Spring applications have sprung and you are sitting in front of your computer wondering where you want to live, well fret not young Freshman, for I am here to tell you where you need to shack up for the spring semester.

Four locations are all that you need to know before you sign up for the housing app: Walnut and the Classics: Pinion, Mary Rait and Tolman. There is a simple answer for these dorms, and it is location, price and atmosphere.

Starting with location, since it is quite possibly the most important part of living on campus. No one wants to trek three miles from Orchard or Lucero just to get to class, the UC or the gym. Well if you are lucky enough to get one of my recommended dorms, you will be smack dab in the middle of it all.

With the gym mere steps from Walnut and Pinion, the parking lots and garages a stone throws distance from all four, and the cafeteria a skip and a hop away, all of the essentials are covered. The only educational hall that is out of the way is Houston, but that need not be included in your decision making. Walnut and the classics are the closest that you could possibly get to living near all the buildings and utilities on campus at once, making them a must live destination.

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Second comes the price, as an integral part of being a college student is spending as little money as you can. Rait and Tolman are the cheapest places to live on campus with Pinion coming not far behind. These options offer the most affordable way to live on campus and won’t break your budget like most of the other dorms. Walnut is a tad bit more on the spendy side, but when compared to some of the newer apartments on campus, they still come in relatively cheap, you are also, in a way, paying for the ideal location so it at least softens you up before taking all the money from your wallet.

The third and final reason for living in these dorms is the atmosphere that comes with living there. Volleyball courts, grills for rent, trees and green areas, close-knit dorms and the most authentic college experience is felt in these dorms.

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Places like Garfield and Lucero leave you with a manufactured feel. They are too much like hotels or lofts above a shopping mall, taking away from a great college atmosphere. All of the moving parts that work together in the Walnut and Classics region of campus create a real college feel, not unlike the type we expect from visiting places like CSU and watching Animal House. These dorms make a community that isn’t present elsewhere on the campus, and what is college worth if you aren’t even getting the full experience?

Now it’s time to address concerns. Sure these are the oldest dorms on campus and have seen quite a bit of use, but to that I say “Sure they might be falling apart, sure there is a history of excrement being found on bathroom floors, but the history is rich in these dorms. They are THE college dorms.” They have seen their fair share of nasty deeds and new and shining faces, and that is priceless. However, outside of their age, there isn’t much else to complain about.

The authenticity of these four dorms are a dime a dozen, the price won’t make you totally broke and the location to the rest of campus is impossible to beat. Walnut Ridge, Pinion, Jay Tolman and Mary Rait are simply the best dorms to live in if you are stuck to remain on campus.