Is Dickinson Hall the best dorm at UMass Amherst?

I lived here freshmen year; it was my last choice for housing. However, it ended up being great! Pros: They have walk in closets and the room itself is pretty big! I never had noise problems, I know people that face the parking lot had problems with the trash in the mornings, but other than that not from other people. The bathrooms are super clean and some of the nicer bathrooms, the shower set up is interesting though. Used to be the old honors dorms, so the lounges and space is nice. Dickinson has the RSD and laundry in the building - very convenient. If you have a car this is the closest parking to any dorm on any part of campus, it’s literally a 2 second walk. Cons: It’s up a massive hill, don’t listen to people who say you get used to it, you don’t, you just tolerate it. No desk storage or under bed drawers since the closet is walk in. It’s inconvenient to places on campus. Can’t go back to your room in the middle of the day unless you have a huge gap. There’s four showers, however the set up of the curtains only allows two to be used at once since the changing area is shared. Laundry room only has 4 washers and 4 dryers for the whole building.

It's often said that OHill has no party scene, which is true. If you're like me and would rather spend a night playing Smash, drinking, and chatting with just a handful of friends than going to a big party, then OHill is the place for you. OHill does tend to attract a bunch of antisocial CS majors, but there are people that want hang out too. My advice is to chill in the lounge for the first few days and try to find other social people and go from there. They're still probably going to be kind of nerdy since OHill attracts nerds, but that's what I was looking for and I loved my time at Dickinson. Pros: Great rooms that are big enough to have their own semi-walled off closet space Generally OK wifi connection by UMass standards (some of my friends complained about the wifi, just don't pick rooms at the ends of the hallways and you should be fine) Pretty close to both Frank and Worcester dining halls Cons: Located at the top of a big hill you have to walk down to go anywhere (I actually liked this since it kept me in pretty good shape, but I can see why people hate it) Sometimes classes can be far away, but usually no worse than 15 minutes unless you're a very slow walker