Housing approacheth. And, unless you’re on top of it, it’s probably coming up sooner than you think. Bwog’s got you covered; we’ll be rolling out two housing reviews per day until no residence hall is left un-reviewed. Prepare to get (even more) excited: this year, we’re reviewing Barnard residence halls, too. Reviews for all! Today’s residence hall is… Schapiro!

Location: 605-615 W. 115th Street.

  • Nearby dorms: Furnald, Woodbridge
  • Stores and restaurants: The best Halal cart (whaddup Hooda’s), the UPS Store, Lerner, Morton Williams, M2M, Vine, Uni Café, Starbucks, Ollie’s

Cost: $7,324

Amenities:

  • Bathrooms: Decent floor bathrooms, two male and two female per floor, that (somewhat unbelievably) were renovated last year
  • AC/Heating: Air conditioning and heat.
  • Kitchen: Two reliable stoves and two less reliable microwaves per floor.
  • Lounge: Each floor has a new-ish lounge fully equipped with a table and chairs, a flatscreen TV, and a clear view directly into Hillel.
  • Laundry: Huge industrial laundry room in the basement.
  • Computers/Printers: Computer lab on the first floor with one printer.
  • Gym: Treadmills and elliptical machines on first floor.
  • Intra-transportation: Three insanely fast elevators.
  • Hardwood/Carpet: Hardwood, baby.
  • Wi-Fi: Yes.
  • Bonus: Practice rooms with pianos in the basement and a newly renovated first floor lobby.

Room variety:

  • Singles: Tons and tons of singles that are around 107 sq. ft. The 22 and 20 line of singles are about 120 sq. ft. Almost entirely singles on the 10th through 16th floors.
  • Doubles: The 2nd through 9th floors have doubles available on either wing. They are pretty cramped at around 175 sq. ft. The 30/28 line of doubles run about 200 sq. ft.
  • The 05/07 line has walk-through doubles on every floor, but they’re awkwardly shaped, and cumulatively about 210 sq. ft. Also, RIGHT behind the elevator shaft.

776px-Schapiro_6001Numbers:

  • Doubles are available even to unlucky sophomores. Same for the walkthroughs ~10/2800
  • The cut-off for singles will likely land somewhere in the last bunch of rising Juniors. ~20/1900

Bwog recommendation:

  • If you need to preserve personal space with a single, Schapiro is a great option for rising Juniors, comparable to Broadway. But don’t come here expecting the open-door friendliness of John Jay single living. Schapiro residents tend to be much more distant.
  • For rising sophomores, Schapiro is a decent alternative to McBain or Wien in the search for doubles, but you can find much bigger rooms and a more sophomore-friendly social atmosphere in McBain.

Resident opinions:

  • “I wouldn’t recommend it if you want to make new friends, but it’s pretty nice if you have a group of people you know living here. Or if you want to party in someplace separate from the place that you sleep.”
  • “The fitness room is literally the greatest thing in the entire universe. It’s about a million times nicer than Dodge because a) it’s in your basement, b) it has a flatscreen, and c) it doesn’t constantly smell like sweaty bros.”
  • “There are no holes in the walls, so we’re definitely beating McBain in terms of facilities. And I haven’t seen a mouse yet so yeah, I would say Schapiro is pretty great.”
  • “I like it. I love the fitness room and the skylounge. It’s close to campus and a lot of my friends ended up living here, but I wish it was closer to Milano’s.”
  • “I really like how quiet it is on the weekends. Like that would be a turnoff for a lot of people, but it’s so nice to come home and relax. It’s a sanctuary.”

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