Best Breakfast: Towson Diner
The best part of the diner is being able to get breakfast at all hours – it’s open 24/7. With your choice between omelets, pancakes, bagels or all three, there’s little room to be disappointed with diner food. Plus, it’s one of the only appropriate breakfast spots to take Mom and Dad when they come to visit. And nothing tastes more delicious than a meal on them, right?

Best Coffee: Baltimore Coffee and Tea
If you want a quick caffeine fix or you’re looking to stock up on ground or whole bean coffee to make on your own before class, Baltimore Coffee and Tea in Timonium is the place to be. They roast on location, so the aromas alone are enough to make you splurge for a breakfast pastry. Break the chains Starbucks has you enslaved in and get coffee cultured.

Casey Prather/ The Towerlight

Best Hangover Cure: Towson Hot Bagels
THB. If you don’t know what that stands for, you don’t deserve to live in Towson. Towson Hot Bagels is the best place for hangover breakfasts on a Saturday or Sunday morning. It attracts students from Towson, Hopkins and Loyola, so weekend morning lines are long, but incredibly worth it. That, and you’ll need the time to decide what to order (unless you’re like the regulars and have your usual). The staff is friendly and extremely quick with each freshly-made order. Time them, seriously. You’ll be amazed.

Best Milkshake: Jamba Juice
Technically a smoothie, but we’ll let it slide. What was once a special treat if you happened to be in New York City or on the West Coast can now be devoured right on campus! Delicious, nutritious, and you can get the largest size for about the equivalent of one meal.

Casey Prather/ The Towerlight

Best Cheeseburger: Burgers Bros.
Burger Bros. fries the competition again. Even with the introduction of Baltimore staple Gino’s and Northern Virginia’s ever-expanding Five Guys, the Burger Bros. take the bun, cheese, lettuce and tomato. Not as greasy as other offerings, the Bros. heave on the high-grade meat and slap that patty between toasted buns. TOASTED BUNS!

Best Hotdog: Tailgate Grill
Like there’s any chance this wouldn’t go to Troy “The Hotdog Man” and his canine companion Cuervo. Found uptown in front of Urban Outfitters most nights, The Tailgate Grill quickly services dozens, if not hundreds of drunken and hungry patrons each night. You can’t beat the $2 price tag with unlimited toppings.

Best Vegetarian: World of Crepes Cafe
Nutella is the first filling that comes to mind when you hear the word “crepe.” But Chesapeake Avenue hides a treasure for the animal loving and environmentally conscious. World of Crepes has a plethora of cheap, vegetarian friendly options, including fresh vegetables and rich cheeses, all wrapped up in a thin pancake.

Best Chinese Food: Mandarin Taste
With online ordering options, campus proximity for pick-up, and free delivery for dorm dwellers, Man Taste is perfect cheap eats for when you’re sick of campus food, want to order in for a get-together with friends, or beat a hangover.

Best Supermarket: Shoppers Food Warehouse
Shoppers Food Warehouse is huge and very inexpensive, offering a vast selection of fruits and vegetables, baked goods and everyday essentials, including Ramen Noodles for those living on a tight budget. They’re really into supporting the Ravens, at least the one on Goucher Boulevard. That may help or hinder your visit, depending on your love for Ball So Hard University.

Best Cheese Steak: Vito’s Pizza
It may be a little far from campus, but Vito’s Pizza, in the same shopping center as Wells Liquors, has the best cheese steak in Towson. I mean, any place that Cal Ripken Jr. stopped at on a routine basis has to be really good, right? The best part is that you can get your cheesesteak on garlic bread for enhanced taste.

Best Pizza: Pasta Mista
Slicing up the delivery boys is Pasta Mista with its specialty pies. Forget the chains and head to the Towson location in the Dulaney Valley Plaza near the mall. Sizable slices and inventive topping combinations leave you craving Pasta Mista’s cheesy goodness whether you’re recovering from a severe hangover or just plain hungry.

Best Sushi: Sushi Hana
If you’ve limited your Japanese cuisine options to Kappa Sushi, you’re seriously missing out. With two locations within a short walk or drive (Pennsylvania Avenue in Towson and Falls Road in Baltimore), Sushi Hana is a prime spot for a California Roll. And if raw fish isn’t your thang, there’s plenty of fried seafood and teriyaki poultry to go around.

Best Wings: Bill Bateman’s Bistro
Nothing kicks a case of the Mondays like all-you-can-eat wings for $9.99 right on campus. Bill Bateman’s is a Towson staple for their Cookie Monster and Crab Pretzel. But the 16 wing flavors, of which you can try a different type every order, will have you screaming for another glass of Natty Boh on draft.

Best Local Beer: Stillwater Artisanal Ales, Cellar Door
No, it’s not the Wisconsin-based, North Carolina-brewed, horrible-tasting National Bohemian aka “Natty Boh.” There are real beers being brewed right here in Baltimore, the best of which is Stillwater Artisanal Ales’ Cellar Door. If you like head, then this is the beer for you. Cellar door pours a four-finger head with a hazy golden color, typical of non-filtered wheat saisons. The taste is complex, with citrus, bready wheat and lots of spice. Sage rage! It is on the expensive side, but worth it if you’re going for a special-occasion beer or looking to expand your beer repertoire.

Best Ice Cream: Tutti Frutti Frozen Yogurt
Obviously, the best ice cream – or fro yo, actually – is Tutti Frutti in Cockeysville. Not only do you get to mix and match flavors, but you also get to pick your exact fro yo-to-topping ratio, because you make your frozen yogurt concoction yourself. There are always new flavors and there are tons of toppings to choose from. And the best part? It’s healthy… sorta.

Best Romantic Date Spot: The Cheesecake Factory
If you’re looking to get lucky, it’s best to do it on a belly of fried mac n’ cheese and key lime cheesecake.

Best Girl’s Night Out: PowerPlant Live!
You and your girls are in your slutty chic and highest heels, but where should you go after pregaming with wine coolers and Smirnoff Ices? Of-age single ladies (and taken girls just looking for a good time with friends) can bar hop to their livers’ content at PowerPlant. Most bars don’t have a cover for women, and those that do, like Howl at the Moon, are worth it for the ambience.

Best Guys’ Night Out: Lil’ Dickies
Every guys’ night out has one common purpose – to pick up girls. Don’t deny it. If you’re looking to try out your newest approach with wingmen by your side, take turns at Lil’ Dickies. It’s unexplainably busy any night of the week and tiny enough where you can’t be too far from one of your buds at any one time. Good luck, gentlemen.

Best Place to Dance: The Greene Turtle
Let’s put it this way. If you don’t feel like grinding on the tiny dance floor, then pick another bar. That place is packed with a DJ and a full house every weekend, making it impossible to even get a drink at the bar lest you squeeze your way between a few asses that are in the air. If you like to dance, this is the best place to go – you won’t be alone. If dancing isn’t your thing, stay far away.

Best Music Venue: Rams Head Live
The Recher Theatre offers a close venue with decent billings. But if you’re looking for a stage with national acts and pristine sound, make sure to visit Ram’s Head Live. Almost hidden in the insanity of Power Plant Live!, Ram’s Head offers a multi-leveled show with high-grade and professional equipment. Not as new as Soundstage, also near Power Plant Live!, Ram’s Head offers a more contemporary, clean and intimate show. Gems like The Ottobar, Sonar and The 8×10 do often have great local shows, but you’re not going to get the same billings as Ram’s Head.

Best Movie Theater: Bengies Drive-In Theatre
If you can’t walk to see a movie, you might as well go big or go home. Only open in the spring and summer months, Bengies Drive-In Theatre is a blast from the past. Roll up in front of the giant projector screen, tune your radio to the local station, and watch a flick from the comfort of your own car.

Best Excuse to be a Hot Mess: 8 a.m. Class
Tuesdays and Fridays are not the friends of Thirsty Thursday and Funday Monday. If you’re planning to take a class at some ungodly hour, you better plan to get your drinking in early or skip the evening entirely. No one wants to see last night’s smokey eye makeup as this morning’s raccoon getup.

Best Bar: The Rec Room
Until Charles Village Pub is officially back, the best uptown bar is the Rec Room. The bar, located next to Recher Theatre, supplies fun with billiard tables, cornhole and most importantly, dirt-cheap drink specials. On Thirsty Thursdays, Bud and Bud Light cans are $1.50, as are all other domestic beers; rail drinks are $2; Natty Boh and Natural Lite cans are a buck; and all bombs are $5. The deals only get better as the weekend goes on.

Best Liquor Store: Beltway Fine Wine & Spirits
Remember your first time in your favorite toy aisle? Welcome to your new toy aisle.  Beltway Fine Wine & Spirits is the McMuffin of liquor stores. It has everything your little alcohol-soaked heart desires. Beltway offers wholesale pricing on a majority of their products. The regular price at Beltway is normally dollars less expensive than the sale prices at other locations. Located under a furniture store on Loch Raven Boulevard, the store makes good use of its space, offering the largest and most diverse selection in the county. The employees are also experts and willing to help you decide on the perfect libation for you.

Best Drink Special: Weekends at The Greene Turtle
Bear with us, because you’ll either have to not care about drinking good beer or just be too drunk to care. But The Greene Turtle will sell Bud Light or Keystone cans for $.75 most weekends. Maybe Miller Lite, too. Regardless, any college student would be silly if they passed up a beer that inexpensive. Are we right?

Best Place to Have Sex: Anywhere
Anywhere consensual, that is.

Best Under-21 fun: The Inner Harbor
Just a Collegetown Shuttle ride away, there’s plenty to do while you wait those two or three years before you can legally drink. The National Aquarium offers a variety of packages, some at student rates. And don’t forget the Maryland Science Center, complete with a planetarium and IMAX theater. And after spending time with the dolphins and the stars, you have your choice of eating at sit-down restaurants, food courts or grabbing a quick smoothie or soft pretzel before hopping back on the bus to Cross Campus Drive.

Best Local Band: Ballyhoo!
The boys of Aberdeen have made a lot of strides in the past couple of years. Since signing to Pepper’s Law Records, Ballyhoo! has been almost continuously touring nationally. The guys will join 311 on their annual cruise this summer and will join the likes of Incubus, Foo Fighters and Bon Jovi at Bamboozle in May. The band released their fourth album, “Daydreams,” in September, showing growth in both their influences and styling. Ballyhoo! will kick off their Daydreams tour at The Recher Theatre Feb. 3.

Best Alum: Maravene Loeschke
Talk about commitment to an institution. After obtaining an undergraduate degree and Master’s degree, then serving as a professor, department chair and college dean, Maravene Loeschke hasn’t had enough of Towson University. Our new president has been in office less than a month, but she already has plans to reach out to local businesses and community members to strengthen University relationships. Hopefully they won’t have as much difficulty as the student population in pronouncing her last name.

Best Student Group: Students Helping Honduras
They’ve won about every campus honor you can name and student leaders are clamoring to raise enough funds to go on one of their trips to help build orphanages and schools. But what makes SHH truly stand out among student groups is their concrete effort to make change in the world. You can seesaw outside the Union to dubstep all you want raising change for one cause or another. But earn $40,000 in a semester, then help erect a building that will improve the lives of children, who Towson students have had the opportunity to meet and interact with, isn’t something you see often from our apathetic generation.

Best Professor: Andrew Reiner
A professor only for the Honors College, Andrew, as his students call him, teaches with no set agenda. No, really. He got rid of syllabi for his classes and takes his time with certain discussions or assignments based on what each individual class is interested in. You’ll find no PowerPoint lectures in his seminars. And it’s always a pleasure when he shares stories about his family, notably, his newborn son. Photos and videos are included.

Casey Prather/ The Towerlight

Best On-Campus Dining Location: West Village Commons
Obviously, they’re going to put the best food in the newest building. But with contenders like Einstein Bros. Bagels and Jamba Juice, is there really any contest?

Women’s Sports Team: Gymnastics
Last year marked the first time in six years that the Tigers didn’t claim an Eastern College Athletic Conference title. But stacked with upperclass talent, the Tigers have the pieces in place to reclaim the top spot in the conference and to send multiple performers to national competitions.

Men’s Sports Team: Football
Never thought this would be the case, but the Tigers are at the top of the class. Led by Jerry Rice Award winner Terrance West and National Coach of the Year Rob Ambrose, the Tigers went from 1-10 to 9-3 last season. They hosted the first home playoff game in school history and took the CAA title for the first time. The roar has definitely been restored.

Rival: Delaware
There isn’t another school in Maryland that the Tigers can honestly call a rival, so the closest in proximity is clearly the Blue Hens. No matter the sport, when Towson and Delaware get together, it’s always hostile and chippy. The fans don’t like each other and the players don’t like each other. Thank God for the Pigskin Pass, for without it, this would be an extreme hatred for all things Towson/Delaware.

Female Athlete: Kacy Catanzaro
The senior leads Towson’s elite gymnastics squad by performing as an All-Around, meaning that she’s taking part in every event during every meet. But there isn’t an area where she’s not participating at the highest level. Take for instance the Tigers’ first home meet of this year: Catanzaro took first place in the vault, the uneven bars and the balance beam, and won the All-Around competition. Elite doesn’t do justice when it comes to describing Catanzaro.

Casey Prather/ The Towerlight

Male Athlete: Terrance West
Despite starting just one game, the freshman tailback accumulated 1,294 yards and 29 touchdowns to run away with the Jerry Rice Award for the top rookie in the Football Championship Subdivision. West averaged 6.7 yards per carry this season and was one of the main reasons for the Tigers turnaround.

Best Residence Hall: Barton and Douglass
Despite some faulty plumbing and paper-thin walls, you can’t knock the two newest residence halls on campus. For the Honors College students formally cramped into Richmond and Newell Halls, spacious new digs have been set up in Douglass (though some must miss the tight-knit community). For those lazy enough to stay in their PJs all weekend, the West Village Commons and all its tasty glory is only a few steps away. We have no sympathy for the Class of 2015.

Best Place To Take a Nap – Your room!
Please, we don’t want to see anyone sleeping on the third floor of the University Union anymore. Don’t you get the TUPD crime alerts every time you blink? Your belongings can and will be stolen. And not to mention, it’s not classy to snore in public places.

Best Place to Be Intolerant of Others: A Youth for Western Civilization Event
It doesn’t matter where you stand on an issue. If you attend one of YWC’s events or speakers on a hot-button topic such as gay marriage (I think we all remember Straight Pride Day), there’s gonna be some fightin’ words. As open as the leaders of student groups try to be (and many of them write Letters to the Editor under the premise of “Can’t we all just get along?”), they’re at the head of a special interest group for a reason.

Best Place to Not Get An Emergency Text: The College of Liberal Arts Building
Potential gunman on campus? Armed robbery in the Union? Ignorance is bliss, if you have a class in the CLA. Students were livid when they weren’t informed by phone that their lives were potentially in danger, and the University quickly made plans to replace some of the windows in the new academic building, which were ruled as the cause for lack of service.

Best Distraction from Studying – Anything that’s not a textbook
Seriously, if you procrastinate, you will find any and everything to keep from studying. Basketball season is around, so that’s a distraction. If you have a television in your room, it’s tempting. Is there a bed in the room? How about a cell phone? What about a roommate? There’s even dust on the counter that you’d rather clean, isn’t there? Of course this is an exaggeration, but procrastination is an art. If you can see it, you can use it to procrastinate. 

Best Campus Improvement – West Village Commons
There’s not much of a competition here. The CLA is nice, but it just can’t stand up to the amazing lounge locations, late night convenience store, multiple dining opportunities, hiding spots and amazing scenery the Commons offers. The only gripe about the building is the weak cell phone service, but administration is looking to amend with upgrades to the building’s windows.

Best Off-Campus Living: The Palisades
Close enough to walk to campus, but far enough away that you don’t feel like you’re living in a glorified dorm? Check. More added features than a five-star hotel (heated rooftop pool, granite countertops, sound-resistant walls)? Check. Probably completely out of your price range? Check, but it doesn’t hurt to dream.

Best Class: Makeup Design
Most professors would take points off your participation grade if you showed up looking like a zombie. Steve Bauer and Marianne Wittelsberger will give you an ‘A,’ depending on how realistic your gore is. The married duo, aptly named The Jokesters, teach Makeup Design I and II to theatre majors and students interested in stage makeup. From learning how to create realistic flesh wounds, to attaching fake hair and noses, you’ll feel like a professional straight of the set of a science-fiction movie.

Best Student Newspaper: The Towerlight
Where you’ll hear news first and reported more thoroughly than any other Towson source. Whether you’re an avid commenter online or a Sudoku fanatic, The Towerlight has something for every reader. For breaking news and a chance to appear in “Word on the Street,” follow @TheTowerlight on Twitter and like us on Facebook.

Best Pointless Class: Individualized Fitness
If you’re looking for an easy class, one that requires little effort and high reward, check out Individualized Fitness. It’s basically an hour and 15 minutes of working out at the gym, and you’re pretty much free to do however much work you want. Oh, and did we mention that it’s three credits?

Best Place to Study: Nooks in the West Village Commons
If Club Cook has too many crazy people for you, or if you’re just too lazy to walk all the way over to the old side of campus, check out the Commons for a quiet place to study. The third floor itself is filled with quiet corners and comfy chairs.  So whether you’re by yourself or with a group, you’ll never find yourself scrounging for a place to sit.