First Year Housing 2016-2017

Colleges and Universities A-Z New York University
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Rundown of all the residence halls:

[ul]
[]Weinstein seems like a good option because you have the Food Court (aka Upstein), the little supermarket (aka Sidestein), and an all-you-can-eat dining hall (aka Downstein) (not very good food tbh) and it’s really close, but it’s like a prison upstairs: dark hallways, cinderblock rooms.
[]3N also seems like a good option because you have a dining hall there, but the food is probably the worst of all the dining halls. 3N has a courtyard in the middle, which is nice when it’s warm, but when the cold hits and you’re walking through the courtyard to get to your tower, it’s not fun. 3N is the party dorm now, and it almost always seems to smell like weed. It’s right by a TON of nightlife. Buuuuut 3N is probably the farthest walk from classes, which is not fun when you’ve overslept or it’s nasty out. One plus, though - you get a kitchen.
[]I don’t know much about Founders. I literally forgot it was a FYRE hall; I thought it was like UHall - a mix of first years and upperclassmen. It’s a little bit closer to Union Square than Brittany is, but right by Palladium (upperclassmen hall, dining hall with amazing Sunday brunch, gym)
[]Hayden was just renovated, so everything’s new and shiny. Great all-you-can-eat dining hall. I’ve heard that the rooms are smaller now, though. It’s lost it’s reputation as the party/top dorm because NYU cracked down on it. Right on WSP.[/il]
[]Brittany is nice, very shiny and modern. You’ll see a lot of Alec Baldwin. It’s about halfway between Union Square and WSP, so you’re looking at a 5-10 minute walk to classes/food.
[]Goddard (my dorm) is on the other side of WSP, next door to Starbucks and across the street from Bobst Library and Kimmel. It’s the smallest of all the dorms (~200 students) which is the best for move-in, let me tell you. Doubles are kind of small, triples are huge. You have to specially apply to live in Goddard because it’s part of the “Residential College Program”. What is that? A fancy term meaning you go to fun, free events all year and automatically get a spot in Broome Street for the next three years.
[li]Rubin’s only plus is that you have a 5th Avenue address. There’s no AC, it’s about a 5 minute walk from campus, and I’ve heard the rooms are dingy.[/li][/ul]
NYU has this thing called “Special Interest Housing”. Certain res halls have it on specific floors. You apply to a floor or program that interests you, and live on a floor with people who share the same interests and go to events related to it. For instance, one of my friends is on the FAME (Featuring All Musical Endeavors) floor in Brittany, and her best friends are the people on her floor. They sing together, they get to go to amazing concerts for a small fee, and they’ve gotten so close that they’re all living together next year. You’ll get a brochure about all the res halls soon.

Plus of all NYU dorms: no communal bathrooms! Every room has it’s own private bathroom that you share with your room/suitemates. Every dorm has at least one study space/lounge, laundry rooms with washer and dryers, and resource centers that will provide you with free toilet paper and trash bags. All rooms come with the same standard furniture: a desk per person, a Twin XL bed per person, and a dresser per person.

Rundown of room/suitemates:

  • []There’s really no way to request being put in a specific arrangement unless you have a reason to need a single.
    [    ]You don’t choose your room/suitemates, sadly. NYU has a relatively new policy of randomly matching people in order to expose you to a variety of different people from different experiences. This means that you’re probably going to have room/suitemates of varying ethnicities, races, and places of origin.

How it all happens:

  • []The housing application opens March 5th, and I believe you have until College Decision Day to submit the application for first years (since RD applicants find out on April 1st).
    [    ]You have to fill it out, submit it, and pay the nonrefundable $1000 deposit in order to be eligible for housing.
    []Some (if not all) Goddard students find out towards the end of May if they were place in Goddard via email because there are Goddard specific courses they can register for.
    [    ]Everyone else finds out around June of their housing placement. It’s really strange and confusing.
    []In early July, you’ll find out your room/suitemates.
    [    ]For move-in, you’ll be assigned a time slot based on your floor. Lower floors have earlier time slots while higher floors have later time slots. Get there before your time slot, because there’ll already be a line and you’ll be delayed.

The 2016-2017 Housing Guide from Washington Square News and from NYU Local will be coming out soon, so keep an eye out for those. Also, if you go to an Open House or to Weekend on the Square, go to as many dorm tours you can.

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Thanks for sharing this!

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so warm-hearted! Thanks

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Does that mean we can’t request a single unless we have reason? But i really prefer a single room. I often sleep at 10pm, which i think few people can match my preference. I could enumerate a list of reasons to have a single.

5

@Chalamagne916 Singles are typically reserved for people with medical reasons. Personal preference isn’t a legitimate reason. Sure, you can put it down on your application, but it’s really just luck of the draw. Your RAs will encourage you to fill out a provided Rooming Agreement where you and your room/suitemates will sit down and discuss what each of you need.

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If you’re interested in learning more about the application process, the [NYU Residential Life and Housing Services](NYU Residential Life & Housing Services - YouTube) YouTube channel has how-to videos outlining the application process. It also has the FYRE Webinars regarding move-in and all of that. If you’re like me and you love to obsessively Google things to be as prepared as possible, you’ll find yourself on the channel a lot.

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@seeniebeenie
I think alumni is a building full of singles right? So freshman rarely has single? When talking about housing, i think preference is a legit reason to apply for those residence halls that accord my interests, as other parts of the housing application suggest. So we do have the chance to sit down and scrutinize our roommates before we are officially living together?

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@Chalamagne916 Alumni is an upperclassmen hall, not a FYRE hall. Yes, the rooms are singles, but they’re connected in suites (so you have an apartment with single bedrooms for each person). The fact is that singles are rare and hard to get. The [2015-2016 Housing Rates document](https://www.nyu.edu/content/dam/nyu/resLifeHousServ/documents/ApplicationsandAssignments/2015-2016AYRates.pdf) shows the percentage of each type of arrangement in each hall. Take my dorm, for example: there’s ~120 rooms up for grabs in Goddard (some are in suites and some are not), and only 2% of the arrangements are singles. That means that there’s only two or three singles in the whole building. Statistically, your chances for getting a single because it’s your personal preference are not good. No, the Rooming Agreements happens during the first semester; before move-in, it’s up to you to talk to your room/suitemates and discuss things.

9

As a parent of kids who have dormed in Weinstein, 3rd North, Broome Street, Palladium, and Senior House, I laugh when I often hear that Weinstein is like a prison with cinder block walls.

What does that mean? The halls are no darker than any other dorm, just straight, with dorms in a row on either side. As for the cinder block, they are walls that were made from cinder block, that are now painted an off-white like every other dorm at NYU. What difference does the texture of blocks make? You can find ways of taping up posters etc to cover the wall area anyway. Cinder or sheet-rock makes little difference.

To be honest, the biggest difference in freshman housing is whether it is traditional dorm style or a suite that has a kitchen/ common area. I personally think dorms with a common area become more social because there is a place to gather.

As for the poster who wants a single, you are paying a premium for that. Especially as an upperclassman in Alumni Hall–you would be paying over $21K a year! That brings the cost very close to renting a year long studio apartment in a doorman building (in a good area on the city.)

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@uskoolfish That’s wonderful that your kids have had good experiences in Weinstein. I’m just repeating what I’ve heard from multiple people and what I’ve seen. The halls in Weinstein and 3N are significantly darker than halls in, say, Hayden or Brittany.

I agree that a common area makes a difference, but I’d argue that since there’s no way to specifically choose whether you are placed in a double, a triple, or a suite, the biggest factor in choosing your housing is distance. With a common area in a suite comes suitemates, which could either make your life worse or better depending on the people you live with.

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You are given the option to choose dorm style housing or apartment style housing with kitchens and common areas. There is a price difference between the two. So you can control that when you chose housing. The common area may be quite small, but there will be a kitchen table and small couch of some sort in all apartment style housing.

In terms of getting along with your roommates/ suite mates, in apartment style living, you have more options of where to hang out to avoid your roommate since you can spread out a bit. But you are paying more $ for that option.

As for distance, that depends on where your classes are held. Depending on your major, 3N or Founders and Brittany may be much closer to classes.

D is an art major and most of her classes are in the Barney building in the East Village. Her suitemates are at Tisch with many of those classes on Broadway. But even this semester she is taking a Core class through CAS which has a recitation on East 12th, off Fifth Avenue.

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Direct quote from the housing application: “Although every effort will be made to accommodate your preferences, they cannot be guaranteed.” After the housing decisions came out, the Class of 2019 Facebook group was full of people confused as to why they didn’t get their top choice and looking for ways to switch — some requested low-cost and were not given it, some requested apartment style and were placed in a traditional style dorm. You can do your best to try to get what you want, but there is absolutely no guarantee.

You do have a common room if you’re in apartment style, but if your suitemates are being loud and pissing you off all the time, you’re not going to want to sit in the common room.

Most classes will be held in buildings around WSP, honestly. I have a friend who has a class on 15th, but that’s it. You don’t register for classes until early June, after the housing application is due, so there’s no way to gauge the distance from your dorm to classes. Distance from dining halls is also something to think about.

13

Most CAS classes are held around WSP. Not Tisch. Not other specific majors that have their own buildings. So if you are majoring in Film, theatre, or art–you should definitely assume that your classes are being held away from WSP.

To check on that, you can go into Albert now and see where this term’s classes are located based on what you think you will take.

I’m sure there are exceptions and that kids get screwed in the housing process, but in most cases, you can make the decision to put as your first choices traditional or apartment style dorms… or classes near or far from WSP depending on your preference.

Also, if you chose a traditional dorm, you must purchase a more expensive meal plan. If you are in an apartment style dorm with a kitchen, your meal plan requirement is much lower.

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The Broadway building is about a two minute walk from WSP. Course locations can change from term to term, so there’s no guarantee that the class of 2020’s classes will be in the same place as mine or my roommate’s.

A lot of kids ended up getting screwed in the housing because, like I said, there’s no guarantee. Some students are even delayed housing because there’s not enough room until some students drop over the summer.

The meal plan point is very valid, especially since everyone ends up with way too many meals left over at the end of each semester.

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what do you mean by housing application that opens in march? is that different from applying to housing, which i did a while ago? also, does anyone know when orientation/open house day is? and is that all separate from move in day and first day of school?

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@nbhdheh The housing application is what you fill out to apply for housing for your freshman year, available at housing.nyu.edu/apply. If you already filled it out, you shouldn’t have, but you might be able to update it when it opens in March. NYU hosts admitted students open houses in April, with the big one being Weekend on the Square; that information will be released on April 1st. Orientation is a part of Welcome Week, which is why move-in is a week before classes start. Your specific school will tell you what you need to attend for orientation.

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@seeniebeenie I already filled out the housing application (was admitted EDI). I was under the (false) impression that you applied for housing when you made your payment and thought there was a glitch for me, so I did some sleuthing and found the housing application.

Since I wasn’t supposed to do this so early, will they not see it or delete it? Or will they just see it in March with everyone else’s? I don’t really have any edits to make to it.

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@Crystalline17 I’m not exactly sure what they will do. Once it opens in March, you’ll be able to see if your application has already been submitted. I’m impressed that you seem to already know where you want to live! Did you apply for any special interest housing?

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@seeniebeenie Haha, I researched a ton. No, I considered special interest housing, but then just decided to put Hayden for first place.

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Here’s some more information on your options, courtesy of NYU Local:

[ul]
[li][Brittany 2016 guide](NYU Dorm Guide 2016: Brittany | by NYU Local | NYU Local)[/li][li][Palladium 2016 guide](NYU Dorm Guide 2016: Palladium | by NYU Local | NYU Local)[/li][li][Rubin 2016 guide](NYU Dorm Guide 2016: Rubin | by NYU Local | NYU Local)[/li][li][Third North 2016 guide](NYU Local Dorm Guide 2016: Third North | by NYU Local | NYU Local)[/li][li][UHall 2016 guide](NYU Local Dorm Guide 2016: University Hall | by NYU Local | NYU Local)[/li][li][Weinstein 2016 guide](NYU Dorm Guide 2016: Weinstein | by NYU Local | NYU Local)[/li][/ul]
NYU Local hasn’t posted guides for Founders, Goddard, or Hayden yet, so here’s the last guides posted for each hall:

[ul]
[li][Founders 2012 guide](Guide To NYU Dorms 2011: Founders Hall | by NYU Local | NYU Local)[/li][li][Goddard 2012 guide](Guide To NYU Dorms 2012: Goddard Hall | by NYU Local | NYU Local)[/li][li][Hayden 2012 guide](Guide To NYU Dorms 2011: Hayden Hall | by NYU Local | NYU Local)[/li][/ul]