Next Stop GW: On-Campus Housing and Your New Home | Office of Student Life | Division for Student Affairs | The George Washington University (2024)

Congratulations, again, on your decision to join our George Washington University community! You are embarking on an incredible journey to spend your undergraduate college experience in Washington, DC. Today begins the planning for yournextstop: living in our nation’s capital.

As you considered GW, you may have wondered about campus housing and what life is like living in our residence halls(we call them residence halls, not dorms, here at GW). Over thenextfew months, our team here in Campus Living & Residential Education will be your guides as you learn more about your Home@GW -- where you could live, who you could live with, and what you need to bring on your journey to GW.

You may ask yourself: What’s Campus Living & Residential Education? That’s easy: we are the team that manages GW’s on-campus residential experience. We are also calledCLRE, which is just one of the many acronyms you’ll soon be learning. Our team will help make sure that your living experience supports your academic pursuits so that you can thrive while in college. We will assign you to a residence hall and room, help you find your sense of belonging in your new home, and be there for you through everything that’s to come during your undergraduate experience.

At GW we have a residency requirement stipulating that all first-, second- and third-year undergraduates are required to live on campus in a GW residence hall. However, we also know that there may be some reasons that a student may need to live off-campus.

As an incoming first-year student, you will live on campus in our residence halls unless you meetone of seven criteriato be eligible to live off campus. For example, a student who grew up in the Washington metropolitan region may choose to continue to live at home with family and commute to campus for classes, or you may be married or in the military and need to be off campus. To learn more about the criteria required to apply for an exemption to our residency requirement,explore our website. The application to request an exemption will be available on May 18 when the On-Campus Housing Registration process begins.

Next, let’s take a look at our residential campuses:

A unique experience unlike anything else you could find at GW; our Mount Vernon Campus is home to 25 percent of our first-year students. Giving the feel of an intimate, closely-connected community you might not expect from a school in Washington, DC, the Mount Vernon Campus(affectionately known as “The Vern”)provides a residential and campus environment that offers the best of all GW worlds.

Tranquil and peaceful, the Vern is home tosix residence hallswith rooms that are generally larger in size than rooms you may find on the Foggy Bottom campus. Every first-year student takes a class on Mount Vernon(our University Writing course), so even if you don’t live here, you’ll be spending plenty of time on the Vernnextyear. If you live on the Vern, you could live in:

• Clark,Cole,Hensley, orMerriweather Halls: four of GW’s smallest residence halls that, together, we call the Hillsides—because they sit on a hill, of course!
• the spacious and centrally-locatedSomers Hall, with large double rooms and a plethora of community space.
• West Hall, the largest residence hall on the Mount Vernon Campus that provides almost all residents with their own individual bedroom.

With convenient access to Foggy Bottom via a 10-15 minute shuttle ride, students looking for an environment that supports the big adjustment to one’s first-year living in Washington, D.C., would do well to look at Mount Vernon as a fantastic campus and housing experience.

In the heart of the city, Foggy Bottom is home to most first-year GW students each year. Urban in feel, from people to activity, Foggy Bottom is the reason you may have chosen to come to GW. We haveseven first-year residence hallsto consider on the Foggy Bottom campus, along with all of our upperclass residence halls.

If you live on Foggy Bottom, you could live in:

• Lafayette Hall,Madison Hall, orPotomac House, where students predominantly live in double rooms;
• Building JJ, our smallest Foggy Bottom residence hall, where community thrives and students have kitchens in rooms;
• the unique environment of affinity suites inDistrict House, 16 or 20 person suites where first-year students live in double rooms, with a suite-specific community kitchen and living room;
• Mitchell Hall, where everyone has their own room and most residents share floor-based community bathrooms;
• Thurston Hall(the one and only!) re-opening in August after atwo-year renovationto the 100-year old historic building, the Class of 2026 will be the first students to re-acquaint themselves with this campus legend.

Get to Know GW's 13 First-Year Residence Halls

Don’tstopnow…there’s more info below:

We need to take a moment to talk about an important step some of you may take on your journey to GW. Last week,you received an email from New Student Orientationthat outlined important tasks to complete in May. One of them could be very important to you as you consider housing at GW — registering with Disability Support Services (DSS).

Housing accommodations are GW-approved requests from the Disability Support Services (DSS) Office for specific types of living environments that a student requires to meet a specific disability-related need. You may be coming into GW with specific disability- or medical-related needs that you are considering as part of living in a residence hall. We strive to work closely with you and the DSS office if you are approved for housing accommodation.

If this is you, now is the time tolearn more about housing accommodationsat GW, how our Disability Support Services team evaluates them, and how to register with DSS.

Today’s email was the preview! We have all of the information you need to know regarding first-year housing at GW, how to register, and more on our website. On our website, you will be able to:

• Learn about the various types of living environments in our residence halls;
• Walk through 3D tours, floor plans, and tours of our residence halls;
• View frequently asked questions, and the answers to them.

Become a First-Year Housing Expert and Learn More

We look forward to you joining us on this college journey andnextstopat GW. Have a great rest of your day!

GW’s Campus Living & Residential Education Team