stayed there multiple times). It is just an old building that needs to be, and probably will, be renovated soon. They already renovated Holder, 1903, and Dod, so Laughlin, Lockhart, and the other buildings around there should be coming up.</p>
<p>Actually, I don't agree that the dorms at private schools are generally better than those at public schools. When my daughter and I were touring schools, we saw some VERY nice suite/apartment style dorms (new construction) at UConn and the University of Missouri-Columbia, among others. My daughter ended up choosing Kansas State University and her freshman dorm is all suites, completely remodeled only a few years ago. She is rooming with three other girls in a two bedroom carpeted suite with a/c and a private bath -- pretty nice. Granted, many older dorms at public schools aren't great, but that's often true of private schools as well. Generally, I think you will find that newer construction/suite style dorms at any school are going to be fairly nice.</p>
<p>tokyo, that's probably true... i'm actually from jersey (about 40 mins away from princeton w/o traffic) but that was probably my first encounter with roaches. it was not pleasant. i was only like 15 too, so it gave me kind of a negative attitude about dorms in general. not a good experience.</p>