Any advice for choosing a dorm and dorm preferences, preferably North campus?

If you're set on North Campus it depends on if you prefer your own private bathroom, which you would maintain (Baits) or if you want easier access to dining halls and are cool with a shared community bathroom (Bursley) I lived in Bursley and preferred the shared bath. Didn't have to clean lol.

Living on North Campus is only good if you intend to live a very quiet life. There is very little within walking distance from either Bursley or Baits. Parents love it (at least my wife did) because they believe their sons and daughters can’t get into much trouble there. She moved to North Quad (on Central Campus) for her sophomore and junior years. Because of the distance from Central Campus - a 15 min bus ride - there can be a strong sense of isolation. Added to the pressure you will feel in your first year and it can be a bad combination for your overall health and well-being.

Always put central as your first choice. Even if you're an engineer. There's so much more to Michigan than just going to class and most of it happens on Central campus. Also the first year you will probably have class on Central like anything in the math or physics department. Then for North campus put Bursley first then Baits II then Baits I. Bursely is the largest so you meet the most people and it has the cafeteria. Baits II is closer to the cafeteria than Baits I.

Just hope you get a good roommate(s) and all will go well. 

Was engineering major, lived in Cambridge (West Quad). Was awesome being on Central with private bathrooms and connected to Union for food and close to South Quad for pizza. Was not a hassle to get to North campus with a bus stop right at the Union.

You don't want north campus as a freshman. The majority of your classes will still be on central, and that is where EVERYTHING you'd want to do/see/go to is.

I lived in Bursley as a freshman, and while I had good memories (it is still your freshman year at Michigan, duh) being on north and having to take the bus was definitely a bug, not a feature. In particular, riding the bus back up after a football game (or late at night after basketball/hockey) was always unpleasant. 

 

Lived in Bursley freshman year (deuce rot) and it was fun but annoying sometimes.
West Quad was much better in nearly every way.
However, I wish I would have had a chance to live on the hill though. Always seemed like there were many more people over there doing things.

I graduated with a CS degree from the Engineering school in 2016. Lived in Markley as a freshman. North Quad as a sophomore. You definitely want to put your preference as central campus. As an engineer, you have a bunch of math/science classes you need to take that are all on central and if you're computer science, 280/281 are both offered on central as well. Looking back at my schedule, over 50-100% of my classes each semester were on central campus through my first 2 years. And then as an upperclassmen, most classes were on North.

The bus ride really isn't that bad either.

As far as dorm preference, just avoid Markley and Oxford (unless you want to be in a nearby frat) on central and prefer Bursley on north.

and I'd still prefer that to North Campus. My son lived in Bursley as a freshman in engineering and even though he was fine with it, having to take the bus to Central for classes, etc was a bit of a pain

You definetly want to be on central over north even as an engineer. Better to have to bus just for classes than to bus for everything outside of class.

I loved south quad and they recently renovated it and the dining hall is nuts.  I don't think too many non honors/athlete freshman get south quad though. Most of why I did honors.

First thing you need to do is change your campus preference ASAP regardless of where the bulk of your classes are. Think about it -- would you rather drive to work and back every day or drive from work to every other thing in your life and back?

East Quad-Best Quad. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

And, really: Friends don't let friends live on North Campus.

you forgot "not"

seriously, live anywhere on central, it is a great time

I lived there for two years, because my user name checks out.

I lived in South Quad.  For me, South or West are ideal.  Close to central campus, closest of the dorms to Michigan Stadium, Crisler, Yost, and able to access all of what downtown Ann Arbor has to offer.

My problem with the Hill dorms is that it is a longer walk to the Athletic Campus.  Not a big deal for a few football Saturdays, but if you're into basketball or hockey, that's a lot of walking in the winter.

Maybe things are different now (I recently toured North Campus with my almost college age daughter) and there are some LSA classes offered up North, but I doubt it.  Like others have said, almost all your freshman classes will be on Central Campus and many of your sophomore classes.  

Also, for studying, the UGLI, the graduate library stacks, and the Law Quad are all right there if you're on Central Campus.  North Campus is *way* better now than when I was a student (89-93) but still not as extensive as Central.

Central campus will be: math, chemistry, physics, biology, language and all the other LSA disciplines.  To be fair, you won't have time for many LSA electives as an engineer, but your core requirements will be there.

By the time your sophormore year ends, you'll know more about what you like.  Where your friends are, what things you like to do, and what lifestyle is important to you.  The North Campus off-campus housing options are cheaper and provide better access to your engineering classes which will take up the majority of your time as a junior and senior.  Even so, I chose to live off-campus near Central Campus and drive to North Campus for class.  

Yes, as the blog spokesperson for Bursley Hall, I can attest that you are the first person in the history of the world to request North Campus as your first choice. My choices (in order) were West Quad, South Quad and Markley. I got sent to Bursley.

That said, I loved the North Campus lifestyle. Waaaaay back then, we had our own parking lot, and you could park your car there for free. I doubt that's still the case. The bus was a pain, but you got used to it, and I loved having the NCRB right across the street.

Study-wise, there were less distractions, so that probably helped. Once I came back to the dorm after classes, I didn't have a lot of options, so I probably got more done.

Bottom line: Totally different vibe and lifestyle on North Campus, but there are a lot of benefits to it.

I was in Bursley for 2 years and enjoyed it (back in '04-'06). As others have noted though, most of your classes are going to be on Central, so I did a lot of busing. Not that the bus is all that bad except on the weekends when the time between buses is longer.

I also was in Solar Car (lots of late nights on North) and had my own car, so Bursley (which had a cheap lot for residents) had some advantages that may not apply to you. This was also before the big renos of the Hill and Central campus dining facilities.

Were I to do it again I'd probably prefer the "directional" (East, West, North, South Quads) dorms to Bursley, but I'd still prefer Bursley to Markley and be 50/50 on Bursley vs the Hill.

There were two big benefits to living in Baits (although I think only Baits II is left) over other dorms: single rooms and parking spots. Baits has a decent amount of single rooms, and the chances of getting a single on Central Campus as a freshman are approximately zero. But more importantly, since so few people request Baits (or North Campus in general), as opposed to just getting stuck there, if you put a Baits single as your first choice, you’re going to jump all those people whose first choice was Central or the Hill. So if a single room is more important than location, doing that takes your odds from zero to decent. Further, Baits is the only dorm with a parking lot big enough for freshman to be able to get passes, so if you want to have a car at school, Baits (or walking from Bursley) are the most convenient options.

Back when I was at UoM, it was assumed common knowledge at least within my sphere that we had a lot of students from New York who tended to both be a) Jewish and b) very often assigned to Mary Markley - has anyone else heard of this and is it or has it ever been A Thing?

As a dumb freshman, I loved living in South Quad for all the reasons others have mentioned.  I almost had too much fun and nearly flunked out.  As an adult, and with the benefit of hindsight, I think I would have told myself to go to North Campus.  The inconvenience of having to bus back and forth, I think, would have forced me to treat the school day as a 9-5 job and go to the library between classes instead of going back to my dorm in S. Quad to take a nap, nurse a hangover, play video games, and ultimately decide to skip my afternoon classes because pick up basketball on that side court of South was just too important.  

Not North. North is lame. As an engineer I was on or near the hill all four years and never considered having to take a short bus ride to/from most of my classes/labs/whathaveyou a nuisance.

Apply to one of the Michigan community living situations on Central Campus. The most sought after is the Michigan Research Community in MoJo. My son did that and liked MoJo with the prime cafeteria and delux rooms plus closest Hill location to CCRB and the over-ramp.