301 Residence Hall | The New School — Local services in New York

My daughter was accepted into The New School and started in the Fall of 2021. We chose the 301 Residence Hall which was brand new, because it advertised a cafeteria in the building, and the other cafeterias for the school were many blocks away (8 to 10 blocks) and other dorms had no cafeterias. The 301 Residence Hall cafeteria was advertised as "an array of exciting new dining concepts. Combining traditional services such as hot bar breakfasts with late afternoon offerings to satisfy cravings, 301 provides an innovative dining experience that redefines food on the go." The cafeteria only provided prepackaged sandwiches, smoothies, packaged sushi (which was suspected of being leftovers from their full service cafeteria at Kerrey Hall) at very limited hours closing at 4pm. There was a refrigerator to pull out these food and drink items. There was no active kitchen preparing meals that she could see, no dining area at all. No dinners, no hot normal breakfasts. Many students got sick to their stomachs after eating the packaged food and so the general thought was that the food was not fresh or sanitary. Thank goodness I only paid for the 1 meal a day plan. Their description was very deceiving. The kitchenette in the dorm suite was very basic and exists in the hallway between the doorways to each individual room. Kitchenette included a small glass-top electric cook area, a microwave and a refrigerator (plus a sink and cupboards). No toasters or other plug in kitchen electronic appliances were allowed. No space in kitchen for eating - only could eat on study desks in room or by sitting on the floor. So, she was always trying to buy in enough food and type of food to be cooked or heated in the microwave or stovetop. When she had classes at Kerrey Hall, she could wait in the huge long line for the regular cafeteria there, however it was a challenge. And after returning to her dorm, it was just too far to travel back to Kerrey Hall for dinner, especially when bad weather arrives. It became obvious that the high price for dorm food was a money maker at the school as they made it hard to have access to normal dorm food but for the Kerrey Hall cafeteria. She finished the semester with hundreds of dining dollars not used. The off campus dining dollars were not accepted at many of the "advertised" restaurants and grocery stores in the area. She has now transferred back to her home state as the education at the New School (besides the lousy dorm situation) was too untraditional even with her liberal views of education. Professors do not provide any consistent grading and grading is not even given out until weeks later if at all. No way to know how one is doing in a class, or any advice/learning on how to write better or have improved academic performance. Attendance in classes is mandatory and many teachers will severely grade down students for only missing a class or two - my daughter had to provide a doctor's note to the prof even while coughing and wheezing right in front of the prof - as if that wasn't proof enough. Reminds one too much of high school in that regard.

Must comment though - living in New York was the highlight of her time there. Just the school itself was not what it advertised. The dormitory building was very nice, modern, and had beautiful views from the floor lounge and from dorm windows. The suite rooms were spacious except for the kitchenette area that was sandwiched in the hallway between the doorway entries to the bathroom...

I’ve had an okay experience at 301, but not great. The elevators are always going in and out of service, so expect to be late to whatever plans, or classes that you may have… Or, at least plan to leave 2 hours ahead so you can wait for the elevators to MAYBE arrive to your floor… My advice, don’t live high up. The staff is pretty nice, but students tend to be not so nice… Expect the unexpected, always… The walls are also paper thin, so expect zero privacy. Same thing with the room layouts. It should be much cheaper to live in...

Nice apartment for freshman’s!

Rooms are relatively spacious and superb facilities like, common pantry on each suites, common laundry area, common seating area for each floor and lot of other things!

Rooms are recently renovated and very well layout. All the rooms are having enough (proper) natural...