Before I begin, let me ask this: Will your university allow such a pet in the dorm rooms? Most don't. I know mine sure doesn't, and a friend of mine who tried it and was caught was fined some pretty stiff fees and was forced to find other off-campus housing. And all that was just over a couple of baby bearded dragons and a baby red tail boa.
Now, with all that being said, and assuming the answer to the question is either yes, or you will be off campus, I recommend carpet pythons, or some other snake from the Morelia, Liasis, or Leiopython complexes. There are a huge variety of lengths, colorations, typical attitudes, and prices in these snakes, but I personally find them to be the most fascinating of them all. Something like an Irian Jaya or Jungle Carpet would likely average a length of around 5 to 7' or less, but maintain a bodily thickness of about half or less than that of an adult bp's. Some of the other species, even in the carpet complex, namely the Coastals, can get much larger, so I won't recommend them. Then there are snakes in the Liasis genus like Macklot's and Water pythons, both of which are medium-sized, highly irridescent animals. For a bit more money spent, you could get an Olive python, one of my personal favorites, but they tend to get rather large (over 10') and are hard to come by. White lips (D'Alberts) pythons in the Leiopython genus are another option, if you don't mind a typically nippy species. Of course, any snake can be socialized, but the white lips just seem to like seeing how much blood they can draw. I won't go into the Scrubs, or Amethystine, pythons because of the sizes some of the locales can achieve. However, there are some smaller scrub locales if you want to look into that; they just require larger enclosures.
So back to carpets. These guys can be kept in a rather moderately sized enclosure. They are semi-arboreal, which means they may want to climb, but probably won't do it all the time. That makes for a pretty attractive display animal though. They can be, but aren't always, slighty nippy as babies, but I personally have yet to encounter an adult carpet that I was at all nervous to handle. Jungles and Irian Jayas would probably be your best choice because of their smaller sizes. They don't have any strange requirements, almost always feed very well on whatever you offer, and are almost certainly going to be more interesting than a bp which will probably just lay around most of the time. Of course, I'm a little skewed here...lol. I just think that before you go with something that has such large size potential as a red tail (though most adults tend to average 6 or 7'), or such boredom potential (which would then equate to neglect or dumping it off somewhere) as a bp, to take a look at some of these other genera of snakes. Of course, there are always many, many different colubrids out there that make perfect pets. Just keep your options open. Good luck!
-Chance
River Valley Snakes
