A thread on the Princeton Review discussion board about people going to Harvard in the fall (side note: I wonder if any of the half-dozen people who actually post on that thing read my weblog), focusing a lot on the dorms, and choosing between them. So here's some general thoughts about housing.

Based on my 1L year, I think it was really important to live close to campus, and to have a place where I was comfortable and didn't hate. Studying in my room, even with the distractions, I just found so much more enjoyable and less like work than going to the library. It helped to have a home base that was pleasant to be in, and clean, and complete with bathroom that made life a little less crazy than it might have been. Helped not to be woken up in the middle of the night by people screaming in the hall, or vomiting in the echo chamber, or whatever else disturbing people could do in a noisy dorm (as opposed to a relatively quiet dorm). I don't think on campus / off campus mattered so much as close enough to not feel like you're commuting. Because for the people who couldn't just go back and forth at will and had to plan their day around travel to and from home, school becomes less like a lifestyle and more like a job. And nobody likes to have to go to work in the morning. It just feels different. Even now, 4 days into my summer job, I ralize how much different work is from school. Work ruins the whole day. You have to go, and be there all day. You can't go back home when there's nothing to do, you can't run errands, waste two hours surfing the web, take a nap... well, you can... but you feel guilty. The great thing about the student lifestyle is that it's flexible, that it isn't a job, that you control your time. So my advice is live close, and live comfortably. Don't try and save $100/month by picking the apartment that smells like fish. It's just gonna make law school that much more unpleasant. Just my advice.