Dean D'Agati (dotcom)

Friends of mine know all about Gramercy since I’ve blogged about it before and talk (brag) about it all the time now, but I wanted to write a post specifically talking about the pros and cons of Gramercy since it’s the time of year that everyone is checking out dorms for next year, and when I was trying to find info about Gramercy last year online, there wasn’t any.

My posts generally show up pretty high in Google searches, so if you’re an NYU student who came across this page through Google, here are some deetz that you won’t find on the NYU Housing site and a video tour to go along with it.

Gramercy Green is a dorm for sophomores. It’s technically for “upperclassmen,” but since it’s the most popular dorm on campus, you’re chances of getting it if you’re not a sophomore are slim to none. It was originally built as a luxury apartment building, so it has styles of all kinds, but every apartment will have:
-Hardwood floors
-A huge kitchen with stainless steel appliances, granite countertops, and a touch screen microwave.
-An all-marble bathroom with ridic water pressure in the shower.
-Floor to ceiling or almost floor to ceiling windows (depending on the style).

Gramercy has rooms for 2-6 people. I live in a studio, so it’s just me and my roommate, and I would definitely recommend the studio option because it’s a HUGE space for just two people. It’s more space than my bedroom & common room combined last year at U-Hall and the kitchen and bathroom are only shared by 2 people. They also have two-bedroom suites for 4 people, three-bedroom suites for 5 people, and three-bedroom suites for 6 people. (Rooms with 4+ people have two bathrooms so that’s another plus.) There might also be an option for 3 people too but I’m not actually sure.

Here are some pros & cons.

PROS:
-Amenities. Kitchen, bathroom, wood floors and everything else I just mentioned.
-More space than you’ll get at most other dorms.
-EVERYTHING is new. The building is less than 2 years old, not some historic 200 year old landmark that hasn’t been renovated in 87 years.
-The Sub-Cellar has TV lounges, a game room, private & group study rooms, a gym, and more crazyness.
-There are laundry rooms on the 2nd, 3rd, 5th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 11th, 14th, 16th, 18th, 19th, 20th and 21st floor as well as a big one in the cellar. I KNOW RIGHT!? It’s amazing.
-The neighborhood is awesome. 3 blocks from Madison Square Park (and Shake Shack!) which is one of my favorite parks in NYC. The streets around the building aren’t always crowded like they are in Union Square.
-Duane Reade on the ground floor.

CONS:
-It’s far from campus. The walk is about 20-25 depending on the lights & how fast you walk. There is a bus, but it’s often unreliable and ALWAYS crowded. Trying to take the bus to get to 9:30 class is a deathwish. I don’t mind the walk if it’s nice out, but it can be tough in the winter.
-It’s nowhere near NYU Dining. The closest dining hall is Palladium, which is still 9 blocks away.
-The elevators are ALWAYS a problem. We only have 3 elevators here, and the building is like 22 stories or something. They are always crowded and always require a pretty significant wait. The views are great on the upper floors (I live on 17) but it would definitely be to your benefit to get something lower so you can use the stairs.
-The fire alarm goes off…. A LOT. And when I mean a lot, I don’t mean like once a month or something. It goes off every single week. Sometimes multiple times during the week. We’ve had three 2AM evacuations so far this year. The smoke detectors are extremely sensitive so when idiot kids fail at cooking or light up in their rooms, the whole building will be evacuated… and like I said, elevators are always a problem. It’s not fun trying to get back in.
-The soundproofing between rooms is great because I never hear my neighbors, but the sound proofing between your room and the hallway is nonexistent. In fact, I hear people screaming out there as I type these words. And a dog barking. Sweet.
-It’s more of a residential area so there are less stores and restaurants that are open 24/7 than there are in the Union Square area.

Here is a video I made at the beginning of the year. I made it for Facebook, that’s why it feels like I’m talking to specific people, but hopefully it can help you guys out, too.

Despite the cons, I definitely still recommend Gramercy for your sophomore year.

If you have any questions, post them down in the comments and I’ll try to help you out.

dean Pictures, Text, Videos 17th floor, bus, campus, cons, dorm, gramercy, help, nyc, nyu, pros

Today has been the WEIRDEST day.

The plan for today was to take my mid-term, and go to work… I guess both of those things did happen, but in the midst of a very strange turn of events.

The day started with me waiting for the bus. My class is 20-25 blocks from my dorm, so I usually take the NYU bus in the morning and walk home in the afternoon. The bus was really late though, which normally wouldn’t be a problem, but I had a mid-term today, and I didn’t want to be late, so I decided to grab a cab.

Luckily, I got one quick, but the driver wasn’t some Indian dude named Hassan (lol, stereotypes), but rather an old Jewish lady. She was hilarious and was so interested in my life, but she drove like an old lady, and I was in a rush. She saw an ad for a MTV’s The Buried Life on the side of a bus and told me how strange the question “What do you want to do before you do?” is, hah.

So we get down to 9th Street on 2nd Ave, when she tries to cross over to 3rd Ave… BUT NO. There is a random parade/mob/riot/protest about freedom in Tibet or something?! It was ridiculous. As punny cab lady put it: “Don’t they know you have an exam to take!? If only it was raining so it would rain on their parade.”

After about 5 minutes of sitting in PARK, I gave up, paid the lovely Jewish women who told me to have a nice flight tomorrow, yeah, she knew all about me, and rushed to take my mid-term.

When I finished (failing it), I checked my phone to see that today is jetBlue’s 10th Birthday and that they will be hiding out in different parts of Manhattan giving out 1,000 free plane tickets. I WANT IN. I only had an hour and fifteen minutes to get lunch and be at work, but when I saw that jetBlue was downtown, I hopped on the subway to try to find them.

The tweet they posted said: “We’re at Broadway & Dey St. Find us and bring a birthday card for JetBlue!”

When I got out of the Subway at the City Hall station, I started walking toward the nearest Duane Reade to buy a birthday card when who walks by me? MAYOR BLOOMBERG! Like, our shoulders were about 2 inches apart at one point. It was so cool. Totally made up for the fact that I did not win a free jetBlue ticket, but the story continues…

So I walk into Duane Reade, and as soon as I do, some guy runs up behind me goes to the cashier and yells, “Do you guys sell birthday cards!?” I looked at him and was just like “jetBlue?” and he was like “Yep.” Once I had picked out a card and was waiting in line, I heard people in front of me on their phones saying “NO, THEY’RE OUT OF TICKETS?!”

I went down to Broadway and Dey anyway, and jetBlue wasn’t there, but there were hundreds of confused people roaming around with a cell phone in one hand and a birthday card in another. My guess is they didn’t see Mayor Bloomberg today though, so, I win ;)

Turns out the next location they went to was University & 12th which is RIGHT by NYU… but I was at work so I couldn’t even try to show up. It’s all good though, I already have a jetBlue ticket to Ft. Lauderdale tomorrow at 7pm. SEE YOU SOON 954!

dean Pictures, Text bloomberg, bus, cab, downtown, fly, free, jetblue, jew, mayor, nyc, nyu, protest, tibet, tickets, weird

It’s funny, David and I were just reminiscing about high school yesterday, and today I’m pretty sure I spent a day in high school.

This morning, on the bus, I was standing by this Junior girl who was talking about her roommate. The conversation went a little something like this…

Girl #1: I don’t know, I just don’t understand her.
Girl #2: What grade is she in?

K, pause right there. “Grade?” Who says that? 14th Grade? Continue…

Girl #1: She’s a sophomore. And she acts like a sophomore too, like, we’ll be talking about something and she’ll start bragging about a party she was at…

Oh really, Girl #1? Only sophomores do that? Your birthdays are probably 3 months apart.

Anyway, so I get to class, which is when my day became less high school like and more 3rd Grade like. It’s a history class, and my professor walked in dressed in clothes appropriate to the century that we were talking about — wig and all. Lol, seriously? It was cool though, it provided some entertainment for about 5 seconds.

Then I went to Intro to 3D Animation and suddenly I was back in college. Hate Mondays.

dean Pictures, Text bus, clothes, college, gossip, high school, nyc, nyu, professor, roommate, sophomore, weird