I'm going to university in August and have been informed that it's best that I bring an ethernet cable and/or a router to connect to wifi in the dorms.
As someone who used to help run networking for dorms at a large university, I would suggest you get clarification on what they told you before spending your money - an ethernet cable (plus thunderbolt-to-ethernet adapter) will get you a good fast interference-free connection from the ethernet jack(s) in your room to... well however long a cable you get. Fast, reliable, but not always convenient.
Many universities will be twitchy about you bringing in your own access point, though, because a) if they already provide WiFi that blankets the dorms, user-supplied access points can muck with the signal (making you unpopular with the network admins and your dorm neighbors), and b) misconfigured user-supplied access points on the network can do surprising things - if, for instance, you manage to bridge the wired and wireless networks together (thus inadvertently routing traffic for part of the building through your laptop), you'll likely get a knock on your door from unhappy network admins (who may cut off your access for a period of time). Even more fun is if you end up running an open access point, and one of your dorm neighbors uses it run a file sharing site for movies/music, the IP address will track back to you, and *you* will be the recipient of the legal action from the RIAA/MPAA (this was a surprisingly frequent occurrence).
So what I'm saying is, ask enough questions of the networking folk at the university to be sure you're not buying an access point that you'll be required to shut off as soon as you arrive, and if they do support user-supplied access points (and don't have good WiFi already available), make sure you understand how to properly configure/secure it.
Thank you!
