I will say that while New South at GU was supposedly designed after a prison, the view on the south side was spectacular. Watching the air/foot/boat/car traffic along the Potomac at sunset is still a favorite memory of mine.

U Miami (Fl) also has unbelievable amenities (pools, enormous "wellness center", hammocks, glider picnic style tables and benches with canopies on top, really good fresh food choices, etc). But the dorms I've seen are standard issue.

I have a kid at the University of North Florida. She shares a suite with three other girls. They each have their own bedroom and private bath. They share a common area and kitchen.

They have a lazy river that runs around the dorm. And a small fitness center, grocery store, restaurant and pool/sauna in the building! It looks like a resort.

Not the dorm life I remember!

Anonymous wrote:8:16: Unless you get screwed in room draw and get stuck in Erdman. Not that I'm bitter or anything.

What, you didn't enjoy your year in a Soviet prison, while everyone else was living in a Merchant Ivory movie?

UVA's new first year dorms are really, really nice. Large rooms, great lounge and study space, individual climate control by room, good security. They are gradually tearing down old dorms and replacing them with new dorms, and eventually (I think in the next 2-3 years) all the first-years will be in the new dorms (most already are).
For something totally different, check out the dorms at Salve Regina, in Newport RI - you can live in one of the old Newport mansions on Bellevue Ave or the Cliff Walk, converted carriage houses, houses designed by Richard Morris Hunt and landscaped by Frederick Law Olmstead. http://www.salve.edu/residence-halls (they also have some cruddy dorms, of course).

8:16: Unless you get screwed in room draw and get stuck in Erdman. Not that I'm bitter or anything.

Bryn Mawr has beautiful housing--gorgeous collegiate gothic buildings with leaded glass windows and carved oak paneling and beautiful living rooms. Dorm rooms are mostly singles, almost all with window seats, many with (non-working!) fireplaces and some with Juliet balconies.

High Point University. Nothing else even close. You select your room when you pay your admission deposit with very broad pricing and most expensive dorms fill first. The annual fee covers base level housing and amenities go up to extremely nice with surcharge to match.

Harvard and Yale's (I love old architecture; hate cinderblocks).

Anonymous wrote:Loyola Maryland is often voted 2nd best dorms (an all women's college is first, but I forget which one).

Umd is coed.

Loyola Maryland is often voted 2nd best dorms (an all women's college is first, but I forget which one).

GMU has great dorms.

Supposedly Wash U has great dorms.

Smith College--they're not called dorms. They're called "houses."

Ok I know it is superficial and in this day and age when schools are getting so damn expensive we shouldn't be encouraging dorm competitions....BUT...and schools with amazing dorms? Flame away.