How to Choose Your Residence Hall 101

How to Choose Your Residence Hall 101 For those who have decided to accept your admittance to Illinois, first off, congratulations, you made the right choice! The next step is looking into your future living situation. There is a wide variety of residence halls here at Illinois From the newest hall (Wassaja) to one of the very first ones on campus (Busey-Evans), every hall has something unique to offer students. Here a few things I kept in mind as I chose a residence hall my freshman year: 1. Location Location was a factor I kept in mind when choosing where to live. I wanted to be able to walk to class, but still have the option to take the bus if the weather was bad. Being close to the gym was also important to me, so I decided to choose Lincoln Avenue Residence Hall (LAR) due to its 10 minute walk to the Main Quad, two bus stops, and walking distance to the Campus Recreation Center East (CRCE). 2. Residence Hall Features Air conditioning, dining halls, and bathrooms are just a few of the amenities you should consider. Air conditioning was not a big deal for me, so that opened up my options a little bit more. Currently, there are only a few halls left without it. Every dining hall offers different food. If you are a vegetarian, LAR has a great speciality hall called “Field of Greens”. For those who enjoy eating late at night, PAR/FAR has “Late Night”. Regardless of where you live, you can always swipe into any dining hall and enjoy the food offered there! 3. Living-Learning Communities Many LLCs offer courses for credit in the halls, access to faculty and guest speakers, and the opportunity to go on field trips. A few of the LLCs are “Sustainability”, “Unit One”, and “Innovation LLC”. If you interested in being a part of any of these groups, you can apply online! These are just a few things I considered when I chose my living space a few years ago! My year of living in a residence hall was one of the best years of my life. I met so many new people, learned more about the campus, and grew as a person, and my hope is that you have the same experiences I did! Kripa Class of 2020 I'm majoring in Psychology, minoring in Spanish, and pursuing a pre-dental track. It seems like I’m all over the place, but that’s what I like about college! I get to choose to study what I’m interested in, and I’m happy to be doing just that at Illinois.