It’s that time of year again. It could be irritating. It could cause fights in a close group of friends. Or it could be an exciting chance to change your scenery and meet new people. No matter how you look at, it’s time for Stony Brook University resident students to choose their rooms for next year.

The task could be daunting. The room selection for students is all done online on the SOLAR system. Even more confusing than that are the options. There are six different resident quad choices with 28 buildings between them. So, how’s a student to choose?

First off, students need to make sure they have their student accounts paid off by March 21st in order to participate in room selection. Have a parking ticket? Pay it now.

Students participating in the Time Option Payment Plan should be fine as long as their March payment has been paid by March 15th.

Students will have between March 21 and April 1 to pay the room deposit.   But they should be advised, the longer they wait the less chance they have to get the room they really want.

“It’s early this year and will be early again next year because Spring break is late,” said Alan deVries, the associate director of Residential Programs for Administration and Services. “Usually room selection is after Spring break, however if we waited for that this year it would’ve been too close to finals.”

If students are worried about not being able to settle their bill in time, they should go talk to campus residences. deVries said the office works with students and their individual cases.

So now that you have your bill settled, it’s time to consider the different rooms you can live in. The two main options on campus are corridor and suite-style rooms.

The corridor rooms are basic bedrooms. Students have to share their bathroom with their hallway. The quads that offer corridor style are Roosevelt, H, and Mendelsohn.

Andrew Maya, a 21 year-old senior lives in a single in Keller in Roosevelt.

“I like having my own space,” Maya said. “The residents advisors are pretty active and they always have an event going on.”

Suite-style rooms have a common area, up to three bedrooms and a bathroom included. The bathroom would be shared by the six or seven people in your suite. The suite-style quads are Kelly, Tabler, and Roth.

Larry Arias, 21, is a resident in Roth quad. “I like living in a suite area because there’s always someone around,” said Larry Arias, a sophomore resident in Roth quad. “The common room gives me freedom.”

Another benefit Arias finds in living in Roth is the commute to class.

“It’s pretty easy to get to classes,” he said. “Just walk by the pond and cut through engineering and you get to the other classes.”

However, according to Maya, not everything is great about living on campus. He said the bathrooms can get unsanitary on the weekends in corridor style since they are only cleaned during the week.

“Both corridor and suite-style have their ups and down,” said Maya, a former resident of H and Tabler quad. “My favorite was Tabler, it had the nicest community and the cleanest rooms.”

Although Arias likes living in Roth and will be returning to it next year, he has some complaints as well.

“My bedroom is a little small, especially because its in between the other two rooms,” Arias said.  “Maintenance is probably the biggest issue, we have internet jacks that don’t work, stuff like that.”

Other options students have to live in include cooking buildings, the new buildings and 24-hour quiet buildings.

“Cooking spaces are the most desirable among returning students since they have the flexibility of using a meal plan and the can cook some of their meals,” deVries said.

Suite-style cooking buildings are Gershwin in Roth and Hand in Tabler. In these suites instead of having a common room, students have a common kitchen area. Corridor kitchen buildings are James in H and Irving in Mendelsohn. Each floor has  a kitchen at the end of the hallways for students to share.

The new buildings that opened up at that start of last semester, Yang and Lauterbur, are popular among students.

“Anybody is eligible to live in the new buildings,” deVries said. “However, there are only 600 spaces in there. I know it will fill up quickly.”

deVries said students should also realize that Yang and Lauterbur are part of the Roosevelt and Kelly quads respectively. That means that students who already live in those quads have a greater chance of getting into those buildings than those who do not.

Joanna Pellegrino, a junior, lives in Yang.

“It’s cool that they have the environmentally friendly lights in the rooms,” she said. “However, when you try to turn a light on in a room it takes like ten minutes for it to turn on.”

Students who want a guarantee that they will have a productive living environment should look into living in a 24-hour quiet building. Stimson and Wagner in Roosevelt, Langmuir in H, Shick in Kelly, Gershwin in Roth and Dreiser in Tabler are all quiet buildings. Students living in these buildings are expected not to have their noise leave their living space. For example, blasting music would not be allowed.

“There is enough demand to keep these 24-hour quiet buildings going,” deVries said. “However, some students may not realize how strict it is going to be. Mainly, students who live there shouldn’t feel like noise is going to be a distraction.”

Still not sure where you want to live? Maybe you should stick to your undergraduate college. According to deVries, where students live their first year here, helps them get adjusted to the school.

“In the undergraduate college people get acclimated to what they’re living in,” deVries said. “There’s a real value in allowing students to go back to their room. It’s a sense of community.”