Dorm life is an essential, even if mandated, aspect of the freshman year experience. But with the rapid development of on-campus housing, each freshman experience can vary depending on where students choose to call home for their first year.

It is a requirement for all freshmen to live in a residence hall, unless extenuating circumstances exist. The University of Alabama offers a variety of dorm options for students. Some dorms, such as Tutwiler, Paty and Somerville, have been around for generations and provide the traditional dorm experience, complete with roommates and community bathrooms. Others, such as Ridgecrest, Lakeside, Riverside and the newly added Presidential Village, offer a more modern freshman experience. Students in these dorms live in suite-style apartments with suitemates, but enjoy the privacy of their own rooms and a central miniature kitchen.

Students have various reasons for choosing where they want to live. Some are attracted to dorms because of their central location, their reputation or their exclusivity. Students in University Honors and other living-learning programs are eligible for certain living arrangements not offered to all students.

Andrea Boyer, a freshman honors student from Iowa, said her first choice for housing was Ridgecrest. She and her suitemates are all in Honors College, and she said she really liked the suite-style dorms that Ridgecrest had to offer.

“I think I just really like having your own bathroom, and your own room and your own space,” she said. “That way I’m not in the same room with a person, that tends to make it easy to get on somebody else’s nerves. Whereas here you can have your own space and get to know the other people and still make really great friends without intruding too much.”

Some students, regardless of honors designation, choose dorms based on location. This was the case for freshman Addison Arnold, a resident of Tutwiler. Tutwiler is a draw for many freshman girls interested in greek life. The dorm is near sorority row and close to on-campus resources such as the math lab and Julia’s Market. Many residents agree Tutwiler is an ideal location, but one downfall is the room size.

“Our room is just really small,” Arnold said. “You’re not really separated from your roommate.”

Another issue that arises in traditional dorms is the use of community bathrooms, but students agreed that the bathrooms often just get a bad reputation and in reality are not that bad.

“I don’t really care,” Arnold said. “I don’t have to clean them, and I have never had to wait for a shower.”

Matthew Cooper, a senior majoring in mechanical engineering, lived in Paty Hall his freshman year because that was all that was available during housing sign-ups. Looking back, he said he wouldn’t have changed his living arrangement, except for maybe not having a roommate.

“The perfect experience would have been living here without a roommate,” Cooper said.

Cooper said he and his roommate were on different schedules, which can be a source of conflict for many students sharing a room, especially in situations where students did not know their roommate prior to moving in.

In retrospect, Cooper said he really did enjoy his time in Paty. Even compared to other dorms that his friends lived in, he appreciated his own freshman experience.

“My ideal experience would be somewhere like this,” Cooper said. “Where you can open the door to the hallway but still be by yourself in your room.”