Top Ten Nicest College Dorms

Ok, Ok, I know I'm being lazy again giving you another post based on outside article, but I rather give you good, validated information than the reviews of drunk college kids on the Internet. And besides, I spent a good 20 minutes searching the Internet for a reliable source for this info, so thats got to count for something, right? This comes from The Princeton Review book The Best 368 Colleges: Dorms Like Palaces. You can find the online list here.

According to the Princeton Review, the list is based on dorm comfort, and from my research (yes I said research), they gather this information by polling their site members who are currently in college. All information about the dorm rooms themselves come directly from the school website.

1. Loyola College: A Jesuit school in Baltimore, Maryland, dorm fees are $7,790 for the 2008-2009 school year. The school has 16 residence halls, all are fully furnished and equipped, and the newer buildings are even eco-friendly. Room types include double and single rooms, suites, apartments and town houses. Here is a picture of the double rooms, here's a picture of the suites, here's the apartments, and here's what they claim are townhouses (yeah, ok!).
2. Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering: Located in Needham, Massachusettes, this is a school I've never heard of in my life, but I'm sure that doesn't mean its not special in its own way. For the 2008-2009 school year, the room fee is $8,100, and offers single, double, and suite rooms. Of course, since it's a technology based school, it offers cable TV, voice, data and fiber-optic outlets throughout the dorms. Here are some Flickr pictures of Olin students, sorry its the best I could do. You know, no offense or anything, but for a technology based school, their website kind of sucks.
3. Smith College: Located in Northampton, Massachusetts, this all girls school has a dorm cost of $12,050 for the 2008-2009 academic year. They take a different approach to dorms by using 36 self-governing houses instead. Here's a link to all their houses.
4. Scripps College: This school is in Claremont, California and is also an all girl's school. The dorm fee for the 2008-2009 academic year is $6,200. It has 9 resident halls, all of which are smoke free. The only drawback to small schools are that its almost impossible to get pictures of the dorms for them so, sorry, this was the best I could do, here are the pics. Though I must say, even though this is a smaller college, it's website is still a lot better than the crap that Olin College has, seriously they need to fix that.
5. Bryn Mawr College: Ok, this school is in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, and I must say I do have a soft spot for it since I was accepted here, but unfortunately could not attend. Its nice to know, though, that if I had I would have stayed in a nice dorm. Again, this is an all girls school, and the room fee will set you back $11,520 for the 2008-2009 academic year. The school has 12 dorms, and all rooms are either singles or doubles which are connected to living rooms and bathrooms. You can find pictures of all the dorm rooms here, at the school website, which I must say is a pretty good website.
6. George Washington University: Located in Washington, DC, the cost of dorming at this school is $9,920. The rooms include single, doubles, triples, quads, 5/6 person rooms, and townhouses. Here is a detailed list of their dorms. And again, this website is crappy by not posting pictures of what the dorms look like, but lucky you I found some kid's pictures of his dorm on google, hope he doesn't mind. Click here to see them.
7. Washington University: Not to be confused with GWU, this school is located in St. Louis, Missouri. Room and board costs $11,636, and thats pretty much all I could get from their website. Seriously, their site looks like I made it, and thats not saying much. It even makes the Olin College site look well put together. From what I could find on their site they have 12 residential halls, and the rooms range from regular single/double dorm rooms so house and suite/apartments. And again, I apologize, but this is all I could find as far as pictures. Click here!
8. Bowdoin College: Located in Brunswick, Maine, room and board here is $ 4,850 for the 2008-2009 academic year. Resident halls are separated into first-year resident halls, and upperclassmen residence halls, houses and apartments. Here is a detailed list of each resident dwelling's(?) amenities and room types. Floor plans for each room can be found here.
9. Bennington College: This school is located in Bennington, Vermont, and according to their website, the room will cost you $5,720, and the board will cost you $4,960. I guess that means you can get one without the other(!?!?). The school has 20 student houses, with either single or double rooms. Each house has its own unique design and now a new eco-friendly house has just been built. You can find a comparison of each house here. Here's a link that will show you some pictures of what the inside of the houses look like.
10. Harvard College: Ok, as you may already know, Harvard is located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. For the 2008-2009 academic year, room will cost you $6,060 and board will cost you $4,982 (again, what's with the separating of room and board?!?). There are 13 residential houses which are separated for upper and under classmen. I'm not even going to try to explain these houses since they are so complex that each house has its own website! (yes, a website affiliated with Harvard that is solely dedicated to each house) You can find the links to these websites here.

Ok, now I don't know if you'll agree with this list or not, but it said that these are the nicest dorm rooms available. Personally, my favorite dorm room is the one I'm sitting in now in my parent's house, it's free, always stocked with food, and I don't have to pay for cable, but hey that's just me. But please, don't choose a school solely based on its dorm room, that would be stoopid. Hope this helps.