Housing Reviews 2020: Plimpton

If you’re looking for air conditioning, a 24 hour grocery and deli, and coffee at your finger tips, look no further. Plimpton could be your future home!

Location: 1235 Amsterdam (121st and Amsterdam)

Nearby Dorms: 537 W 121st, Wien, and EC

Stores And Restaurants: Appletree, Hartley Chemists, Subsconscious, Dunkin’ Donuts, Columbia Deli, Flat Top, Friedman’s

Cost: $5,413 per semester

Amenities:

Bathrooms: There is one private bathroom for a suite of six people: private non-stall showers for the win!
AC/Heating: There is air conditioning until about October when it gets colder outside and then the building switches to heat. The air conditioning and heat levels can be adjusted within your own room, but Plimpton tends to get stuffy during the winter.
Kitchen: There is one kitchen per suite which includes a refrigerator, an oven with a gas stovetop (four burners), and a decent amount of cabinet and counter space. The kitchen is a great asset but can feel crowded with more than two people in it.
Lounges: There is a wooden table with four chairs in each suite and a study lounge, a piano lounge, and a computer lab in the lobby.
Laundry: The Plimpton laundry room, consisting of six washers and six dryers, is located in the basement. If you time your washing correctly, you can avoid the wild, wild west that is the Plimpton laundry room on Sundays.
Gym: No gym in the building so you’ll have to tac on a moderate walk to Dodge or the Barnard Hall gym to your workout plan.
Intra-transportation: Two relatively small but quick elevators that make an eery ring when they arrive.
Hardwood/Carpet: There is hardwood flooring in the bedrooms.
Wifi: You can use Barnard Secure or Barnard Guest; the latter tends to be more reliable.

Room Variety:

There are four suites with four singles and a double on fourteen of the fifteen floors. The single at the end of the hall is slightly bigger.
The doubles are in the corner so they have two windows.
All of the bathrooms and flooring in the bedrooms were renovated in Summer 2017. The only differences in renovations are that there is a countertop, rather than a wall, separating the kitchen and the common area on floors 7 and 8.

Numbers:

Plimpton houses about 336 people at one time, with mostly Barnard sophomores and juniors with some CC/SEAS students in the mix.

Bwog recommendations:

Plimpton is great if you’re looking for a separation between home-and-school life. On that same token though, it’s not the best if you’re accustomed to rolling out of bed in the Quad and sauntering to class in Barnard Hall. You need to give yourself some time to get to class.
Plimpton is also pretty far from all the dining halls, so if you’re a dining hall fiend, you might want to consider other options. But if you like to cook, Plimpton would be a great fit.
Plimpton has a ton of singles so it’s a good bet if you’re a sophomore looking for a single.
If having A/C is a priority for you, Plimpton would fit that criteria.

Resident Opinions:

“I love living farther away from campus; it helps facilitate that separation between home and school life that I struggled with last semester. Plimpton feels like home, rather than just an extension of the classroom. Having a semi-private bathroom makes me feel more at home as well.”
“Appletree sandwiches and pre-made food keep me going.”
“Nice room size for a single and you get ac!”
“Plimpton can sometimes feel isolating since it is on Amsterdam. Make sure you bring all of your books and supplies with you in the morning since you won’t have the convenience of the Quad anymore to quickly go and get something you need.”
“Kitchen is smaller than other suites like the 600s, so don’t have grand schemes of having multiple cook different dinners at the same time, but for one person it has an okay amount of counterspace if you keep it clean”
“Lights in the room are sometimes a little funky, so i would recommend getting a few strings of tree lights to spread around your room to use instead of the gross one”

Gallery: