Not a dorm, but an apartment building. My AEBS was slow and eventually quit working altogether.
I posted my problem on several forums and got lots of good advice, none of it fixed the problem though.
Then I took my computer on the road and discovered that it worked fine in airports and other hotspots.
When I returned home, my AEBS wouldn't work at all (no signal) BUT a neighbor had installed a Linksys router and I could tap into his wireless network with a full (and fast) signal.
I knocked on doors to try to find the owner of the linksys (no luck) and one of my neighbors suggested that I reset the base station. I didn't know I could (or should)
I reset the base station (as per Apple's instructions) and now it works flawlessly without all the cutting in and out that I experienced previously.
Before your abandon the AEBS, reset it and see if that fixes it.
Oh, I almost forgot, while I was away, I dropped the laptop and bent the hinge - works like a charm now
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