Hampshire College - Campus Housing

B+

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Quick Stats

On-Campus Housing Available?		Yes
Campus Housing Capacity		1,188
Average Housing Costs		$6,886
Freshmen Required to Live on Campus?		Yes
Undergrads Living On Campus		90%
Number of Dormitories		2
Number of Campus-Owned Apartments		3
Best Dorms		Enfield
Worst Dorms		Merrill

Student Author OverviewWhat's This?

Hampshire is a residential college, and housing is guaranteed to all students for all four years. Most of the rooms are singles, meaning no roommates, a rare luxury on college campuses. The rooms, on-campus modular apartments (“mods”), and common spaces, like lounges and living rooms, are reasonably furnished. One thing to note is that all residential bathrooms are mixed-gender. Each hall or apartment complex has an intern, Hampshire’s equivalent of RAs. Technically, students are supposed to register guests, but it’s common for them to ignore this rule and in some cases to have long-term squatters or live-in partners.

Most students can capably find a decent living space on campus, but the housing lottery can be a high-stress event. Students’ preferences for housing vary by social scene, and the most in-demand housing area changes from year to year. Enfield looks like the suburbs, the Greenwich donuts are out in the woods, and Prescott has an urban vibe (“Slums,” some residents complain). The Dakin dorms are recently renovated, and all halls are linked together by bathrooms. The Merrill dorm building has rooms that are slightly bigger. For those with specific needs, there is theme housing as well.

Hampshire Student ReviewsWhat's This?

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Campus Housing at Hampshire College

AmyH

'13

Alternative Medical Systems and Holistic Health

C

Mods Are Great!

Living in the dorms is nothing special, especially compared to Mount Holyoke or Smith residencies. Living in the mods is a great opportunity to be independent and live on your own, while still being on campus and involved and close to the community.

Dec 27, 2011

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Campus Housing at Hampshire College

mollyfl

'00

Psychology

A

Guaranteed Single

Who else can say that? Yeah, they have cinderblock walls, but you don't have to share them with anyone if you don't want to. That is pretty sweet!

Dec 16, 2011

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Campus Housing at Hampshire College

hampshirecstudent

'12

Education

B+

Mods!

The dorms at Hampshire are all relatively nice. The dorm buildings, Merrill and Dakin, have a bit of a grungey feel. Almost all the rooms are singles, which is nice. Older students usually prefer to live in the mods, which are basically apartments. Enfield, which resembles suburbia, is the most desirable living space. Greenwich (rural) is made up of a series of round buildings (donuts) and had pie-shaped rooms. Prescott (urban) has lofted bedrooms. All the laundry facilities at Hampshire are completely free.

Aug 17, 2010

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Student Survey Poll ResultsWhat's This?

Rate campus housing on the following subjects

Facts

Room Types		Doubles Singles Suite-style rooms with three double bedrooms (Prescott)
What You Get		Bed Bookshelf Chair Closet Common spaces with couches, refrigerators, cable TV Desk and chair Dresser Ethernet connection Full kitchen with oven, stove, and refrigerator (apartments) heater Living rooms usually with couches and maybe a TV set (apartments) Mirror Window coverings
Also Available		Hampshire offers themed housing, both identity-based and structurally unique mods. Housing in these mods is based on an application process rather than the campus-wide lottery, and themes include women of color, students of color, men of color, queer students, kosher mod, international students mod, allergen-reduced space mod, substance-free mod, and the greenhouse mod.

Available for Rent

The College does not directly rent out appliances, but there is a campus-wide minifridge rental service.

Cleaning Service

The College custodial staff clean the bathrooms, hallways, and common spaces in the dorm buildings regularly.

Did You Know?

Every spring there is a housing lottery. Each student is assigned a certain number of points based on their time at Hampshire (semesters), their age, and their status (transfer students). Students organize into housing groups based on the people they’d like to live with, and they go to the lottery where each modular on-campus apartment is essentially raffled off to the group with the largest amount of points. Students often regroup if they are unsuccessful in the first round (there are two rounds), and tempers flare and feelings get hurt. Students who don’t get the mod they wanted get housing in the dorms or get placed on mod waiting lists. This process has been evolving in the past few years, though, and more information can be found at the housing office during the academic year. A word of advice: learn about this process well in advance of the lottery—it can be a complicated, stress-ridden process.

Students are allowed microwaves and refrigerators but no hot-plates, halogen lamps, candles, or incense.

DormitoriesWhat's This?

Dakin House
Floors: 4
Number of Occupants: 283
Bathrooms: One per hall
Coed: Yes
Residents: Mostly freshmen
Room Types: Singles, doubles, triples
Special Features: Bathrooms connect all the halls, so you can visit every dorm room in the building without going outside (ideal in the winter!).

Merrill House
Floors: 4–5 (depending on hall)
Number of Occupants: 247
Bathrooms: Two per hall
Coed: Yes
Residents: Mostly freshmen
Room Types: Singles, doubles, triples
Special Features: There are stovetops in the lounges (unlike Dakin, which does not have them).

Campus-Owned ApartmentsWhat's This?

Enfield House
Floors: 2–3 per mod
Number of Units: 283
Bathrooms: 1–2 per mod
Coed: Yes
Residents: Sophomores, upperclassmen
Room Types: Singles, doubles
Special Features: Some Enfield mods are renovated.

Greenwich House
Floors: 2 per mod
Number of Units: 208
Bathrooms: 1 per mod
Coed: Yes
Residents: Sophomores, upperclassmen
Room Types: Singles, doubles
Special Features: All Greenwich mods are circular, with common spaces in the middle. The rooms are slightly bigger than elsewhere, but none of the rooms are rectangular (they're weird angles).

Prescott House
Floors: 3–4 per mod
Number of Units: 231
Bathrooms: 1–2 per mod
Coed: Yes
Residents: Sophomores, upperclassmen
Room Types: Singles, six-person doubles suites
Special Features: The larger Prescott mods have loft rooms. Prescott is the only mod with mostly single rooms; all others require students to find modmates to fill double rooms. Rooms are mostly singles and doubles, though Prescott House offers suite-style rooms with three double bedrooms each. The College apartments are set up in “mods,” which are two- or three-story buildings that each house about four to ten residents.

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Most Recent Student Author

College Prowler guides are in the hands of students throughout the entire process. Because you can't make student-written guides without the students, we have students at each campus who write, edit, and survey their peers for every guide that we publish. Thanks to our most recent student author at Hampshire

Name: Tal Schechter

Hometown: Stamford, CT

Major: Health, Science, and Technology

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