2026 Dorm Report Card

By Lena Donovan

With reporting contributed by Alan Hernandez, James Kelly, and Katherine Rosa

Published October 30, 2026

As Plymouth reaches the semester’s midterm mark and grades become due for first-half classes, The Clock wanted to reflect not on our academic standing, but what can be one of the most intimidating things about college: the dorms. After interviewing residents from all nine dormitories, let’s see which dorms come out on top, and which ones unfortunately fail the test. 

Langdon: B

Langdon Woods is hidden in the northernmost pocket of campus, past the Student Apartments. Walking there is a journey in itself. The walk is beautiful and the trees along the walkway are gorgeous. In the winter, however, the walk is brutal. Snow blowers can only get so much snow and ice off the ground before it truly sticks to the pavement. 

Langdon was the first dorm in New Hampshire to achieve a Gold-level LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Certification, and is 58% more energy efficient than conventional buildings its size, according to the company that built Langdon’s HVAC system.

As of now, the rooms currently don’t have many issues. Landgon offers many different types of rooms, including singles, doubles, and triples. The third option is a four-person suite, which includes four private bedrooms and a small shared space. Most suite residents said they were grateful to have a personal room, which is a huge difference from other dorms. “Having a quiet safe space to break down from the day has been a lifesaver,” one said. All Langdon dorms also include a bathroom.  

With nearly 400 students sharing a single laundry room, the laundry situation isn’t ideal. Residents reported often having to wait to find an open dryer before finishing their laundry. 

Mary Lyon: A

Residents of Plymouth’s oldest dorm, Mary Lyon, gave the building mostly positive reviews. Built in 1916, the building hosts around 250 students. Students praised Mary Lyon for its convenient location in the middle of campus. The dorm is close to Rounds and Memorial Halls, and there are even some classrooms in Mary Lyon’s basement, making for an easy walk to class.

The wood floors make the dormitory feel more like home, and the student organization Clubhouse in the basement, which The Clock calls home, is a great environment to meet new friends. Although old, the building has been well cared for. 

No matter how nice a building is, there will always be small problems. One resident reported that the bathrooms “aren’t the cleanest,” and that the shower steam can make it unbearably hot. Temperature is an issue in the rooms as well. Triples and quads get extremely hot, with sometimes only one window to air out the rooms. Living with that many people and few windows can make for a very hot living environment. Residents also said they wished the vending machines were restocked more frequently. 

However, Mary Lyon’s charm has continued to win the hearts of PSU students, and the building has stood strong over the years. “The environment of Mary Lyon is electric,” said one resident. The building remains in good condition, and students seem to truly love the dormitory. 

Merrill: A

Merrill Place is best compared to a hotel. The open design, the comforting colors, and the relaxing furniture in the lobby put Merrill at the top of the list in terms of atmosphere and the condition of the building. The location isn’t great, but it isn’t terrible either. Most buildings on campus are only a 5-10 minute walk away from the dorm, though Hyde Hall is right across the street and Health Services is next door. 

Merrill doubles have private bathrooms that occupants share with their roommate, with some singles offering a bathroom that is shared with one other room. 

The building, which houses upperclassmen, remains mostly quiet, but some residents said there has been more screaming recently, mostly in the afternoons. The walls are surprisingly thin, and voices carry throughout the rooms very easily. 

I also couldn’t help but notice during a fire drill that there is an abundance of cats living in the building. It seemed like every third or fourth person to come out was holding some kind of cat carrier. Overall, the building feels new and is very comfortable to live in.

Blair: C

Blair Hall is the smallest dorm on campus. It only houses around 150 students. Residents have noted that the dorm can be pretty boring to live in. “Nothing goes on,” said one resident. There’s no elevator, which makes for difficult accessibility, especially during move-in and for students who live on the top floor. 

The communal bathrooms are small and tend to lean more towards the dirty side. Like many dorms, the building gets very humid and damp. The rooms are small and can get uncomfortable quickly. 

Blair is right behind Mary Lyon, so it has similar location benefits. It’s near academic buildings, the library, the HUB, and the dining hall. 

Geneva Smith: B

Shifting focus to the freshman dorms, Geneva Smith Hall is generally regarded as the nicest freshman dorm on campus. It stands right next to Prospect Dining Hall, and holds 200 students who are all in Living-Learning Clusters (LLCs).

Geneva might have the best location of all the dorms on campus. In addition to the dining hall, it’s near Hyde Hall and a short walk to most of the academic buildings. It’s also right next to a shuttle stop.

Each floor has a small communal kitchen and common area with a TV. The kitchen appliances are in good condition and most students said they enjoy having the amenities.

There is one gender neutral bathroom on each floor. Sharing a bathroom with peers of a different gender can be awkward for the first few weeks at school, but after a while it becomes more normal and less isolating. The dorms are spacious and students have a lot of room to hang out and relax after a stressful day. 

LLCs are meant to help students build better relationships with peers, and are split up between mainly majors and activities. There are seven total, including Sustainability, Leadership, and The Q, which is meant for members of the LGBTQIA+ community. However, some residents said the LLCs can drive divisions between floors. “We were in so much drama,” one 2024 Geneva resident said. Drama and grudges tend to build faster between residents. While seeming like a great system, it may stir more troubles than intended. Residents in LLCS not only live together, but are often in the same clubs and classes due to the nature of LLCs grouping similar students. This close tight interaction brings tense feelings. Rumors build more quickly, and opinions of peers tend to last. 

Grafton: D

Geneva Smith’s sister dorm, Grafton Hall, doesn’t have many of Geneva’s positive qualities. As soon as you enter the lobby, there’s a certain musty smell that is embedded into the dorm. There is one gender neutral bathroom on the first floor with a door that has trouble both closing and locking. There is also a decently sized common space with a pool table, piano, and vending machines. The kitchen is in a small room with no windows, leading to poor ventilation. 

Grafton is the only dorm on campus to separate each floor by gender. As a freshman, this is quite nice to have within all of the chaos. College can be embarrassing in so many ways, and having to pass peers in a towel after a shower can be unfortunate. Grafton’s gendered floors help eliminate that specific element. 

Other than that perk, however, the floors are dirty and divided. Each floor has a little elevator lobby with the bathroom door, and the two halls leading to rooms. Each hallway is separated by a big fire door, which some residents said isolated each hallway from interaction with the rest of the dorm.. 

The rooms themselves are set up with a wall in the middle separating the beds from the desks, which creates a very tight space with roommates but also helps create a separate living area more than the other freshman dorms. According to residents, the bathrooms are gross and, again, get muggy after little usage. 

The location is nearly as good as Geneva’s, but Grafton needs to be updated. It’s old and seems as though it hasn’t received the same amount of care as other dorms. 

Pemigewasset: F

Historically, Pemigewasset Hall has earned a reputation for being PSU’s messiest and rowdiest dorm. The CAs are great, but freshmen can be absolutely ruthless. Pemi is located right on the southern edge of campus. Every year appliances get broken and trash grows in the halls. 

The bathrooms are small and the stalls are nearly impossible to fit in. They have also been vulnerable to what Residential Life Executive Director Amanda Grazioso told the Student Senate was an uptick in vandalism in first-year dorms this semester. “A lot of it is beer cans and other substances just being shoved in toilets,” she said at an October meeting. 

The vending machines in Pemi are far from and out of the way of the dorms. The kitchen space is smaller, but in better condition than most on campus. 

The rooms themselves are spacious. Roommates can truly have their own space without encroaching on the other side. There are multiple windows in each room, so the room can stay airy if chosen to. 

The dumpster is right outside which is a great convenience. The biggest issues that come to Pemi every year are the lack of care and concern for the dorm (2026 may buck that trend, however, as Grazioso said Grafton and Geneva have been the dorms with the most incidents). 

Belknap: C

Belknap Hall is located near Pemi and Lamson Library and sits on top of a hill. It’s a little far from most academic buildings (except Boyd), but the distance is nothing compared to Langdon. Most residents were more neutral about the dorm. It faces many of the same issues, including humid bathrooms and few social opportunities. Some residents also reported seeing what looked like mold.

“When a report is received of alleged mold, we work with facilities and our director of environmental health and safety for initial assessment,” Grazioso said in an email. “If mold is detected, often the space needs to be vacant to mitigate so we work to relocate the resident during that process.” 

White Mountain Apartments/Non-Tradional Apartments: C

The White Mountain and Non-Tradational Apartments are located next to each other, with the White Mountain Apartments between Centre Lodge and Langdon, and the Non-Trads next to Centre Lodge. The Non-Trads only have around 60 residents, while the White Mountain Apartments host nearly 500. The spaces are in high demand, especially for Sophomores and Juniors looking to get away from the more traditional dorms. 

The location of the apartments is decent, being a 5-15 minute walk from most academic buildings and the dining hall. They give students the independence of having an apartment, while still being on-campus and having a CA. 

Having a private kitchen and living room is great, but it comes with challenges. The issues in the apartments mainly relate to broken appliances and animals. One student reported catching four mice within a week. Grazioso told The Clock she was not aware of any mice-related incidents this semester, though she “would not be surprised to hear that there is an uptick at this time of year as they are seeking warmer places to go as the temperature drops,” she said in an email. “They present most frequently in the student apartments which are located near the woods.” 

Mold has also been an issue in the White Mountain Apartments. “We did our walkthroughs in May, everything looked fine,” Grazioso told the Student Senate while describing one mold occurrence in the summer. “Physical plant went back in June and … pretty much the whole apartment was torn down from the inside.”

There may not be a clear winner or loser, but the top three dorms of Fall 2026 are Mary Lyon, Langdon Woods, and Merill. In the bottom sit Pemi, Blair, and the Student Apartments. The dorms, other than Merrill and Geneva, all need updates. From bathrooms to beer cans to oddly shaped rooms, you truly never know what to expect.