Residency: Freshmen
Estimated yearly cost: $10,454 – $16,712
Low-cost rooms available: Yes
Commute to class: 5 minutes
Nearby subways: A, C, E, B, D, F
Shuttle: No

After a year off for intensive renovations, Hayden Hall reopened its doors for the 2015-16 year with a new, modern and sleek look.

Amenities include two main floor study rooms, a game room and music and dance practice rooms. On the second floor, there is a common lounge complete with a reservable community kitchen — as there are no individual kitchens in rooms— and most excitingly, an enormous commuter den to serve as a social and study space.

The Hayden Dining Hall is known for its cookies and healthy options, with the latter falling short of the deliciousness of the former, save for the excellent French fries. Also, right down Washington Square West is MacDougal Street, where there is no shortage of pizza, falafel and cookies to be had.

Room types vary from suites for three to five students to studios for two to three, all coming with a private bathroom. Studio triples are an incredible bang for your buck as they are considered low cost but are very spacious, so you never feel like you’re tripping over your roommate(s). Price ranges from $5,227 a semester for an efficiency room in a studio to $8,356 a semester for a private room in a suite or studio.

Hayden also features special communities, offering French and Spanish floors for speakers to commune, along with a TV-themed floor for the Netflix fanatic in all of us.

Hayden is a dynamic freshman community with an unbeatable location, and if you’re really lucky you might even get a view of the World Trade Centre to the building’s south or the Empire State Building. With a five minute walk to class across Washington Square Park, and the West 4th subway station a hop, skip and a jump away, Hayden should be atop every incoming freshman’s dream-dorm list.

Read the rest of the housing issue here.