America's Best College Dorms

When I visited college campuses with both my teenagers, the college dorms were often a big selling point. It seems the tour guides were always raving about the newest dorms on campus and clearly universities are using their new dorms as a recruiting tool.

While there are still plenty of dorm rooms on college campuses that look like cinderblock cells, schools are constructing an increasing number of dormitories that look like swank apartments.

I ran across a Chicago Tribune article today that discussed that swanky university dorms at Purdue that include 47-inch flat-screen TVs, entertainment centers built by Amish carpenters and kitchnettes with ceramic tiles. Some Arizona State dorms offer tanning booths, luxury kitchens and sand volleyball court!

In this economic climate, however, I wonder whether the dorm building frenzy can continue or should.

If your child is interested in finding campuses with amazing dorms, here is the Princeton Review’s latest list of the nation’s best dorms:

  1. Smith College
  2. Loyola University Maryland
  3. Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering
  4. Scripps College
  5. Bennington College
  6. Bryn Mawr College
  7. Bowdoin College
  8. Goerge Washington University
  9. Harvard College
  10. Washington University of St. Louis
  11. Claremont McKenna College
  12. Trinity University
  13. Mount Holyoke College
  14. Pomona College
  15. Skidmore College
  16. Thomas Aquinas College
  17. Wellesley College
  18. Pepperdine University
  19. Wiliams College
  20. Stanford University

Further Reading

Living in a Palatial Dorm

Lynn O’Shaughnessy is the author of The College Solution and she also write a college blog for CBSMoneyWatch.com.


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