My son is a current freshman and is trying to decide on next year’s housing. Does anyone know how likely it is to get into your top choices. How about getting a single?
the best way to maximize your chances is to set up an “affinity housing group,” which is intended to enable students with common interests to live together in close proximity. these interests can as varied and diverse as “chinese cooking” to “dolph lundgren films” to “watching baseball.” affinity groups receive first priority in selecting housing, so they are the best way for sophomores to increase their odds of receiving their first choice. in practice, these affinity groups can act a lot like shell corporations. the housing office in no way whatsoever actually verifies whether you have a genuine interest in your claimed affinity group. it is really quite easy to join a chinese cooking affinity group, for example, and have no interest or knowledge of chinese cooking whatsoever. the university administration will never test or quiz you on chinese cooking. so i would recommend that your son and his friends arrange for an affinity group (whether it’s a shell or based on a genuine interest doesn’t matter really) if the deadline has not already passed (the affinity housing deadline is before the standard housing deadline).
the only sophomore dorm that has singles in foggy bottom i believe is mitchell, which is relatively awful, so i would not recommend it unless you really, really want a single. it does have the advantage of having a 7-11 store
According to https://living.gwu.edu/sites/living.gwu.edu/files/downloads/Second%20Year%20Rate%20Chart%2015-16_1.pdf the only sophomore dorms with singles are Merriweather (females only), Lafayette (6 beds), Mitchell (94 beds), West Hall (60 beds), JBKO (2 beds), FSK (12 beds), and Guthridge (27 beds). So, 200 or so beds out of 2,400 students isn’t the best of odds. Not to mention that half are in Mitchell (many will recommend against this dorm) and nearly the other half are in West Hall on the Vern (most sophomores want to be on Foggy Bottom). I’d recommend telling your son that odds aren’t great for him to end up in a single unless he wants to sacrifice quite a bit.
What is wrong with Mitchell?
Even though the rooms are singles, they’re quite small and dated. Plus, you have community bathrooms that you share with the rest of the floor. Also, you’re at the far end of campus (right next to Thurston), so you’ll have more of a walk to get to a lot of classes and food at the Marvin Center.
mitchell is the only GW dorm that i know of that requires you to share a communal bathroom with others on your floor. all other GW dorms have either in room or en-suite bathrooms. the rooms themselves aren’t particularly nice either. it’s a bit older and it hasn’t been renovated recently (like munson).