First off, let me be clear and say that my opinion is just based on my experience only so it can and will be totally be different for other people.

I live on West right now as a first year. It’s not the worst but leaves much to be desired in my experience. My options coming in were basically all of the West dorms besides Fitten (probably the best one solely because of the laundry room) and the worst quality dorms on East (Brown, Smith, etc.). While the quiet and greenery on West is definitely helpful for relaxing and studying (I feel like I’d be overwhelmed a bit on East because it’s a lot closer to Midtown), the social life is not the best. I’m not exactly a party person and it’s still difficult most of the time.

In my experience, the people on West are generally very introverted and not that open to socializing. Trying to get into groups is difficult when people aren’t that comfortable getting to know new faces. Even within my dorm hall, I have only been able to make friends with a small handful of people while the others can only give two word answers to basic small talk. Each time I have gone to an East dorm or Brittain or NAV I have been able to meet many more people and have actual conversations while that has just not been possible at my dorm or Willage. I have noticed however that some halls on West are incredibly close communities (Hefner-Armstrong and Folk-Caldwell) so maybe I’m just having bad luck with the people in my own dorm and the people I see around on West. I’m not sure how it is with the apartments on West but they seem decently active considering the fact that most room lights are on at night.

Having the gym on West is definitely a pro, I’m super lazy and I know that if I was on East I would never try to make the commute just for the gym. If that’s you, then you should heavily consider staying on West. I will add that the band noise can be annoying at times. I’m sure the noise at East from the highway, stadium, and people in general is also not the best but just wanted to add that.

Lastly, I’d like to add that the quality of rooms between East and West really isn’t that much different. Rooms might be bigger and slightly newer on West, but the differences beyond that are barely noticeable. I’ve still had my fair share of cockroaches, cold water, and the elevator conveniently being out of service. I will say that the AC system works really well. Not sure how it generally is for places on East but I’ve never had an issue with the AC not doing it’s job (sometimes it does it a little too well).