If you’ve been accepted to UNC Chapel Hill, first off, congratulations! You got into one of the most prestigious and selective public universities in the entire country. You’re about to embark on four unforgettable years and leave with a degree that will let you essentially write your own ticket.
Your UNC Chapel Hill experience starts your first year in the dorms, so it’s important to pick the best one to suit your personality and living style. The best freshman dorms at UNC Chapel Hill depend on the person, but Ehringhaus, Lewis, and Hinton James are popular choices every year.
Table of Contents
- The Best Freshman Dorms at UNC Chapel Hill: Our Top 7 Picks
- Freshman Housing Costs at UNC Chapel Hill
- The Bottom Line on the Best Freshman Dorms at UNC Chapel Hill
The Best Freshman Dorms at UNC Chapel Hill: Our Top 7 Picks
Ehringhaus Residence Hall
- Location: South Campus
- Capacity: 640 students
- Bathrooms: Suite-style
- Single rooms available: Yes
- Air conditioning: Window units
- Laundry in building: Yes
Ehringhaus is arguably the most-requested freshman dorm at UNC Chapel Hill year in and year out. Students like it because it blends amenities, convenience, and sociality. Like most freshman dorms at Chapel Hill, it’s located on South Campus, so it’s a bit of a hike to class — about 15 minutes on average. But, unlike from many South Campus dorms, the walk from Ehringhaus doesn’t require you to cross many busy streets.
The rooms in Ehringhaus aren’t big — about 150 to 175 square feet for a typical double — but they were fully renovated in 2012, and the bathrooms in 2013, so the interior feels modern. It’s considered a medium-sized dorm at UNC: big enough that there’s always something going on and it’s easy to meet people and make friends, but not overrun with people and constantly loud like Hinton James.
As a bonus, the dorm is close to Rams Market, so you won’t have much of a walk to get food.
Lewis Residence Hall
- Location: North Campus
- Capacity: 95 students
- Bathrooms: Hall
- Single rooms available: Yes
- Air conditioning: Central
- Laundry in building: Yes
If your priority is being close to class and other destinations on the main campus, Lewis should be your top pick. It’s the only freshman dorm that isn’t located on South Campus, meaning a 15 or more minute walk to class. That means you’ll be able to sleep in a bit later every morning and won’t have to thaw out after making it to your first class on those cold January mornings.
The downside to Lewis is that not only is it situated far away from all the other freshman dorms at UNC, but it’s also one of the smallest dorms on campus, typically housing only 90 or 95 students. That means you might have to work a little harder to meet people and insinuate yourself into the social scene. That said, Lewis tends to foster a tight camaraderie every year, and the students who live there often form tight bonds and develop friendships that persist throughout their time at UNC and beyond.
Hinton James Residence Hall
- Location: South Campus
- Capacity: 964 students
- Bathrooms: Suite-style
- Single rooms available: Yes
- Air conditioning: Window units
- Laundry in building: Yes
Hinton James is the largest UNC Chapel Hill freshman dorm, and it is generally known as the most social. With nearly 1,000 residents most years, all of them freshmen except the RAs, Hinton James offers a social, sometimes bordering on frenetic environment where there’s always something going on. If you value peace and quiet in your downtime, you might want to look elsewhere for freshman housing.
The rooms in Hinton James aren’t plush, nor are they particularly large. Half the doubles measure 12 feet by 13 feet, and the other half measure 13 feet by 15 feet. But they were renovated in 2013, so they at least seem modern. If you have an Amazon Prime habit, you’ll be happy to know Hinton James has a package center downstairs, so you won’t have to trek to another building to pick up your latest delivery. Walking to class is a different story, though. Hinton James is the farthest freshman dorm from most academic buildings at UNC.
Koury Residence Hall
- Location: South Campus
- Capacity: 263 students
- Bathrooms: Suite-style
- Single rooms available: Yes
- Air conditioning: Central
- Laundry in building: Yes
With a capacity of 263 students, Koury is one of UNC’s smaller freshman dorms, but it typically fosters an active camaraderie among its residents. Its a popular choice every year because of its larger-than-average rooms (most doubles are 18 feet by 12 feet) and internal suite-style bathrooms, so you only share it with your roommate and two suitemates. Unlike in many UNC dorms where bathrooms are shared between four double rooms. The downside to this bathroom arrangement is there is no cleaning service, so you and your suitemates will be responsible for scrubbing the toilet and supplying your own toilet paper.
Koury is a bit of a walk from main campus and most classes, but it’s near the UNC Writing Center, which is convenient when you want to get your paper looked over by a senior English major before you hand it in (some intro-level English professors require this, at least for the first one or two papers). It’s also one of the quieter dorms, so you’ll probably be able to study in your room rather than going to the library if that’s what you prefer.
Craige Residence Hall
- Location: South Campus
- Capacity: 636 students
- Bathrooms: Suite-style
- Single rooms available: Yes
- Air conditioning: Window units
- Laundry in building: Yes
Craige is part of the same complex that includes Hinton James, and the suites are set up similarly, with four double rooms sharing a bathroom. Craige (as well as Hinton James) does feature single rooms, but they are hard to come by and often reserved for students with special needs. Many freshmen prefer Craige over Hinton James because the dorm is about one-third smaller, so it tends to get less loud and crazy. It’s also slightly closer to main campus, but the difference is negligible, so expect to get some exercise walking to and from class every morning.
Cobb Residence Hall
- Location: South Campus
- Capacity: 400 students
- Bathrooms: Hall
- Single rooms available: Yes
- Air conditioning: Central
- Laundry in building: Yes
Cobb has been part of UNC’s campus for 70 years, but it got a total overhaul in 2005 and has a fairly modern interior. However, it’s about as traditional as you can get for a college dorm: corridor-style rooms, hall baths, cinderblock walls, the whole nine yards. The rooms aren’t particularly big at 12 feet by 14 feet, but the building has central air conditioning and most freshmen report that they find it comfortable.
One downside of Cobb is that while most of the rooms are doubles, a handful on each floor are triples. We always recommend avoiding these if it all possible, which you can usually do by getting your housing deposit in early and specifically listing that you don’t want to be placed in a triple room. Not only does an odd number of roommates make for a potentially awkward social dynamic (one person always gets left out), but having two roommates instead of one doubles the chance that you won’t get along with one of them. Plus, three people is just too many for such a small space!
Everett Residence Hall
- Location: South Campus
- Capacity: 96 students
- Bathrooms: Hall
- Single rooms available: Yes
- Air conditioning: Central
- Laundry in building: Yes
Everett is a great choice if you want to live in a small, cozy, quiet, intimate setting like Lewis Hall but don’t want to be a 15-minute walk from where all the other freshmen are housed. This dorm offers the best of both worlds. It has fewer than 100 residents but is situated right in the middle of the action. It’s close to the cluster of high-rises that house nearly 3,000 freshmen in total, which makes it easy to find people who want to socialize but then retreat to your quiet dorm when you want to take it easy.
The rooms in Everett are 12 feet by 15 feet, which is about average for a freshman dorm at UNC. The bathrooms are on the hall and get cleaned daily by custodial staff. Like Cobb, Everett has a few triples scattered on each floor, so definitely get your housing deposit in early to avoid these!
Freshman Housing Costs at UNC Chapel Hill
The cool thing about UNC Chapel Hill’s freshman housing is that you don’t have to consider cost differences when picking one dorm over another, because the cost of a room only varies by occupancy level. In other words, singles cost more than doubles, which cost more than triples. But the cost of a double (or a single or triple) in one dorm is the same as in every other dorm. So, you can pick the building you like without worrying about whether it’ll cost more or less than somewhere else.
The freshman housing costs at UNC Chapel Hill based on room style are:
- Single room: $4,154 per semester
- Double room: $3,507 per semester
- Triple room: $3,403 per semester
As you can see, the cost difference between a double room and a triple room is barely $100 for the whole semester. Which is yet another reason we recommend trying to avoid being placed in a triple.
The Bottom Line on the Best Freshman Dorms at UNC Chapel Hill
The best freshman dorms at UNC Chapel Hill depend on your personality and what’s important to you — comfort, convenience, or sociality, to name a few possibilities. Luckily, this campus has something for everyone, and if you go in with a positive mindset and put yourself out there, it’s almost impossible to have a bad college experience at UNC. Go Heels!
