Is South Halls the best dorm at Penn State?

Lived in McElwain Hall my freshman year. It's an older building and is unrenovated with no A/C so make sure to bring a fan for the summer months. The room size is very big for a college dorm, and when you put the desks in between the beds, you get a real sense of privacy. The bathroom situation is less than ideal and definitely rather old, make sure to bring shower slippers. Location is at the bottom of campus very close to downtown and is also very close to the HUB, where a lot of the food options on campus are. All in all a decent experience, would definitely recommend.

I lived in Simmons Hall, which is a large hall in a great location. The building is very old mostly without air conditioning and unrenovated (as of 2019) so it's not the best, but for a freshman dorm, it's very nice.

Traditional unrenovated quad room in Simmons There were no issues in it, save for some minor things like old tiles or the light occasionally buzzing. I had a lot of fun and it was great, but it might have been the roommates who made it great for me.

I lived in Atherton hall the first floor and really liked it. The bathrooms are nice, they are renovated singles (you go in and lock the door). I lived right next to a staircase, it was really loud most nights (especially the weekend), but besides that I enjoyed it!

I spent all 4 years at south halls. I stayed in the renovated and non-renovated ones. The renovated ones are obviously better. They are cleaner, the rooms have air conditioning, hall itself feels kind of a hotel. They also have private bathrooms which are cleaner than most of the other halls. No more awkwardness of doing maintenance in the morning and night. No more awkwardness of going to the shower. In fact, the showers are better quality. The traditional south halls are somewhat of a downgrade. They don't have AC, but they have heaters. However, Atherton hall has private bathrooms. Simmons and McElwain have a renovated area at the basement floor, which includes private bathrooms and renovated kitchen. Depending on your classes, South is kind of far from classes, but maybe not as bad as East halls. However, I prefer better rooms than better commute. Walking from South to the IST building is like 15-20 minutes. Overall, if you want a safe pick in dorms, I would choose South. I visited traditional East and Pollock before, and trust me, they're both horrible.