Hey, congrats on the acceptance!! You asked some good questions, and I remember asking myself the same things when I was coming here.
The dorms are great. They are all really clean, well maintained, and spacious. The individual rooms are huge, so much bigger than what I've seen at other schools. If you refer to the post on this message board called "Dorms" I described all of the buildings and their amenities. In addition to that though, I think it's important to mention the RA's that live in every dorm. RA's are upper class students that live 2 to a floor in each building. They are there to help out with any problems that resident students might have, and they do a really good job with that. The RA's also run most of the activities that go on within the dorms, and they put a ton of time into planning whatever they think students will enjoy doing. I think that it's important to tell you how much effort they put into what they do, because it puts into perspective how nice it is to live here. Even outside the dorms, the effort that the faculty here puts into the different forms of entertainment they bring in, or fun activities they book is incredible, and it makes living here so much fun. At the end of this post I'll attach a virtual tour link so you can check out the buildings around campus.
Leaving campus is relatively simple. As a freshman, you aren't allowed to bring a car to campus unless you get special permission from the school, BUT we do have a shuttle service that runs multiple evenings a week. The driver is really nice and flexible with the schedule, so it's easy to stay out late, have a good time, and not worry about being in before dark. I don't think there is ever much of a need to leave the campus though, because one way or another, there is always something going on. You might have to run out to Walmart or the mall to pick stuff up, or you might want to go out to eat sometimes too, but you won't have to leave campus to go looking for something to fill your time, because there's always enough going on here to keep you busy. We have comedians come in who are hysterical! We also have concerts, open mic nights, talent shows, mud wrestling, foam dances, intermural sports, etc. If that's not enough, a lot of students will go outside and play football or other sports. There's definitely enough to do.
As far as academics go, college in general is tough. I'm not sure what program you're looking to go into, but I'm personally in OT and it is a huge change from high school. One thing to remember though, is that if you stay organized and learn to manage your time on a schedule that works for you, you'll be fine. You might have heard that before from a guidance counselor or a representative from a college who has come to your school, and you may have thought they had to say that because it's their job, but take it from someone who is in that position right now, organization and time management is really important.
Hopefully this helped you out a little. You seem like you have a bunch of good questions though, so let me know if there's anything else! Don't forget to check out the link I have added.
Erin (rossicke@misericordia.edu)
http://misericordia.edu/mu_tour/vtour.cfm <--------LINK!