The prototypical college dorm experience, right above Milano.

Location: 562 W 113th Street

Nearby dorms: Watt, Nuss, frat row, Broadway, and Carman

Nearby stores & restaurants: Junzi, Wu and Nussbaum, Milano, Tom’s, and everything else on Broadway.

Cost: All upperclass housing is $4,738/semester.

Amenities:

• Bathrooms: Each floor has a large public bathroom that may or may not be disgusting; supposedly they are cleaned every weekday. There are also seven spacious private bathrooms on each floor.
• AC/Heating: Every room has a radiator. Shaft rooms also have A/C, as a preemptive apology for the Vitamin D deficiency.
• Kitchen: Each floor’s lounge has a kitchen with a stove, oven, and microwave. Again, supposedly cleaned five times a week.
• Lounge: Each floor has a large lounge that is a pretty good space to hang out.
• Laundry: There are 12 washers and dryers on the first floor, and they reportedly work pretty well.
• Computers/Printing: First floor has a small computer lounge and printing.
• Fire Escapes: Nah.
• Gym: There is a meager workout room on the fourth floor.
• Bike storage: What?
• Transportation: Two elevators that are only marginally faster than climbing the scaffolding and going in your window.
• Flooring: hardwood in the rooms, carpet in the hallways.

Room variety:

• 175 Doubles ranging from 182 to 268 square feet. Everything 230 and larger is on the bottom 3 floors, and they tend to go fast.
• 41 Singles ranging from 117 to 178 square feet. The big rooms are rare and almost always given to RAs, so don’t expect anything larger than 130 square feet.
• Rooms on the air shaft get very little natural light, especially on the lower floors, and are uncomfortably close to their window neighbors on the opposite side. They do have A/C though, so that’s nice.

Numbers:

• Doubles: The cutoff was 10/2941 in 2019 and 10/2998 in 2018. If you want a double here, you’ll get it.
• Singles: The cutoff was 10/1385 in 2018.

Bwog recommendations:

McBain is a dorm. If you think of the prototypical college dorm, that’s pretty much McBain. The shared spaces range in condition from nearly biohazardous to actually pretty decent, the rooms are a decent size, and people are in such abundance that you can have a social life without really trying that much. The elevators are only half-a-tier below dumbwaiters in terms of efficiency and speed. The main concern is the shaft, where the rooms will deny you sunlight and privacy. 

Resident opinions:

“They have a cool lobby.”

“It’s chill, just buy plenty of Febreeze and use the bathroom elsewhere when you can.”

“If you live here, please don’t puke in the showers.”