Information on Freshman Housing. Which Dorms are best, etc?

Just wondering if any current or former students could provide some information on the Residence Halls…
Thanks

Disclaimer: I’m not a current student and has not lived in the UW dorms. I’m a parent and my son is admitted to UW. We just went to the admitted student day and listened to housing presentation and toured the dorms. Here’s my notes:

West campus dorms are all newly built, mostly doubles with a few triples and singles. Every room has private bath room and whole building has WiFi. Convenient amenities, such as dining halls, coffee shops, exercise rooms, maker rooms, game rooms. Easy to walk to Red Square and Kane Hall, where most freshman 400+ student lectures will happen, but far away from other academic buildings, and a good 15 minutes walk to Husky stadium.

North campus, existing buildings are old, but there are 3 new buildings that will finish in the summer. Old buildings have narrow hallways, mid-century feel, and community bath rooms. Good thing, though, is that the bath rooms are professionally cleaned (BTW, the West campus private bath rooms need to be cleaned by the student themselves … good luck.) Does not have WiFi. Rooms are small and dark, but some has nice view of Lake Washington and Husky stadium. Close to all the sport fields and many academic buildings. The 3 new buildings really has the benefits of both – modern bedrooms and close to sports.

UW doesn’t have special Freshmen housing, so you can live anywhere. There are also some apartments you can apply to, if you enjoy cooking.

Adding to the options, you can also join Greeks as Freshmen. You can submit your housing application and Greek application at the same time. If you are accepted by a fraternity/sorority, you can withdraw the housing deposit without penalty.

Hope that helps.

We only toured West Campus while on site for a scholarship interview. If you’re an engineering major at all interested in “making,”, apply to the engineering community to live above area 01. I was blown away at all the equipment available to students!

https://www.washington.edu/area01/labs/

The new North campus buildings will also host a maker space, presumably on par or better than Area01.

While West Campus dorms are super nice and new, I still feel that North Campus has a lot of benefits. When I lived North Campus the dorm was more social than West Campus- I knew everyone on my floor. Also, it’s considerably cheaper. As a college student, your room is really just for sleeping because you should be out studying or working for most of the day. As long as you keep the room clean and let fresh air in, the rooms seem bigger the longer you live there. Also- the communal bath is NOT that bad. It can be a little weird at first but you get over it fast. Most people have the courtesy to keep it clean and so should you.

But, there are going to be new North dorms soon- and especially for Business students (such as myself) the proximity to Paccar will be important.
West Campus does tend to be more fun as the dorms host a lot of HFS events like movie nights and some other community things. If you have the money and don’t mind cleaning your own bathroom then perhaps that’s the best choice.

Hope this helps! Dorm selection is hard and making the most out of things is really what college teaches you.