I did the dorms for the first half of my time here then moved in with a buddy from the Zoo (that's pretty rare though, there were extenuating circumstances. Mostly it just depends on what you prefer. Obviously in a dorm, everything is yours, you don't worry about splitting the cable bill, etc. but having a roommate (and house for that matter) is nice. I much prefer the duplex. Either way I would definitely recommend on base. The few guys in my class who live off base love it, but they don't love the extra 40 min of driving they do every day. And you can walk almost anywhere on base, makes it nice for drop nights and class parties. If you can find a guy you would want to live with for the next year and change, duplex is the way to go.