Our freshpeople housing reviews have begun, and we’re starting with Carman! Infamously wild social, Carman is a great place to live if you want to make friends and don’t mind cinder block walls and the occasional vomit stains on the carpet. Read on for specifics, and check back for more housing reviews later on in the week!

Location: 545 W. 114th Street

• Nearby dorms: Hogan, Broadway, Furnald, LLC, John Jay, McBain, Nussbaum, and pretty much everywhere else…
• Nearby food: All of Broadway at your disposal, including but not limited to Starbucks, International Wine and Spirits, Milano’s, Deluxe, Nussbaum & Wu, Amir’s, etc., and Amsterdam isn’t far either.

Cost: $7,418/year–standard freshman housing rate.

Amenities:

• Bathrooms: 1 bathroom per suite (2 doubles per suite) meaning a 4:1 freshie to bathroom ratio
• AC/Heating: Central AC and heating
• Kitchen/Lounge: Every floor has a subpar lounge usually equipped with a couch, two chairs, a table, and a TV with basic cable. The building lounge in the basement is quite nice and spacious with lots of couches, tables, and a large whiteboard. The only kitchen in the building is also in the basement, making cooking impossible for your averagely motivated freshman.
• Laundry: Large laundry room in the basement with 15 washers and 15 dryers when operating at full capacity.
• Gym: Small gym in the basement equipped with 2 elliptical machines and 2 treadmills…but that’s it.
• Computers/Printers: Computer lab on first floor equipped with 2 printers and plenty of computers to go around.
• Intra-transportation: Two main elevators of above average speed and a service elevator towards the west end of the building that is a little slower but almost always available.
• Hardwood/Carpet: The hallways are adorned with your standard (vomit-stained) carpet, and rooms have linoleum floors that can get gross but are easy to clean.
• Wi-Fi: Yes.
• Special Stuff: The bathroom ratio is often cited as this building’s biggest perk.

Room Variety:

• Doubles: 5 doubles on the very small mezzanine floor, 12 doubles on the small 2nd floor, 19 doubles on the truncated 3rd through 5th floors, and 27 doubles on the 6th through 13th floors

Bwog recommendation:

• Campus-facing rooms (north-facing) tend to have the preferred view of Low Library and College Walk, although some south facing rooms can offer excellent views of the city. Some lower floors even have an excellent view of the back of Lerner Hall. #shafted
• Corner rooms and suites feel the biggest on each floor even if the floor plans say otherwise. There’s even one double on the east end of each floor that doesn’t share a bathroom (room numbers ending in 02). However, you don’t get to choose your specific room as a freshman, so it’s really up to luck.
• Carman is undeniably the most social freshman dorm, which can probably be attributed to the semi-suite-style living. All the doubles make for an open environment for those that want to meet a lot of new friends. Many floors get really close.
• Regardless of the room you end up in, everyone is in a pretty comparable situation and rarely do you find someone with a much bigger or smaller room.

Resident opinions:

• “Live in Carman if you want to be distracted from your academics (which isn’t always a bad thing–there are libraries for doing work!!). But really, some of my best friends live on my floor.”
• “The bathroom ratio is great.”
• “Some people choose to move all four beds in the suite into one room and then have the other room to hang out in/party/whatever.”
• “I live on 12, and I have a beautiful view of midtown.”
• “I’ve had a party in my room almost every weekend, and I have never been busted by an RA.”
• “One of the guys on our floor punched out a bunch of the ceiling tiles, which is pretty shitty. Because Carman is already kind of a dump, there are some people who don’t really respect the living space.”
• “I’m living in a less social dorm next year, but I’m really happy that I chose Carman for my first year.”
• “Carman [specific floor number] forever!!!!!!”