Housing Reviews 2017: Hewitt

Quad ain’t so bad! It’s that meal plan you (may) have to worry about.

More housing reviews for the Barnard babes! This time it’s Hewitt (the dorm, not the dining hall). Check out this thorough review and get yourself ready for the utter ruthlessness that is room selection.

Location: Barnard Quad (3009 Broadway)

Nearby dorms: Reid, Brooks, Sulz, Sulz Tower (in the same building); 600, 616, 620, Claremont, etc. (right across the street)

Stores and restaurants: Anything and everything you could ever imagine… just walk out onto Broadway. You know what’s there: MoWill, Vine, Sweetgreen, Nussbaum, Community, Bernheim, Starbucks, even food trucks!

Cost: $11,038 for singles, $9,510 for multiple occupancy rooms (tentative!)

Amenities:

Bathrooms: One female-only and one gender-inclusive bathroom per floor. You’re also on the same floor as Sulz/Reid/Brooks bathrooms, which add up, so you have plenty of bathroom options. All are cleaned daily by facilities.
AC/Heating: No AC. Yes heat.
Kitchen/Lounge: Each floor shares a lounge with Reid, Sulz, and Brooks. Lounges are spacious and include a kitchenette with a stove, oven, and microwave. Each lounge also has 2 large tables, several chairs/couches, and a TV.
Laundry: 1 washer/dryer set per floor in Brooks, 2 washers and dryers per floor in Sulz. The 8th floor of Sulz also has a lot more washers and dryers.
Gym: Barnard has one gym in the basement of Barnard Hall, a short walk away that only takes you outside briefly.
Intra-transportation: 1 elevator within Hewitt (sometimes working, sometimes broken), and 2 stairwells that are not often used. Five additional elevators throughout the quad (Brooks and Sulz).
Hardwood/Carpet: Hallways feature strangely patterned carpeting (see gallery below). Rooms have linoleum. It’s fine, not fancy, but easy to clean.
Wifi: The Wonderful (Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad, But It’s All There Is) Barnard Secure.

Room variety

2 Triples and 3 doubles on the 8th floor; 1 double on the 2nd floor. The rest are all singles. Hewitt is for those who want singles.
Singles are generally very spacious, but the most coveted ones are sometimes the corner rooms (#89 on each floor). These have fake fire places and more privacy, but honestly aren’t always the most popular.

Numbers

Mostly sophomores, a decent number of juniors, a few seniors. Groups of 2-4 people can pick into rooms on the same floor.

Bwog recommendation

If you don’t mind the required Quad Upperclass Meal Plan, Hewitt is a great choice. The singles are much bigger than the singles in Elliott, the building is in a really convenient location, and you can have privacy while still living with your friends (if that’s what you’re going for). You’ll notice that many of your hall mates don’t want to socialize with you, which makes sense when you think about it: they wanted a single at all costs, clearly. At the end of the day, so did you. If you’re missing out on that social interaction, walk down the hallway into those first-year dorms and meet people who actually want new friends.

Resident opinions

“I like being able to go to the gym in the middle of the day and in between my classes, and living here makes that possible.”
“It’s quiet, almost eerily so at times, but that’s what I signed up for. I didn’t want to throw ragers in my dorm room; I wanted to sleep in my bed whenever I pleased, and that includes daytime naps.”
“Hewitt is great especially if you have other friends living nearby, because you have your own space without being isolated. The meal plan was actually pretty helpful for me to grab quick dining hall food before and between classes. It is still the quad though, so you’ll run into a lot of the same freshman annoyances, and also freshmen tend to use Hewitt for phone calls because it’s quiet I think? Not totally sure why, but that’s a small downside.”
“To be honest, I just love that I don’t have to clean a bathroom. It’s the best, and I think that’s something most people overlook when they opt into suite style living.”