Honestly, ball pythons or any snake for that matter is a long term commitment, just like a dog or cat, but longer. If you are going away to school in a year and are living in the dorms, you will probably not be able to have pets. The smartest thing to do would be to wait to get the snake until you are either living off campus or done with school.

I will admit that I did get my first BP while in the dorms and hid her there for about 6 months. I have moved out of there though and have my own place where I have the OK to have snakes. The main problem with sneaking a snake in would be if it were to escape. You would have to tell the school and they would probably over react and evacuate the building or something. You would most likely get kicked out of student housing.