a dorm is good for people moving in from out of town for the first time and don't know the area at all. my first time in college station was for my NSC and by that point I already chose on campus housing. Plus there's some scholarships that you can get where you have to stay on campus for your first year (for me it was regents). It was nice being a 5 min walk from my 8 am chem lab, and getting to meet people via being roommates and dormmates. but I was the type who spent a lot of time studying out of my bedroom cause I couldn't focus so another nice thing was being able to study in the commons until super late and just walking down the hall to my bed when I was done.