George Washington University Summer Housing

Have you ever been having an amazing dream? I have. In it there were flowers, endless chocolates, and a mansion with a king sized bed. The palace was staffed with competent administrators who were ready to fix any problem I might have. Then I woke up and realizes that I was staying in this shithole.

I have stayed in many a dorm in my day, from the rural Pennsylvania farmlands of Shippensberg and Penn State to the Urban WashU and USC. But nowhere, not even at Swarthmore have I ever had the experience I had dealing with the whorediot staff the GW Summer Housing and their decrepit crack shack that can somehow still be called a "Housing Structure".

My story is too long to include here, so I'll add a link later to a youtube video of me reading it.

Thank you GW Summer Housing! Thank you for giving us a shit room. Thank you for waiting two days to send someone to investigate water damage. Thank you for not giving us any information and being evasive on the phone. Thank you for leaving us with a ruined stove/oven for three days. Thank you for giving us what you characterized as an optional temporary move for three days. Thank you for then telling our program coordinator and not us that the optional and highly inconvenient move was actually a mandatory optional and highly inconvenient move. Thanks for then revoking our access to our dorm at 8:00pm without telling us or our program director. And thank you, for having the amazing ability to return our swipe access. For a whole hour. That must have been a big strain. You all should take a vacation day.

Suuucks. Water was out for the first few days of the internship, stains on the floors, one guy DIDNT HAVE A BATHROOM and had to call someone to lay down tiles, tp and trash bags not provided, cheap looking accommodations but you're paying out the a$$. You may think I'm just bitter but please, please don't stay here if you can help it

Poor customer service from the student employees to the managers. Extremely rude, snippy and condescending. The housing itself is way overpriced and any procedures regarding check in, check out, keys, shipping, etc were extremely complicated due to the lack of competency of the employees. The housing was uncomfortable and the cleanliness was most times questionable. Only good part was the location, which is unfortunate because I would have loved to recommend this place to all future interns.

I made a Yelp account to write this. If you're a summer intern in D.C., there are plenty of other places you can live. The pricing here is absolutely outrageous considering the conditions. there are bugs all over the place, black mold on the ceiling, and the bathroom has not been cleaned in a very long time. I keep waking up with new mosquito bites.
I read the other reviews posted and thought to myself, "Oh well that was years ago, I bet things are better now." No. They are not. Keep looking, you deserve better.

It's unfortunate that I have to agree with the vast majority of reviewers. Had I perhaps seen the reviews before coming, maybe I would have avoided it, so I hope that I can help someone else.

I currently am residing in Shenkman Hall (formerly Ivory Tower) for this summer of 2015 until August 1st.

Moving in was fairly easy, despite not being told who my roommates would be and them not knowing that I was even coming. They pretty much give you an access card for the building/your room and let you go. If you have questions later, just be prepared to either wait a while or get a short, curt response.

Shenkman Hall looked nice enough, definitely worn down and I honestly don't know how old it is. Lackluster, but it looked livable. When I got to my room, it seemed fine. Stains on the carpets and extremely cold, but again, livable. When my roommate got back for the first time, she told me about how she had to sponge clean the floors because it was such a mess when she moved in (a week before me).

Everything is clearly very old and used, to be honest, I don't think any of the room (bathroom, kitchen, bedrooms, etc.) was cleaned before they let us move in. However, I was still okay with it at this point.

About a week into living there, my roommate and I found ants. Bad enough as that was, it took maintenance a few days to actually take care of the issue... after my roommate and I had already spent more of our own money on ant traps and spray. Plus my roommate told me she found a cockroach once so bugs are clearly on the list of what to expect here.

Ever wavering air conditioning, spotty wifi, either extremely scalding or freezing water, and washing machines that will eat all your quarters.

Generally, if you're looking for somewhere to live that is in a fairly convenient location, GWU will do. But I'm sure that the money can be spent somewhere far better. GWU provides a place for me to sleep at night, so I'm thankful for that, but I'm extremely frustrated with all that I have encountered as well as the lack of response. I encourage future summer housing residents to seek out other options if at all possible.

George Washington University Summer Housing is a miserable and overpriced excuse for intern housing. My friend and I booked a room at the West End which was in their second tier of accommodations (they have three tiers) for $2900 each for 8 weeks. The room was in filthy condition with rust everywhere and paint peeling off the wall. The appliances were not working and the windows overlooked an alley with two large dumpsters.

Realizing that this was no way to spend a summer, we paid an additional (discounted) rate of $135 each to upgrade to City Hall which is their top tier housing which they assured me was "luxurious". For the first four weeks, the air conditioning did not work. There were five instances where we were woken up in the middle of the night (between 1am and 4am) by the malfunctioning fire alarm and forced to evacuate. Throughout my stay, only one of three elevators was regularly operating. While many folks in the housing office were nice and even somewhat sympathetic to our concerns, they were unwilling to offer any sort of refund other than $75 for our troubles (remember that we were paying over $3000 each).

I will say that the location is quite good (only a 10 minute metro ride from Capitol Hill and walking distance from the White House and Georgetown). Nonetheless, I would say that GWU housing is worth about 50% of what they charge at the moment. We were paying on average $3000 a month for a cramped apartment with malfunctioning air conditioning and fire alarm systems. The fact is, you'd do much better looking at non-student centered housing in DC as you will find higher quality accommodations for a lower price.

This is my first negative review on Yelp for a reason. I am currently living in GW Housing in Foggy Bottom for summer 2014, and I am absolutely appalled by all the issues I've had to endure -- the summer isn't even over yet, but I digress.

I stayed at NYU Housing in Manhattan last summer and had similar expectations for GW, especially since both units were around the same price. It was around $3000 to live at GW for an 8-week period, which is how long my internship lasts so I figured it was the best option. I live in the apartment style dorms with a kitchen and bathroom. But here's what you need to know:

PROS

1.) An almost unbeatable location. I live at JBKO right next to the Foggy Bottom Metro Station, but I walk to work every day near DuPont. Can't complain -- it's also great to be right next to a Whole Foods.

... That's about it.

CONS

1.) The $3000 for the summer not only did not include gym access (OK... I guess I can get over that), but it also didn't include basic cable. Meaning that a subscription is necessary. I brought my TV so that I could watch the news in the morning (not asking for HBO here, just BASIC CHANNELS) and I can't even do that without paying for it. Don't understand why I can't get channels 1-3.

2.) My dorm had not had hot water for a solid week and a half, and the residents weren't even notified about it or told why. It still isn't consistent.

3.) Construction is to be expected, but not on a Saturday morning at 7 am. I wish I was kidding, but when the building is vibrating and this is one of the only days you get to sleep in, it gets old.

4.) The fan in our very small kitchen does not work, and when my roommate filed a request to have it fixed, no one came to fix it -- AND where she filed the request online indicated that it WAS fixed when it wasn't.

5.) On top of that, I was cooking dinner one night and set off our fire alarm in the room because the fan didn't work. I opened the door to let the smoke out, and a police officer came to our door to make sure everything was OK -- and to tell me NOT to open our door to let the smoke out. Our windows open about half an inch. What else could we have done?

6.) The mailboxes are very difficult to open. You have to use your combination, which seems simple enough, but they're so jittery and fussy that checking your mail is a hassle.

7.) Packages must be picked up in a separate building, which is fine, but I went a week without receiving the email that stated my package was ready for pick-up. When I called about it, I was treated like it was my fault I didn't get the notification they never sent.

8.) When we arrived to move in, the electronic keys weren't working for the individual rooms. It was very unorganized.

9.) The laundry machines WILL eat your quarters and the buttons won't work for a few of them after that fact.

For 8 weeks, this is a lot to deal with. I'm miserable. If you're an intern seeking housing, DON'T choose GW. You can find something else that doesn't rip you off.

I would have to agree with the other reviewers. This is from my experience as being from the Summer of 2011.

On the first day of my visit, they just handed me the keys and said if you need anything, here is the number. I walk into my room and already, the air conditioning was broken. Did they not check it before allowing incoming residents in?

Throughout the ten weeks I was there, the internet stopped working numerous times. Summer residents could only use the Wifi for Summer residents, not for GWU students.

They never notified me before signing the summer agreement of all the construction. It can literally serve as an alarm clock.

Moreover, GWU held many "bloc" parties for orientation students until the early hours in the morning. It was loud and prevented most of the residents in my hall (Crawford) from being able to sleep. The GWU staff did not care at all for all the interns who had to get up early in the morning.

The only reason why it isn't one star is because of the location. Within fifteen minutes I could get from GWU (Foggy Bottom) to the House of Representatives at Congress (Capitol South). They definitely overprice for what you get being a summer resident here. I would suggest trying other places before considering staying here.

AVOID GWU SUMMER HOUSING! I made the mistake of living at GWU in the summer of 2016 while interning on Capitol Hill. When I discovered my roommate had a drug habit, I requested a room switch but was stymied at every turn by unresponsive housing staff. The situation dragged out for a week before I got attention from somebody higher up in the GWU bureaucracy.

When they finally agreed my living situation was unsafe, they attempted to charge me over $1000 more for an "upgrade" to the only other available dorm (they wanted MORE money from me for the privilege of escaping a dangerous situation). This was a textbook case of extortion.

GWU is conveniently-located so they surely have a steady stream of prospective residents next summer. Don't repeat my mistake! Unfortunately, anyone who is not a full-time GWU student will receive very minimal assistance after they pay their bill.

In summary, the GWU summer housing program is a disgrace to an otherwise-respectable university.

I specifically booked a room in the newest dorm building I could hoping to avoid these issues. I was being overly optimistic.

1) Check in - was relatively smooth but failed to give basic information. If you have a question later (how to get your mail, whether you can use some of the facilities) they snark the answers like it's your fault you didn't ask during the 30 seconds during check in.

2) The building (Potomac House) - looks nice until you get to the rooms. The rooms are messy (not a single person I talked to on my floor had their room vacuumed before they moved in) and the furniture was broken. The attached bathrooms are a nice plus but they are incredibly loud. I can't imagine the mess that would be the kitchens in the buildings that have those.

3) The staff - rude from every turn. Every problem I had got me a snarky response. When my air conditioning stopped working on July 3 it took 4 emails and 2 phone calls to get a response, and when I finally did I was chastised for having a problem on a holiday (apparently July 3 is a holiday? News to my office and the bank I had been in that day). I was also chastised for submitting my request through email (as I had been instructed in the intro paperwork) instead of via a website we had never been informed about and my guest ID didn't work on. After several more emails I finally got a notification that the whole building was actually having problems and they had been aware all day. Maybe an email to let people know? That's the second time this exact problem happened.

4) Just general lack of coordination - Was promised by the summer staff that I would be able to get mail, but the mailroom didn't deliver mail or packages for the first three weeks of the summer. Was promised that the wifi would work, but it drops all the time and randomly blocks websites (like my bank and my home university's student site).

Put your $3000 toward renting a room out in the burbs. GWU is a joke. The good location isn't worth the headache of the facilities.