Note: Confused and frightened by your housing options for next year? Fear not, we got you. We’ll be covering important details on every dorm that’ll help you choose, focusing this week on freshman dorms for the babies of 2015. Check out every post in our Guide To NYU Dorms here.

Location: West 4th St. and Washington Square East

Room types: Singles, doubles, and triples

Cost: Private bedroom in shared suite: $7,500; shared bedroom/studio in shared suite/studio: $6,340; low-cost studio for 2-3 students, $4,714

Click through for a pros-vs-cons breakdown.

PROS

Stream Events: As Goddard newsletters will reiterate, your admission to the dorm comes with placement in one of six “streams”: Writing New York, Artistic New York, Sustainable New York (now changed to [Social] Justice League), Poverty and Affluence, All The World’s A Stage, and Global New York. You’re assigned a requisite number of “points” to fulfill (for both stream credit and Goddard credit) throughout the year. But events are fun and usually painless. Highlights include trapezing in Chelsea, Broadway shows, and a Six Flags trip – with small co-pays. There’s often free food, and you get to hang out with your resident professors outside of class, which is always exciting.

The Price: Even though Rubin is often thought of as the cheapest housing option, Goddard is actually close in the running, with low-cost rooms coming in at $4,700 (to Rubin’s $3,500). The rooms are cozy but not small, so it’s difficult to even tell if you’re living in a lower-cost room. The amenities aren’t bad; Goddard has dorm-wide air-conditioning and a fast maintenance crew, maybe because it’s so close in proportion to everything else.

Location, Location, Location!: Goddard’s biggest draw is its location (location, location), which is kitty-corner to Bobst and above a Starbucks. You’ll find yourself spending the campus ca$h you have on Earl Grey lattes instead of laundry swipes. Once you’ve moved to Broome, the upperclassman residential college, you’ll miss those days when you could wake up ten minutes before class and still have time to change. Goddard also faces the prettiest part of the park, renovated just last year (thanks for taking that bullet, Goddard class of ‘11). In the fall and spring, the view from your windows will offer a study spot too tempting to turn down.

The Architecture: We can’t pinpoint its exact architectural type, but Goddard looks Gothic enough to be a chip off the old University Building. If you’re very, very lucky, you could score a room that faces the Welcome Center on one side and the park on the other. The bay windows let in a lot of natural light, and in these rooms cover half the wall space. Pigeons aren’t too infrequent on these windowsills; NYU’s resident hawks unfortunately are.

Your Teachers Live With You: Kind of. Five Writing the Essay professors have offices in Goddard, and this makes conference time (or chatting) convenient. Also, they’re usually the higher-ups coordinating events, so like we said above, it’s a great way to get close to your professors (also, recommendations). WTE is actually fun in Goddard (we swear!) and qualifies as several students’ favorite class.

Also, a faculty family in residence (FFIR) actually does live with you: Professor Rogan Kersh, of the Wagner School, and his wife Sara have an award-winning apartment (to which they invite students once a year for brunch) on the seventh floor.

Spring Break: Goddard offers its own alternative break to New Orleans. The trip generates a lot of interest, and around 30 kids eventually commit. Four days of volunteer work are paired with outings to almost every cultural (dry) spot in New Orleans: the Preservation Hall, a Honey Island Swamp Tour, and free-time at the French Quarter. The heavy schedule is exhausting, but worth it. You’ll discover how deep your dorm friendships go when tested with cramped van-rides (no longer to Louisana, thankfully!) and grueling yet rewarding work.

The People, Most of the Time: Keep in mind that Goddard is a self-selected population. Essays, however crappy, are required for admittance, and few of you probably want to write them during the summer. So Goddard kids end up being ambitious, proactive, and charitable: qualities that form a stimulating environment.

CONS

The People, Some of the Time: Again, keep in mind that Goddard students are self-selected. They are often very self-aware when it comes to the qualities mentioned above (ambitiousness, charity, etc.), and competitive attitudes from high school can carry over. This isn’t too much of a problem, if one at all, but keep it in mind when deciding to submit your application. Goddard is full of great, nice people – but this is life, and college, and every place is a mix.

The Size: Goddard is really small, with 200 students, and for this reason loses the FYRE Olympics every year. Size can be great (a pro) when you’re trying to meet people, but most of your classmates and a good number of friends from college will inevitably come from other freshman dorms. And Third North is an anomaly in this regard, but Goddard’s size will never match up to apartment-style freshman living.

The Events: More often than not, the events are fun. But people inevitably have to scramble for community service hours at the end of every semester, which happens to also be finals time.

All Photos by Olivia Loving