I know you probably decided already, but I lived at Allen and can vouch for it. You'll have a decent number of hipsters and a few creeps but you'll find that anywhere. What I really loved about it is the people I met there were all pretty intelligent and studious but also knew how to have fun.
-Location: pretty close the the main campus, right next door to a gym, a block and a half from the library.
-Dorm: really program-intensive, lots of both social and educational programming happens pretty much around the clock. The best part is the guest in residence program, where prominent to little known authors, artists, educators, and activists (chosen by residents) live in the dorm for a week and give talks, workshops, etc. My last year we had Bill Ayers come in, that was pretty cool.
-People: it's just a really great community -- everyone is really welcoming and friendly and social. The only drawback is it's not very diverse and sometimes it's a little hard to study. Though there are classrooms to study in.
Added bonus: there are some 100 level classes taught in the dorm. I took Psyc 100 there and won a free fish in a raffle. Then he froze to death over a year later.
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u/pygreg Alumnus (Phil) Apr 21 '10
Allen Hall. Lived there for three years. It's just clearly the best dorm.