Princeton has Rankings for dorms (and all kinds of other comparisons). http://www.princetonreview.com/college-rankings?rankings=best-college-dorms
If you loosen up your requirement that the nice dorms must be available freshmen year, I can recommend BU. While it is possible for a freshman to get into one of the nicer dorms, it’s not guaranteed. Most freshmen live in doubles/triples with communal bathrooms, but not they’re not awful (and those dorms have the best dining halls). But after freshman year, if you’re smart/lucky (pairing up with a junior or senior with a better housing number is always smart), some of the dorms are ridiculously nice. Any renovated brownstone on Bay State Road is great (open to freshmen, but limited spaces). There are a lot of suite style dorms, as well. Then there are super luxe upperclassmen dorms (Student Village) that are amazing. And, importantly, the food is great. From sophomore to senior year, I lived either in a brownstone or in the Student Village. The housing in London during study abroad was posh, too.
@mom2collegekids My post was inspired in part by seeing the dorm offering by Alabama. They are so much better than Ole Miss! Ole Miss has some newer “nice” dorms, but you have to be on their meal plan to live there.
I’ve heard such a wide variety of dorms that I suppose I should have made a list of schools and asked about them. But it’s interesting to hear the comments, and I think I’ll leave that to another thread.
I attend Radford University and I thought the dorms were ok. I know they are redoing most dorms now and they look really nice. At least from the outside. I didn’t want to be the random senior scoping out a freshman dorm ha. I live off campus with my boyfriend now. What I did like about my dorm was that we shared a bathroom with just another room. I didn’t want a bathroom that the whole hall used. My dorms were well maintained too, nothing broke. Seems like a small thing but it was nice not having to worry about the AC or the shower.
Also we have a lot of choices for living off campus and most places are extremely affordable. Plus my school is limited in food choices but its decent. I visited my brother’s university before he graduated and his food was awful. I couldn’t even eat it…
It might help if you mentioned any preferences for types of arrangements which are preferred, acceptable, or undesirable. For example:
rooms with gang bathroom(s) in the hall (coed gang bathroom acceptable or not?)
rooms with own bathrooms
suites of rooms (and how many per suite) and a bathroom
for any of the above, single, double, or triple rooms
Also, other factors like:
distance from classrooms and labs
food quality (any unusual dietary needs?)
whether there is space for all students who want to live in the dorms
Of course, at many schools, it is common for non-frosh to live nearby off-campus. Consider the availability, cost, and quality of off-campus housing, such as:
dorms not run by the school
cooperative houses
fraternity or sorority houses if the student wants to join one
apartments and other typical rental housing like that found in non-college areas
DD2 is at UA. I heard many comments by visiting parents that these were the nicest dorms (the suite campus housing) they had seen on any of the campuses they had been on. Agreed the Tutweiler female dorm (aged 14 story) is tolerated by the huge number of freshman women that join sororities (it is in the sorority houses area of campus), and some continue to live there due to lower cost housing (there are other lower cost housing options, traditional dorm rooms with community bathrooms). The students in Tut really fix them up decorating though…DD enjoyed the honors suite at UA for a year, and now lives very close to campus in a super nice apt (3 BR/3 BA - two are en-suite) where she will continue to live until she finishes college. She wasn’t crazy about campus meals, and enjoys eating her own food, and the cooking her friends and what she does. She is close enough to often eat lunch at her apt. Freshmen have unlimited food swipes, but DD was pretty particular and her food choices were limited. We bought cereal she liked (she didn’t like the cafeteria choices) and she brought milk back from the cafeteria. I think UA’s cafeteria did a pretty good job, but cafeteria food does get old, esp for pickier eaters.
UAB has pretty nice dorms for freshman and upperclassmen - DD1 was in older FR dorm (they just opened another new FR dorm) and it was bigger than H and my first apt after college - the two shared a BR, but it had a full kitchen (cooktop and oven, unusual for most dorms); a huge hallway closet with shelves, nice sized living room area. The upperclass suite housing was as nice as UA’s but a little less pricey. DD1 lived there two more years, and senior year moved into off campus apt with two others. UAB had two levels of freshman meal plan, and that worked out. The next two years DD had a meal plan which averaged 8 meals/week, so she could plan a full hot meal a day, and get groceries for the rest. I think now she has less meals for cafeteria,but it works out for her - she packs some meals, eats out some with friends, etc.
TCNJ has brand new living accomodations via the new campus town and they are awesome ! plus fairly recent other
facilities just renovated and lastly the very old towers will be going under renovations this summer. If you put that all together with the beautiful campus it’s easily on its way to top at least for a public and in consideration overall.
I like Niche for no-holds-barred reviews and best dorms is one of their categories. https://colleges.niche.com/rankings/best-college-dorms/
Yup, Amherst. From the dozens of dorms we have seen, that is the one that sticks in my mind.
My best friend from Michigan told me that she went on a Michigan campus tour with her son a couple of years ago, and they showed the tour group my old room in South Quad. 
She said it hadn’t changed a bit – and that is not a compliment, believe me.
@EarlVanDorn I like your style of college search.
I learned of this site on CC: http://■■■■■■■.com/z9pstxo
(Beware the use of the F-bomb at the resulting site.)
@intparent I was at a UMich tour this past spring, and also did a tour of a first floor room at South Quad. No more sinks. I was in 8612 (Huber). 
@mom2collegekids do you get paid to promote Bama?
With two kids, I have visited over 20 colleges including all the Ivies and other elites. The nicest dorms, by far, were at Alabama. The kids get spoiled there. Between the honors dorms and the assorted off campus communities (many are brand new), their college housing is often nicer than back home.
Some of the best ranked dorms were at: Washington U in St. Louis, Bowdoin, Regent U, High Point, Yale, & Rice.
Room & board costs about $12,000-$14,000, though, at most of these schools.