I lived in a building like this at Cornell University. The building was a converted mental health asylum prior to its purchase. Tiny rooms, with tiny slit windows, common areas, and doors that automatically swung shut in every room.

Every year, students did their best not to get stuck living in that building. The only ones who considered it voluntarily were the engineering students (due to proximity to the eng campus). The "bolstered" social communal area did not make up for the additional anxiety and mental pressure of the jail-cell like rooms, and the feeling of isolation and no-escape that the layout fostered. The only thing it did do, was make a notable increase in the school suicide rate.