"My favorite part of [residence hall] life was the new friends you make. If you go out and talk with those surrounding you, then you’ll likely have friends for the rest of the semester."

"Having easy accessibility to the bus system."

"I didn't have to cook my own food."

"Meeting new people!"

"I lived really close to everything I needed to frequent. My building was also on the corner to 'a bus stop that frequently had busses running."

"I liked the close proximity to helpful resources, such as my school and dining halls."

"The various activities organized by the halls and Paraprofessionals. It was a great way to meet new people and spend time with friends."

"Not having to cook for myself or clean a bathroom."

"Nice view!"

"The gym in the basement."

"57 North food."

"Getting to know people, the social aspect and also strict adherence to policies. Kind staff, Very helpful RA's. Also, clean bathrooms, and overall a very fun experience."

"Close proximity to class."

"Didn't have to worry about food. Good location. Felt safe."

"You don't have to cook for yourself or clean your own bathroom! Huge time saver."

"Being close to my best friends."

"I love living in Nugent Hall because of the Honors LLC. I have made my best college friends at Nugent."

"The practice room + lots of room and things to have fun with friends."

"I really loved the sense of community of living in the residence halls, and that I always had friends and other people around."

"Living in the residence halls at UIUC allowed me to make friends outside of my major and feel more connected to the campus. My sophomore year, I became a RA. Housing is a core part of my community on campus."

"My favorite thing about living in the residence halls was being able to study and eat with my friends without having to go anywhere other than within the same building. It made getting through college a lot easier because unlike high school, you get to live essentially with your friends. Also, because everything is covered under the payment plan, it was easy to do laundry and not have to make my own food. My dorm was also directly connected to the SDRP so I didn't even have to go outside if I wanted to get a snack from 57 north."

"That they are tiny, they aren't huge but definitely livable."

"They are way more spacious than you think!! I had no problem fitting everything I wanted to bring, and theres so many ways to increase space by moving furniture around if you need to!"

"[That] it would be too strict."

"I underestimated the level of community I would find in my residence hall. I understand that the Honors LLC [might be] a special case, though!"

"The biggest misconception I had about the residence halls was that the food would be terrible and that I wouldn't want to spend time there at all. I expected to want to go to the library or somewhere else all the time. To my surprise, the people in my residence hall were polite and the food, in my opinion, was actually good a lot of the time. I also was fine with spending a whole weekend just relaxing in my dorm."

"That the rooms would be too small, the bathrooms would be dirty." 

"I thought it will be hard to live with a roommate."

"That most upperclassmen wouldn't be living in them."

"I thought that they would be loud and crowded or just not a nice place to live, but this ended up not being the case. There were people around but it was never overwhelming, the energy was very positive, and the facilities themselves were nice."

"I did not have a roommate and it was very lonely the first semester."

"Yes! Sam and I had never met before the day we moved in. The first time we talked was after housing issued each other's contact info. We talked for weeks before moving in, texting about our families, our hobbies, and (obviously) our academic interests. After a few months of living together, we were having late night conversations on state stereotypes, faith, and the curse of hair shedding onto shag carpet. We were so lucky to get to live together, and I'm glad to call Sam my friend."

"I actually was lucky enough to roommate with someone I went to high school with."

"Yes. My roommate is now my best friend! She is like a sister. We randomly connected on a web page dedicated to incoming freshmen, we both clicked and decided we should room together. The first couple of days was kind of rocky since we didn't know each other and it was our first time meeting one another. But after that we would try and do everything together. We joined the same RSOs always would when we could eat together at Ikenberry. It was a successful year!!!"

"I personally chose my roommate on Facebook through the class of '23 group however my two really close friends who lived a few doors over were random roommates and they honestly were better roommates than me and my roommate. We are all close friends and you just have to keep an open mind when coming into a random roommate situation. Leave the judgement outside the door and be willing to compromise. At the end of the day the two of you are adults and should handle your situations that way."