The St. George Residence

It’s hard to get a hold of people. They need to provide a DIRECT number for the St. George. Depending on when you call, when you call the toll free number, the people can’t really help you if you’re looking for your child who is a resident who you haven’t heard from in days. The reps on the phone instead ask you questions like when are you looking for housing (even though the person you are calling about is already a resident). Also if someone needs to pay a bill ASAP, there is no option to speak to someone about that right away either.

As I type this, there are people here screaming at the top of their lungs, blasting loud music and pounding on the walls of their rooms. It is also past midnight here. I have lived here for less than a month and absolutely hate it. It is full of spoiled immature children. They are running a scam. They charged me for the whole semester upfront, and they told me I could move in earlier than I actually did. ONCE they had charged my card, THEN they told me I would have to wait longer to move in. Absolutely not worth the money at all. It’s a old hotel with moldy carpet and things are falling apart, the wifi works 30% of the time, and they charge more for laundry in the building than anywhere in the neighborhood. Please, don’t make the same mistake of even thinking of living here.

You pay 12 – 14 thousand dollars to share a double room the size of a single. You also need to pay 10 dollars to bring your guests in. The Resident Director lets not get started. Breaks into your room while you are not home and searches through your drawers, claiming they smelled contraband odors when you ask them to check the cameras to confirm indeed nobody has entered your room all day, they refuse to. You know exactly HOW I KNOW THIS?! BECAUSE I HAD A WEBCAM SET UP ON MY LAPTOP FACING THE entrance to my ROOM AND I HAVE the video still to this date of someone from the staff cleverly keying into my room, slowly opening the door finding out there was nobody then going through my desk. Yes EHS i have you on tape.
We lost heat for a week in December, lost hot water for 10 days also in the wintertime, DID NOT HAVE INTERNET CONNECTION FOR A MONTH AND A HALF!!!
If you are going to live in NYC, you are better off paying the money for your own room in surrounding Brooklyn or Manhattan Area. 14 grand for people to tell you to pay 10 dollars to bring in guests. Are you out of your dam mind? What a bunch of crooks!

I was living at the St George from late August 2014 to mid-​December of that year while attending Pace University. The St George is operated by EHS (Educational Housing Services) but I guess Pace had a deal with them cause several floors of the Henry Street wing, where I lived, were reserved for Pace students.
I wrote a lot so for those who want a precise description, read the whole thing, otherwise this is a quick list of pros and cons:
Pros:
— close to Pace
— community of students
— location in Brooklyn Heights, and surroundings
— kitchen, laundry and really nice gym
— safe (don’t know if I really care about that one)
Cons:
— too much rules and restrictions
— rooms too small
— WAY TOO EXPENSIVE!!!
Location:
As a Pace student, living in Brooklyn Heights was very, very convenient. The St George has the 2 and 3 train running right under it (Clark Street station) which goes to Pace (Fulton Street station) in 5 minutes. The A and C train also stop a few hundred meters away which is quite useful if the 2 and 3 trains aren’t running (which has happened a few times). Moreover, the neighborhood is really nice. Brooklyn Heights is probably one of the most cosy places in the city, it is calm and for a student it can be a little TOO calm, but at least your not being tempted and can have your head to your work. The St George is within 10 minutes of the Brooklyn Bridge Park which has basketball fields, soccer fields and more. It is also close to Grimaldi’s, a pizza place under the Brooklyn Bridge that is just awesome.
Building and Rooms:
The Building itself is an old hotel that was transformed to house students. There is a lobby and basically the whole first floor is common space with pool tables, TVs, and a good kitchen. The basement has a laundry room with about 15 machines, and you usually don’t have to wait (they are not free). Many of my clothes got stained however, somebody must’ve been using bleach and the machines were not rinsed out…
If you are concerned about safety the building has two entrances where you must swipe your badge to get in. There are a good amount of security guards on the first floor and you occasionally see one in the upper floors. Actually this is kind of annoying because you can’t just invite friends: there is a whole process of registering them, they have to have there picture taken, and then are given a guest pass for which you are charged $ 20 if they forget to return it to the front desk. And you can sign in anybody from 2am to 9am… As a young adult going out on weekends this can be kind of a problem.
The rooms are basically hotel-​size rooms (Henry side, I never saw the Clark side which I was told is better). I shared a room with one roommate but he came in a month and a half late, so for the first part of the semester I had the room for myself. The bed was ok. Storage was ok, but kind of limited, especially for school stuff (the desk was tiny and kind of shitty). For the first part of the semester the living conditions were fine, but it changed when my roommate arrived. The rooms are really not sized for two people, you have no privacy, no noise or light barrier, and it just feels too small. This created problems for example when my roommate would get up at 7am and make a little noise which would wake me up, but I did not have to go to class until 11 so my sleep was fucked up. Same when i wanted to go to bed and he wanted to watch TV, and so on. I guess it could have been different if I was living with a good friend rather than just a random roommate, but given the price I was paying this was bullshit!
Price:
You can probably find out the price on EHS’s website and it also probably varies from school to school, but i paid $ 7450 for one semester. And by one semester they don’t mean from mid August to early January, they mean form August 31^st to December 20^th That’s $ 7450 for 15 weeks, or $ 496/​week, or $ 1986/​month!!! This is a price of a decent or really nice one bedroom apartment in almost any area of the city. In fact, when I moved out, the living options I was considering were one bedroom apartments in Bushwick, Crown Heights, and even in the Lower East Side which rarely exceeded $ 1800 for a bedroom, a living room, a kitchen and a bathroom, all that for just myself. I am now sharing such an apartment with a friend and am paying $ 550/​month for my share of the rent. Sure I am a little farther from Pace, but the living conditions are much better and it is almost 4 times cheaper.
There is much more I could say but I think this sums it up alright. In the end i would say my stay at the St George was a good experience because of how convenient it was and of the good friends i made there. However the cost and the high amount of rules made it so that it was impossible for me to consider spending any more time over there.

I loved my time at the St. George as I feel like most did – amazing location, lots of space to take advantage of (other than your room), overall a super fun and great time here. I recommend it to anyone!

The St. George is a mixed bag. It’s a great place to meet people, and has an even better location, but the neglected rooms and unreliable facilities at times make it feel more like an unsavory hostel than off-​campus student housing.
I could certainly live with the minor annoyances I dealt with during my ten-​week stay over the summer, but what really wore on me at EHS were the conditions beyond the residence’s pristine ground floor. The hallways smelled of moldy carpet and I dealt with regular maintenance issues in my room (a broken door handle, a faulty toilet, a worn-​out A/​C unit, and a chronic bug problem).
Granted, the St. George is an old building and EHS’s staff were generally understanding and accommodating whenever there was an issue. There were some nice perks thrown in (including free access to the athletic club next door and discounts at nearby businesses) and I also can’t forget to mention that Brooklyn Heights is a great neighborhood to live in, with three subway stations each within a five-​minute walk and a nearby park and promenade with amazing views of Manhattan and the East River.
Would I stay here again, though? Probably not. If you have a few months before arriving in the city, try booking a room at an NYU dorm or use Airbnb if meeting a lot of new people isn’t a priority. I got a reservation through EHS within twenty-​four hours, which was great since I only had a few weeks before I arrived; but given my timing I had to pay the entire amount ($ 3,800 for ten weeks, including a dubious $ 250 «membership fee») up front with no chance for a refund. New York is an expensive place to live, but the grass is probably greener elsewhere.

I’ve been living here since August and I absolutely love living here, the building is great and so is the area! Since the school I’m going to is only a 6 month program I wanted to live somewhere, where I could still get the college experience of dorm living (which this is 10 times better than any college dorm I have yet been to). Living in a studio room is by far the most spacious and «homey» room I have been in. When I come back from an 8 hour day of classes I feel right at home. Everything is so convenient in the area the 2 and the 3 subway lines are practically in the building and you can catch the A or the C line right down the street on High St. NOT to mention Starbucks is right up the street!!! There is also an amazing view down by the water (a.k.a the promenade) thats about 5min walking. There you can see most of Manhattan, the Brooklyn Bridge, and the Statue of Liberty. Long story short… this is a great place to live, it’s located in a beautiful area, close to the subway, and you get a «higher-​end version of college living!»

I have been staying at the St. George Residence for a full semester now, and I have really enjoyed it. Free Wifi, rooms come with fridge, microwave, and TV, there is a nice big community kitchen, several quiet study rooms (space can get limited but if you wait you can usually find a seat), and a very kind staff that runs the place. The security is great, and I have never not felt safe here. The location is amazing considering the 2,3 subway is next door and you are one stop away from Manhattan. You also get full access to a gym two doors down, Vineapple (a nice coffee shop to study at) is one street away, you are directly across from two grocery stores, and the beautiful promenade and Manhattan skyline is just behind the building. Honestly I could not have asked for a better first place to live in New York.
As a couple of people have said before, it’s an old hotel and stuff breaks every once in a while. Also you need to consider that you are living in a hotel room with two other people, so space will be tight. But for all the perks that come with living here I really don’t mind the lack of space.
Overall, great place to stay for the young student in New York. I am 22 and sometimes feel like I’m living in freshman aged dorm again which can get annoying, but a small price to pay for the wonderful location.

If they took hotel out of the name maybe this place would be ok. Pretty lobby and first floor community areas. Dorms aboves. There was a turd in my toilet when I checked in, despite the paper band that says «sanitized» around the toilet seat.
My main issue is not that it’s a dorm, it’s the utter lack of service or assistance from the staff. Check in took more than 45 minutes and they could not/​would not answer any questions. All the parents of the students living here during summer internships were very irked at how they were being treated. The wifi was quite slow/​spotty. I did like the gym that was included– that’s a great deal. And the location cannot be beat. So I suggest that EHS revamp it’s customer service and provide better guest accommodation.

Nice sized rooms, great amenities, commercial kitchen, clean building.
An million + dollar renovation has made this dorm one of the best (if not the best) dorms in NYC. You can’t get any better than that pool, sauna and steam room in the gym. What other dorm offers that? Also, free cable, wifi and full sized fridge in the rooms!

I lived in the St. George for a semester, sadly the St. George is connected to the Clark St residence, which is basically a luxury mansion compared to the St. George, so living in the St. George is one giant disappointing tease.
The rooms are okay, they’re small, but they have decent bathrooms.
My biggest complaint is the cockroaches, they are the size of your fist and they’re not afraid of you, or the light. They are ALWAYS chilling out on your toothpaste or toothbrush, it’s disgusting.
There was also a huge bed bug epidemic and they stopped letting us use vacuums so all the rooms got disgusting.
Not bad for a dorm, it’s right on top of the 2 and 3 stop, and literally a block away from about 10 others, so you’re pretty well connected.

This is a review of the St. George Hotel, not Clark. Despite living in the St. George, I never actually went into above the 1^st floor in the Clark, so it could be totally different for all I know. This place, housing many art + design school kids, has a lot of interesting people. The rooms can be decently sized to flipping huge for dorm rooms. It’s really a game of Russian Roullette. One side has the decently sized double ooms, and the other has huge ones, with some even having 2 single bedrooms. I lived in a double, but it was about 16 feet across by 16 fteet, so there was enough space. None of the rooms have kitchens, which sucked. The location is great, one stop from Manhattan, with at least 5 different subway lines within a ten minute walk. However, if you are a college-​age kid, the area is extremely tame and populated by stroller-​toting 30+ yuppies. Montague St nearby has some good amenities, but other than that, it’s a 10+ minute walk to anything else you would want, which can get a little annoying. It’s bounded in in most directions by a pretty mundane part of downtown Brooklyn and an industrial area with not many amenities, so that can get a little annoying.
My main problem, however, is with the management. The internet was terrible. Cable was very limited, and one or two channels had some awful, unwatchable interference. Several things could’ve used repair, and even though my roomate and I complained from day one, they never got fixed. However, despite not having anyone to repair anything, they do have the money to have a camera every 20 feet in the hallways on every floor. That part does not make sense to me.
All in all, I had a fun time living here. Some of the RAs were dicks, but the fact that it is a private company with no connection to my school operating a dorm meant that even though the RA’s had it out for us, we could do whatever the hell we wanted. Your mileage may vary, however.

It’s not a real hotel… but it is a dormitory for college students. The rooms aren’t that great (which I’d consider 3 stars), but it’s also connected to the Clark Residence which has 5 star rooms (so 4 star average all for an exorbitant price natch)! They provide students with laundry, lounges, kitchens, mail and package pickup, and a decent amount of activities to entertain.