Freshman Answering Questions

bg4260
Mon, 14 Jan 2013 21:06:58 +0000

Hey!! The post below about Rubin etc. seems to be very accurate, but here’s my experience:

I lived in U-Hall this year and absolutely loved it. Sure, it’s more of a walk than any other freshman dorm (15 minutes to most classes, give or take), but after the first, like, four days I didn’t even notice anymore. It’s not bad at all.

Rooms are big and NICE - it used to be an upperclassman dorm, so it’s suite-style, with two bedrooms and a large common room, plus a little kitchen and bathroom. The bedrooms are nice-sized, and the closets are HUGE. Apparently, most dorms don’t even have real closets? I don’t know. Makes for some great hide and seek opportunities. The rooms are new-looking, clean, and spacious enough. Obviously, not huge, but the common rooms can fit up to 10 people totally comfortably (there’s a 2-person couch, an armchair, then a table with 4 chairs).

U-Hall doesn’t have a dining hall per se, but we do have the burger studio/mini mart in our basement, which is really convenient when it’s 10 at night and all you want is a milkshake. We’re also literally 10 steps from Palladium, which is a sophomore dorm with arguably the best dining hall (also a great gym, if you’re into that). It’s also less than a block from a Trader Joe’s and Food Emporium, so you shan’t want for groceries, either (work that kitchen!)

Here’s some general knowledge of other dorms, based on my experience:

Rubin is fine. Rooms are spacious, usually, and have nice high ceilings and wood floors. However, like stated, they have the worst dining hall by far, and I’ve always felt that it had sort of a weird smell/old-building vibe going on. The rooms that I’ve seen are either fairly large or fairly small - I think it depends on whether you do low-cost, double vs triple, etc.

Hayden is nice. I kind of secretly wish I live in Hayden, except then I wouldn’t have my delightful kitchen (I cook a lot). It’s a beautiful brick building, literally right smack on the square, with a good dining hall (very vegetarian and vegan friendly!) with the best cookies maybe in New York. Rooms that I’ve seen are surprisingly spacious - and the ones on the top floors have some INCREDIBLE views. I really like the windows in Hayden rooms, they’re old and big and black and trendy-looking. However, like the other poster said, it is a fairly old building, so rooms can feel sort of janky/falling-apart.

Weinstein rooms are tiny and awful. I’ve only been in one but I felt like I was dying. Some people really like it, though, and it’s right above not one but TWO dining halls!! Also has the best location in terms of proximity to classes, excepting Goddard.

Goddard is like a specialty hall for community service (look into it, I don’t really know), my friend lives there and the rooms are a little small but nice. It’s literally next door to the main CAS building, right on the square.

Third North is sort of the cool kid of freshman dorms. It’s the biggest dorm by far, you’ll inevitably notice that 70% of your friends live in Third North. Rooms are suite-style, like U-Hall, with two or three bedrooms plus a kitchen and bathroom. It used to be sort of gross, but they’ve recently renovated it, so it’s now very clean and nice. A little less spacious than U-Hall depending on the room (lots of variety). About the same walking distance from campus, perhaps a shade closer. It has an OK dining hall, plus it’s in a fantastic neighborhood for going out.

Founders is giant and part of it is an old church? I don’t know, I kind of like it. The rooms are ENORMOUS, like the size of my common room and then some, but they don’t have kitchens when they easily could. The big size is kind of awkward, honestly. My friends and I call it the “Facebook Dorm” because, yeah, it’s very sterile, everything is white and blue. Closer to campus than U-Hall by about two blocks.

Bottom line: if you want a kitchen/suite-style living, U-Hall is the place to be. If that doesn’t matter to you and you want to be closer to classes, I’d go with Hayden. Again, Rubin is the cheapest, Founders has the biggest rooms - it depends on what you want!

NYU Local did a fairly thorough article on this, if you’re interested in doing further research.
[NYU Local’s Guide To First Year Dorms For NYU’s Class Of 2016 · NYU Local](http://nyulocal.com/on-campus/2012/04/03/nyu-locals-guide-to-first-year-dorms-for-nyus-class-of-2016/)