Housing Reviews 2019: Watt

Juniors and seniors who want their own space, this one’s for you: Watt offers beautiful apartment-style studio singles, studio doubles, and one- or two-bedroom apartments. And all in a prime location!

Location: 549 W 113th St, aka right across the street from McBain and the brownstones.

Nearby dorms: McBain, Nuss, Symposium, frat row, Broadway and Hogan
Stores and restaurants: Everything on Broadway: Junzi, Dig Inn, Milano’s, E’s, Community, International, etc.
Cost: Standardized to $9,872/year for 2019-20.

Amenities:

Bathrooms: Nice as fuck. Each room / suite / apartment has its own private bathroom.
AC/Heat: No AC so the fall and spring get real sweaty, real fast. But the heating is nice and you can open your big windows for a breeze.
Kitchen/Lounge: In addition to a bathroom, each room has its own private kitchen: fridge, sink, stove, oven. But there are no common lounges, which might lead to a lack of greater community feeling.
Laundry: One washer and dryer on each floor.
Fire escapes: Yes! Fire escapes between rooms that plenty of residents use for smoke breaks. You can also theoretically use them to move from room to room.
Computers/Printers: PawPrint station on the first floor.
Gym: Nada. If you’re really too lazy to go to Dodge, McBain has a skimpy fitness room.
Intra-transportation: One really slow elevator. The building’s only six floors, so if you can, take the stairs. You have to use the elevator to get to the basement to take out your trash.
Hardwood/Carpet: Hardwood, baby.
Facilities: You’re responsible for your kitchen and taking out the trash, but your bathroom will get cleaned once a week.

Room Variety:

11 studio singles, which are either 171 or 185 sq. ft. Yes, even these have their own kitchen and bathroom.
35 studio doubles which generally range from 2oo to 276 sq. ft. 1O is inexplicably 317 sq. ft.
12 one-bedroom apartments. Many pairs choose to split up and turn the common space into a second bedroom, which means more privacy but less fun party space. Usually the designated lounges are around 200-268 sq. ft. and the designated bedrooms are 122-162 sq. ft.
11 two-bedroom apartments, which, in addition to their kitchen and bathroom, have both a lounge AND two bedrooms. The bedrooms are usually around 100 to 120 sq. ft. and the common spaces are in the range of 200 to 268 sq. ft.

Numbers:

Last year’s cutoff for studio singles was 30/67. Only the luckiest seniors get these puppies.
Last year’s cutoff for studio doubles 20/2981. Juniors have a good shot at these.
Last year’s cutoff for one-bedroom apartments was 26.6667/1647. These are probably a safe bet for mixed groups and seniors with mediocre numbers.
Last year’s cutoff for two-bedroom apartments was 30/1229. Seniors with decent lottery numbers.

Bwog recommendation:

There’s not much bad to say about Watt. Watt combines a convenient near-campus location with the grown-up feel of a private apartment. It’s a popular choice, so it tends to go fast. Downsides are noise from the surrounding frats and a lack of community bonding because of the dearth of common spaces. Juniors can count on a spacious studio double and lucky seniors will take up most of the studio singles and one- or two-bedroom apartments.
Resident Opinions:

“It’s really chill, the RAs are really chill, the guards are all very very friendly.”
“The laundry rooms are on your floor, which is great. They clean your bathroom every Friday.”
“No cons. I don’t have to deal with the elevator – I think people on the higher floors would complain that the elevator takes forever.”