Your essential guide to Syracuse dorms

Whether you’re a freshmen or sophomore who has to live on campus, or an upperclassmen who makes their own choice to live in a dorm, Cuse housing has a place for you. Each building offers different advantages and disadvantages, depending on what is important to you as a student.

From the good, the bad, and the ugly here’s everything you need to know.

Booth

A sophomore dorm, Booth has the benefits of a lot of different floor layouts for rooms. It has singles, doubles, split doubles, and suites. However, while it isn’t far from campus or frat row, it does feel isolated. The closest dining hall is Ernie Davis and when its 10 degrees out, the last thing you want to do is leave your bed to trek across the street to get something to eat.

BBB

BBB has few redeeming qualities. To start, there’s actually more stairs from BBB up to the quad than there is from the quad to either dorm on the Mount (explained further). You also have to walk through the wind tunnel of the Carrier Dome, and further down the street to get to the dorms. You’re a far walk away from the parties of Greek life or houses on Euclid. Marshall Street is close, but still a decent 5-10 minute walk. However, BBB is fairly newly renovated and every person I’ve met who lived there swears up and down it isn’t bad and they loved it, so take that for what it is.

Day

Day, just like Flint, is all-freshmen, making the entire Mount (Day and Flint) composed of a population that is just as clueless as you. The stairs suck – I wont lie – but I usually tried to only make the trip up once a day at the end of classes. Once you’re down the stairs, you’re immediately on the quad right by Archibold Gymnasium and are a short distance to class. The views from high up in Day are stunning and you filter out a lot of the noise you would have with traffic. Con: the rooms haven’t been renovated and its basically all open doubles and communal bathrooms. That said, you adjust pretty quick and end up liking Day for what it’s worth.

DellPlain

DellPlain has an amazing location – it’s right next to Ernie’s dining hall and gym, and is super close to the quad for classes, while still being near the hub of the social scene. Its fantastic. Plus, most of the rooms are split doubles or quads so you can get a little more privacy if needed. The only real negatives about DellPlain is that it’s a good mix of freshmen and sophomores, so I’ve heard that some floors weren’t as close as others. It also hasn’t had its rooms renovated in a while, but it is having its bathrooms done this summer. Savor this dorm if you get it, freshmen.

Ernie Davis

I wish I could say I’ve seen the rooms inside Ernie. I haven’t. I can only imagine their beauty and design and convenience. Everyone should want to live it Ernie. It was just created entirely from the ground up a few years ago and has at least the second best location on campus. If you live here, you have a dining hall and gym directly below you at all times and the entire floor plan is split doubles and singles. I don’t know how freshmen get assigned to this dorm, but it does happen, and that in combination of the more private rooms makes for quieter floors with minimal conversations. So if you like a close-knit floor, this might not be the dorm for you. But if you do like the quiet, I can’t think of any place better.

Flint

Also a part of the Mount, Flint has open doubles and singles, but has private bathrooms. It’s a little further to walk either on the sidewalk or the tunnel to Graham (the Mount’s dining hall) but still not bad, especially considering so many other places don’t have underground connections to a dining hall. Flint is better located to getting down to the main campus as well compared to Day.

Haven

Haven is a weird little dorm. It’s a combination of freshmen and sophomores that has almost every type of room plan, but its also the dorm that’s pretty far away from main campus. It hasn’t been renovated, but has huge lounge spaces. If you plan on rushing or are already in a sorority or frat, the location is great since it’s right by Walnut (where most of the houses are). But, making the trek to Carnegie Library or Ernie can be a little rough in the winter.

Kimmel/Marion

As of currently I’ll be living in Marion next year in an open double. Marion and Kimmel are pretty much all open doubles, and have a great location close to Ernie and the quad, along with being basically two steps away from Bird Library. There’s also the added bonus that both are right next to Kimmel dining so if you’re craving food that isn’t from a dining hall or starving after studying until 2am, you have a lot of food options. Marion also has a smaller fitness center on its bottom floor, which is convenient if you don’t want to walk all the way to Ernie or Archibold.

Shaw

Basically everyone who lives there is an engineering major. It’s also right on Euclid which means that you’re almost guaranteed to not have to walk up and down any major hills or steps on the way to class or a party. Shaw also has their own dining center within the building so freshmen don’t have to make the trek to Ernie, or worse, the trek to Graham.

The Sheraton

Every year the Sheraton right on University blocks out rooms for SU students. The great part is the awesome location, the full beds, and the amenities offered like the gorgeous downstairs lounge. The downside is really limited privacy and having a really small space. If you’re the type of person who likes to study and spend a lot of time in their room, the Sheraton may not be the right fit.

Sadler

Sadler is a very nice dorm. Everyone I’ve ever met from Sadler is a very nice person. I don’t know if Syracuse has a weird 6th sense about it or how that all works out. Sadler is newly renovated and has its own dining hall attached that’s pretty nice and usually a little less slammed than Ernie is. The split doubles are really spacious, too. Just be ready to hear the Lawrinson fire alarms non stop.

South Campus

What could be better than having your own room in your own apartment that also has a kitchen and a living room and private bathroom? Absolutely anything. Do everything in your power to not be on South and have to take the bus ride from hell on a daily basis.

Lawrinson

Lawrinson is also newly renovated. But it’s also 21 floors high. And, also seems to have about 30 fire alarms a week. The corner rooms got blocked out as sophomore rooms this year, so Lawrinson won’t only be freshmen. I don’t envy the sophomores who will have to live here.

Lyons

Located right on Euclid, the hub of most off-campus frat parties, Lyons is one of the smallest dorms on campus. It only houses 36 first-year students and two RA’s, but it shares a main desk with Shaw (since they’re super-close to each other). Although it’s small, Lyons is complete with two lounges, one on the basement and another on the main floor.

Walnut

Not to be confused with Washington Arms, Walnut is a totally separate building! It is a little smaller, as it only has three floors and holds 57 males and females. The floors are coed by alternating floors. Most of the rooms are singles or large open doubles.

Washington Arms

This four-floor residence hall houses 66 males and females and is located on Walnut Avenue- which is super-close to campus and right next to a number of sorority and fraternity houses. Most of the rooms in Washington Arms are open doubles, and two and three-person suites.

Watson

Everyone wants Watson. Every other dorm wants to be Watson. I can only imagine the popularity of this dorm would make it such a fun place to live in. It has quads, doubles, triples, suites–basically anything you could think up for a room layout. It’s right next to Bird and has a mass grass space inside the courtyard that the building surrounds. This dorm is so popular for it’s location and ability to let large groups of friends live together, it’s really no wonder why the rooms fill up the fastest during the housing lottery. If you get the chance to live in Watson, take it.