Years ago, I asked a friend why her daughter selected a certain urban university as her final college choice. “It was easy,” her mother informed me. “She weighed all the academic, social and financial considerations, and then picked the only school that guaranteed her a private bathroom.”

If this seems like an odd way to select a school, then you probably haven’t visited a college dorm early on a Sunday morning, when the common bathroom shared by a dozen students can be dirtier and more unpleasant than a rest stop on the state Turnpike. Picking a college solely on the basis of bathrooms may be extreme, but the fact is, some students care much more than others about the privacy, cleanliness and the overall comfort of their living arrangements.

Ideally, college is a time when you learn to adapt to different people and situations, even if they’re less than perfect – but some aspects of campus life can be unacceptable for certain students . During my son’s sophomore year he lived in a dorm room that was tiny, dark and slightly less cozy than a jail cell in an underdeveloped nation.  He was not particularly bothered by this, although I’m pretty sure that same room would have been a deal-breaker for my daughter.

When you’re deciding where you (or your child) will go to school, it’s important to remember that college isn’t just where you’ll learn, it’s also where you’ll live. Here are some factors you should keep in mind:

Availability of on-campus housing : Some colleges have plentiful on-campus housing and guarantee a room in a dorm for all four years of school. In fact, some schools forbid moving off campus without permission from the college. Other schools have limited housing and guarantee a room on campus only through freshman or sophomore year. In many schools it’s common – even expected – for upperclassman to find off-campus housing. This is an important factor for many students: some can’t wait to live in a “real” apartment or house and some hate the thought of having to commute to campus and make their own meals.

Sharing a room: Mindful of the fact that many young people going to college have never shared a room (and don’t want to start now!) many colleges are building new dorms that feature singles. But a private room is rarely guaranteed on most campuses – certainly not for underclassmen. If living with another person would be a problem for you, this is something you’ll have to consider.

Mandatory meal plan: The quality of food, number of dining halls, and availability of alternate meal choices varies greatly from school to school. Some colleges require all on-campus students to be on the meal plan, while others allow students to cook in their dorms.

General condition of the dorms: Is the university housing old or new? Clean or grungy? Are rooms spacious or are three people crammed into a room that’s supposed to be a double? Are dorm rooms air-conditioned?  Are there suites or on-campus apartments available or just traditional double rooms on a hall?

Special dorms: Many colleges are trying to enhance the on-campus experience by providing dorms that are geared to students’ needs or interests. Many schools now offer a drug and alcohol-free dorm for students who want to stay away from the party scene, a quiet dorm with strict noise restrictions for the studious, or theme dorms for students with a shared culture or interest in a particular topic.

Ideally, these considerations should just be part of the college selection process – and maybe not a huge part. But that isn’t always the case. As a teenage friend told me recently, “I don’t think of myself as particularly spoiled, but I just don’t want to spend four years living in some depressing, dirty, little hell-hole.”

Wait till she sees the bathrooms.