The dorms are very varied. For freshman year, all the students live on North Campus, which is a collection of different freshmen dorms. I was in a new one that was built only a few years ago, Mews Hall, and that was really nice. Court-Kay-Bauer was built around the same time. I believe that they are all 3 doubles to a single in room ratio, and have nice study rooms and hang out areas. However, there are a ton of other freshman dorms, most of which I've never been in. Balch Hall is the only all girls one. It looks cool from outside and each room has a tiny bathroom shared with the room next door, though the building is a little old. Dickson is mostly singles; Risley is for artistic people. As you can tell, I'm not very helpful on dorms other than my own, but I can tell you that living on North is pretty awesome. I'd just read the Wikipedia page on North to get a general idea: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornell_North_Campus. It doesn't really matter anyway, most of the time you just get assigned a dorm. The most important thing is is deciding whether you want a single or double etc. I'm personally against singles for many people because some people end up sitting in their rooms alone if they don't have social skills. I have heard that you have a better chance of getting a new dorm if you have allergies, since they have less allergens.