Housing Reviews 2020: Schapiro

Are you a sophomore, junior, or senior who’s looking to live off-campus but still within easy distance for a quick Ferris run? Do you want more than just one elevator in your building? Look no further than Schapiro!

Location: 605 West 115th Street

Nearby dorms: Furnald, Woodbridge, River
Stores and Restaurants: Ferris, Morton Williams, Shake Shack, Sweetgreen, Starbucks, Greek food cart

Cost: Currently $9,872/year

Amenities:

Bathrooms: Floors 2-9 have four bathrooms each (two for females, one for males, and one gender-neutral/single-use/disability bathroom). Floors 10-16 have two bathrooms, one of which is either male or female and the other of which is a single-use/disability one.
AC/Heating: You’ve struck gold because this dorm has both!
Kitchen: Every floor shares a kitchen.
Lounge: Every floor has a lounge with furniture and a cable TV. There’s also a building lounge on the first floor as well as the Stephen Donaldson Lounge, which is a dedicated space for LGBTQ students. Finally, there’s a study-sky lounge on the top floor.
Laundry: Laundry is located in the basement.
Computers/Printing: There’s a computer lab on the first floor with two PawPrint printers.
Fire Escapes: None.
Gym: Nope. Sorry to you gym rats.
Bike Storage: There’s also none of that.
Intra-transportation: Three fast and spacious elevators.
Hardwood/carpet: Hardwood.
Bonus: Floor 1 has a dance room, and there are music practice rooms in the basement. The 1 train is also conveniently nearby.

Room Variety:

245 singles that range from 100 to 120 square feet
55 regular doubles that range from 170 to 200 square feet
30 walk-through doubles (two per floor). On floors 2-9, there’s one ~79/115 square foot double and one ~100/114 square foot double. On floors 10 and above, there’s one ~85/117 square foot double and one ~98/114 square foot double.

Numbers:

For 2017-2018, the cutoffs were 10/2659 for a double, 10/2395 for a single and 10/2842 for a walk-through double
For 2018-2019, the cutoffs were 10/2953 for a double, 11.667/349 for a single and 10/2505 for a walk-through double.
Basically, if you’re a sophomore you’ll probably get in even if you have a pretty low number.

Bwog Recommendation:

Schapiro’s corridor style and lack of any outstanding features (apart from the Stephen Donaldson Lounge and the practice rooms), can make the dorm seem pretty standard at first glance. But, Schapiro’s one block away from campus which means you can leave for class about 15 minutes before and still be on time. The amount of bathrooms also helps to mitigate the awkwardness that comes with sharing bathrooms with your entire floor. If you’re looking for something quiet and still sorta-near campus, then Schapiro is your best bet (and you’ll likely get a single thanks to the ratio mentioned above).

Resident Opinions:

“Pretty good dorm! Gross bathrooms and all the people I lived with, aside from my roommate, were incredibly weird. Kitchens can get super busy and everyone will use your shit without permission or shame and not wash it. Good choice for sophomore doubles though! Pretty big and decent resident to bathroom ratio.”
“I really loved the Schapiro sky lounge, especially the view of the sunset!! And I also appreciated how it was relatively clean- compared to other dorms on campus!!”
“I really liked the windows, the access to music rooms, and the accessibility of the lounges (including the sky lounge). However, the shared showers were not always clean (did depend heavily on your floor, some of them were well-kept) and the kitchen’s cleanliness depended heavily on how strict your RA was. Would recommend keeping your kitchen things if you have them in your own room.”