CMU First-Year Dorms 2026-27

About breakfast: No first-year dorm has its own breakfast service. Stack'd Underground (in Morewood Gardens) opens at 11 AM — no breakfast. For meal-plan breakfast, every student walks to Schatz Dining Room in the Cohon University Center (7:30–10 AM weekdays, weekend brunch). Grab-and-go options at the CUC convenience store (7 AM) and Posner Hall deli (8 AM). Each dorm's breakfast walk is shown in its detail panel and in side-by-side compare.

Margaret Morrison St

Morewood Ave

Fifth Ave

Landmark

Tap any pin for full details. Filters above will dim non-matching dorms.

Hard-filtered top 8 — overall best dorms for Sahil

Filters applied: AC required + semi-private bath + male-eligible. Of CMU's 14 first-year dorms, only 8 pass. This ranking weights AC quality, walk-to-MMCH, bathroom privacy, in-building amenities, and roommate-pair room types — and gives a different #1 than the BDes-only tab because Hamerschlag (communal bath), Maggie Mo (window AC), and Donner/Mudge/E-Tower (no AC) get filtered out here.

Two rankings, two lenses. If Sahil values walk-time over AC quality (BDes-specific weighting), the For BDes tab puts Maggie Mo #1 and Hamerschlag #2. If he treats central AC and semi-private baths as hard requirements (the more conservative comfort-first lens), this tab puts Boss #1 and McGill #2. Both are defensible. Discuss with the CFA roommate and pick the lens you'd both prefer.

Filtered out — and why

Building	Disqualifier

Lottery realism — what's reachable?

Per Alan's CMU room-draw guide and CMU Housing application page, lottery numbers below 100 are needed to land the most-coveted buildings. Male rooms run out faster than female rooms.

Building	Realism	Notes

Bathroom configuration breakdown

"Semi-private" varies meaningfully at CMU — from "private apartment bathroom" (Res on Fifth) to "4 students per bathroom" (Boss/McGill/Henderson).

Building	Bathroom config	People sharing

Recommended 5-building application ranking

Sahil and his roommate must rank the same 5 buildings in the same order AND both submit before May 25 to be paired together. Starting recommendation from this hard-filtered ranking:

Decision triggers — when to reorder:

Care more about amenities than walk distance → swap to Morewood #1, Boss #2, McGill #3.
Either Sahil or roommate wants gender-inclusive housing → Welch #1 with Queer Community opt-in.
Want to save ~$3,500/yr and willing to find a 3rd roommate → Maggie Mo Double-as-Triple as top preference.
Want true apartment-style with in-unit kitchen and willing to walk 12+ min → Residence on Fifth #1 with 3rd roommate.

All 14 first-year dorms — sortable by any column

Hard-filtered top 8 — overall best dorms for Sahil

Filtered out — and why

Lottery realism — what's reachable?

Bathroom configuration breakdown

Recommended 5-building application ranking

Top 3 picks for a BDes student

Henderson vs Morewood Gardens — head to head

Suggested ranked list for the housing application