Can someone give me a better idea of what all the residence halls are like at GW?
Specifically:
-Clark
-Cole
-Hensley
-Merriweather
-Somers
Also, are the bedrooms different sizes if there is an adjoined versus common bath?
Ex: Is a room with a common bath bigger than one with an adjoined bath or vise versa.
First, those are all on the Mount Vernon campus (if you didn’t know already). Clark, Cole, Hensley and Merriweather are all basically the same in size, age, layout, and location on the campus. The biggest difference is that Merriweather is an all-female dorm. These are some of the older buildings on campus, hence the cheaper price tag. I lived in Merriweather when it was still co-ed, and even though it was “old” the function was still fine. All these dorms will have one kitchenette to share among everyone (usually in the basement) and one laundry facility per floor. These are probably the smallest dorms at GW, so you’ll probably know everyone in your building.
Somers is the 2nd newest dorm on the 'Vern, right behind West Hall. The location is nice because the Vern Express (your ride to the Foggy Bottom campus) stops right in front, you’re right next to the Eckles library, and you’re closer to the food! Now, even though Somers is more “centralized” on campus, the campus itself isn’t that big so you’re never more than a few minutes away from anything else.
Almost all of the rooms in these halls will be doubles sharing a bathroom with another double (so 2 people to a room, 4 sharing a bathroom). Each person will have a bed with built-in drawers, a desk, a nightstand, and either a closet or armoire. There’s no “common bath” in any of these dorms, so unless you land a double (highly unlikely) you’ll be sharing a bathroom with three others. And as far as size, I don’t think there’s a noticeable difference between any of them.
@NHuffer you seem very knowledgeable so if you don’t mind can you answer my question 
: my Daughter saw a fb page that was in the news a while back called gwu hosting horrors. Is it still that bad?
@SabyQueen Well, I’ve seen the things posted on that FB page as well as other pages/blogs like it, and I think the issues are rather isolated overall. I think most of the issues that arise are due to the old buildings. Not all on campus are old, but of the ones that are it’s only reasonable to expect certain things to happen. Also, realize that there are probably 5,000 students living in on-campus housing, so hearing about several reports per semester is rather isolated. GW also spends quite a bit of money renovating dorms each year (to alleviate some of these issues caused by old age). Older dorms might get a total reno while other get new carpet, appliances, and maybe furniture.
Now, with all of that said, some of the issues I’ve seen would be quite annoying. Water leaks that flood whole floors (this was a recent one I saw on FB), gas leaks that cause building evacuations for a week, broken appliances that take weeks to get fixed, etc. No one would like any of those things happening to them, and when they DO happen, thanks to social media, it gets publicized.
In the end, if a perspective student or parent were to ask me whether or not these issues should be cause for concern or a reason to look at a school OTHER than GW, I would say, “absolutely not.” Things happen, but it’s rare. I’d also say that a fair percentage of issues are caused by students being destructive with school property and feeling entitled to have it fixed right away.
Hope this helps