Are they clean and comfortable. I saw a video from 2009 and the room was falling apart- holes in the wall, windows that don’t close all the way, eerie looking hallways, etc. This was Hunter’s dorms. I heard they bought a new building. Are the dorms nice? I’m planning to go for nursing @ Hunter. Are the bathrooms communal or do we get our own? Please help. Thanks.
As of right now Hunter has three dorms…97th street, 92nd street, and Brookdale on their health campus which is a few blocks from Baruch College on the East side. Hunter has a few floors each in the 97th and 92nd street buildings. Think hotel. REALLY nice places. 92nd street is very international and kid friendly, 97th street is all college students, but most of them come from one of the fashion schools in the city. You can arrange tours at each of the three dorms individually. As for Brookdale, it is an older building, so it doesn’t look as nice. No AC, only fans, and yes the hallways have pipes along the ceilings, so it does have a bit of an eerie basement feel. There are communal bathrooms at Brookdale (one per hallway I believe) BUT you get your own room, which is pretty amazing and an excellent opportunity for an honors student to study quietly (the library at Brookdale is eh). That being said, housing is much cheaper at Brookdale, so unless you are an honors student it’s next to impossible to get in to. There are rumors afloat about Hunter acquiring new dorms, but from the tours I’ve done there even the students living at Brookdale don’t know what’s going on. Note that the Macaulay scholarship only guarantees housing for two years at Hunter. That will either shrink to one year, stay at two, or expand depending upon their future decisions. To answer your question on cleanliness, when I was on my Brookdale tour we, of course, went down to the laundry room (basement level). One of the parents on the tour got a funny look on her face, and about three seconds later the girl next to me screamed because there was a HUGE water bug on her backpack strap (water bugs=cockroaches on steroids. Try Google images). One brave parent swatted the bug, and promptly proclaimed, “Welcome to New York”. Dead accurate. The tour guide explained this as the fact that the garbage area is just down the hallway from the laundry room, which is warm and an obvious attraction for pests, but she swore she’d never had one in her room. But, know that no matter how nice the building looks, from Central Park West to a tiny walk up, THERE WILL BE PESTS. Even in a brand new building, they will be there. I know, I know, exterminators can come, but have fun when the exterminator comes to your neighbor and the little critters are looking for a new, not-recently-toxic home. This is New York City. Take it or leave it.
Also, it is a commute to Hunter from any of their dorms. The subway station is about a fifteen minute walk from Brookdale in nice weather, but the bus station is practically at their door. A definite plus, especially in the dead of winter or after dark.