Somehow or another I have experienced all sorts of roommate drama and nightmares in my college career. I had to be secretly moved out of my first dorm room freshmen year in order to get away from my roommate. Like I said, nightmares. We all have a few stories to bring to the table when it comes to bad roommates. But most people they don’t end up moving around as much as I did because of roommates; I lived in four different dorms in my first two years at UofL. I am now a self-proclaimed expert about the on campus living options for UofL students. Here is a breakdown of these four residence halls.
1.) Threlkeld Hall
2/5 stars
Threlkeld is the honors dorm, which mainly houses first year students. You would think for being the place that houses the more academically elite students that it would be one of the nicest dorms, but it is in fact the worst dorm of all. The rooms are incredibly small. We are talking a walkway to get in and out; you can literally touch your roommate’s bed from your bed. Prison cell small. The facilities are old, worn down, unclean, and often broken. The only nice, updated area is the lobby. The students who live here are your quintessential nerds. I’m not just talking like students who care a lot about school and study a lot. Think more of kids who make their own videogames and them stream them to the lobby TV to play them.
Threlkeld Hall
2.) Unitas Hall
3/5 stars
Unitas is an all freshmen, tower style dorm. The rooms are exceptionally larger than in Threlkeld. There are fewer showers per resident; however, the showers are much larger in comparison. The facilities are also old and worn, but there is some compensation in that there are additional nice areas that do not exist in Threlkeld. For example, Unitas has a small lobby/common area on all residence floors (2-11) and the main lobby, which is kept very well, has essentially three areas to it so more students can be doing different things simultaneously. The worst part of the facility is the elevator situation. There are two elevators, one for the male floors (2-6) and one for the female floors (7-11). It was inconvenient to have to wait on the elevator, but the real issue was when one or both broke down. It only happened a few times per semester and usually they are back up and running fairly quickly, but it was still very frustrating. The students who live here would be almost impossible to categorize; this is by far the most diverse dorm you will come across, which means anyone and everyone is accepted. It’s a much different environment to say the least.
Unitas Hall
3.) University Tower Apartments
2/5 stars
University Tower Apartments (UTA) is almost exclusively non-freshmen. As the name implies, these are apartments and not just rooms. While the space is larger, it is in much worse condition than anywhere else on campus. The beds were falling apart, there was rust and stains everywhere, and it took weeks to get a maintenance request answered. One bonus: every apartment has a balcony. There are only two elevators, but since the floors are not separated by sex, anyone can either one. The elevators were definitely in better working condition than those in Unitas. The students who live here are very diverse, but you would not be able to easily discern that because there is zero community or resident interaction in UTA. There is a fairly nice, although awkwardly planned, lobby that no one uses. Everyone pretty much keeps to themselves.
University Tower Apartments
4.) Community Park
4/5 stars
Community Park (CP) is a suite style dorm option available to any student regardless of year. CP is one of the newest dorms on campus and therefore, one of the nicest. Everything is in really good shape and rarely will you come across something that is broken and when you do, the staff is very quick to fix it. CP has excellent bonus facilities also. There is a huge laundary room, a computer lab, study rooms, movie room, a full kitchen, and work out rooms. The students here are usually freshmen and sophomores. Again, there is not much community interaction, with the exception of suitemates, who you share a bathroom with. CP always seems empty because no one is out and about, everyone pretty much stays in their rooms when they are in the building. This is arguably the nicest dorm of the four discussed here.
Community Park
Taylor Talk 