Dorms I live in rn get hot water within like 2 seconds I come from the country and fast hot water is fucking beautiful.

If you have the money, the most efficient way to solve this is to install an on-demand tankless water heater at every single outlet that has hot water (e.g., not the toilets). The downside is that this is a very expensive way to solve the problem; not only do you need to buy the water heaters, you need to run new electrical to every single one (or new gas lines, which would be even more expensive). The upside is that you get hot water as fast as a recirculating pump, but without the cost of constantly running a pump and your water heater.

Many years ago I lived in an apartment in San Diego that had recirculating hot water (there was no water heater in my apartment); I guess the apartment complex figured that the cost of constantly heating the water was cheaper than the cost of the water that they would otherwise lose down the sewer while people were waiting for the water to heat up in their apartment.

My kitchen is fairly far from my water heater, which is very close to every other hot water tap in my house. So when washing dishes I often have to run the tap to get hot water in the kitchen. In summer I run this water into my watering can for my garden. In winter I collect it in a jug and pour it into my clothes washer.

It’s literally the opposite in my place. The cold spigot will release 90F water when it’s 60F outside. The hot spigot is even hotter.