Ranking the Dorms at Cornell University

I moved in halfway through spring semester from McFaddin (which I would describe as walking into a horror movie), but I really like Bethe! Staff is friendly, bathrooms and hallways are pretty clean, and the location is great. Cons are that the walls are THIN and there’s not many single study spaces. The single I had was also pretty tiny, but the full body mirror and considerable closet space (and i say this as someone who has A LOT of clothes) made up for it. The room also has a good ceiling fan. - 4 years ago

Pros:
- New dorm with comfortable, spacious rooms
- You can lock the entire bathroom
- Working heat and AC
- Many lounges scattered between the floors
- Community kitchens
- Near Appel dining and Novicks Café
- Has a bike room

Cons:
- Confusing architecture, because it straddles the city border
- Some rooms may be far from the elevator
- A bit further from central campus
- 2 years ago

Comfortable, friendly, and down to earth place with history and character. It can often be lonely to be a Cornell student but I made so many friends and found a sense of home and belonging here. Sharing spaces and having a house meal plan meant I learned how to adult. I easily got used to walking up the slope. Also one of the most affordable places to live in Ithaca. - 4 years ago

I've lived here for 3 years. There are singles and doubles and you get placed in rooms depending on choice and how long you've lived in the house. The rooms are a pretty decent size and generally pretty cozy.

It's a pretty old house so there are some issues that pop up every now and then but maintenance comes to fix them as soon as they can. The house is a co-op so there are house goods (like basic food staples and some other basic communal items like a printer, washer and dryer, fridge/freezer space, other random stuff like board games and books). Best part is the stocked up and recently renovated kitchen. There's 3.5 communal bathrooms in decent shape considering the age of the house.

Since it's a co-op all residents have to do chores once a week. Cleanliness of the house is dependent on this and the actions of the individual members of the house.

Location is on North Campus very close to Central (near Balch and the bus stop).

Culture of the house was overall pretty good/friendly throughout all the years I've lived there. There is no house meal plan but there are food staples and kitchen supplies. And anyways lots of baking goes on and people tend to share food. - 4 years ago

The Best on West.

This is the only dorm on West that has air conditioning that can be individually controlled in each room. Rooms in general are a decent size and are comfortable. There's a dining hall on the ground floor and the building is ideal. The quality of the bathroom depends entirely on who you are sharing them with - in suites, its essentially just you and your suitemates, whereas in the corridor its all the others in the same corridor. They are cleaned twice a week. The location is OK - many people dislike West since it is much lower in elevation compared to the rest of campus, meaning a climb to get on central - however, this can be mostly circumvented with some clever use of TCAT.

While there is a lounge and a common area, there is only 1 per building, so it's not like Mews where there is a study room for every wing. - 4 years ago

I really like Ganedago. The buildings are clean and don't have any funky smells. The suite style makes privacy more achievable too. There are also some really nice events thanks to the RAs. Some rooms can be smaller than others though. - 2 years ago

Dorms are relatively spacious and have closets with a door. Dorms are on a hall, but are arranged in “pods”, generally 2 doubles and 1 singles (5 people) that share a bathroom. Bathrooms were cleaned almost every day. It’s right next to appel, which is great for grabbing food or picking up mail. Mews is one of the only dorms with AC on campus, which is amazing. Mews definitely isn’t very social, but it’s so close to the other dorms that it’s easy to go elsewhere and hang out with friends. - 4 years ago

CKB is the best freshman dorm. Everyone says it's antisocial, but that's really not the case. Everyone was always in each other's rooms or studying together in the common areas. Only having to share a bathroom with ~5 other people is so nice. Also there's usually two lounges per floor on Court, Kay, and Bauer, so you'll always have somewhere quiet to study or just chill with friends. It's also in a central location between the two dining halls on north, so you don't have to walk super far to get to either one. - 4 years ago

Lived in a double in a five-person suite and loved it! Bathroom was inside the suite and cleaned twice a week. Common area of the suite was super cozy. Dining hall and laundry rooms were right downstairs so we walked there in slippers a lot. Only thing was that there was only one kitchen per floor so we didn’t get to cook as much as I wanted to. - 3 years ago

New building, right next to Crossing's cafe and Dining hall. Small closet, and window doesn't open all the way [safety hazard]. - 2 years ago