On-Campus Communities at CMU

Hi everyone! My name is Jonathan, and I am a sophomore in the College of Fine Arts (CFA) studying percussion performance. Since I just completed my first year, I want to share a bit about housing options at CMU — from first-year to upperclassmen residence halls — and what makes each of our housing communities unique.

There are residence halls, apartments, general residential communities, and sorority and fraternity houses as part of University Housing. There are 14 residence halls for only first-year students, 13 for only upperclassmen, and one combined residence hall for both first-year and upperclassmen students. The combined residence hall, Morewood Gardens, is semi-suite style, and the first-year students and upperclassmen share a floor, not a room. Most housing is co-ed. All first-year students at Carnegie Mellon are required to live on campus. On-campus housing is guaranteed for four years (five for architecture students) for anyone who requests it, as long as you are a full-time student.

We have three housing “neighborhoods” on campus: Our Morewood Avenue Neighborhood, Margaret Morrison Street (AKA our “Hill”) Neighborhood, and Fifth Avenue Corridor. Within those neighborhoods, our first-year residence halls offer three types of housing: traditional, semi-suite, and apartment style.

Traditional style housing is what you expect in a “typical” college residence hall, and is only available to first-year students. There are doubles, triples, and a few singles where you share single gender communal bathrooms. Males and females are on opposite wings of the floor. My first year, I lived in a traditional residence hall, Stever House, and I absolutely loved it. I didn’t mind the communal bathroom because I didn’t have to wait for someone to get out of the bathroom to get ready myself, since there are numerous showers, sinks, and toilets. It was also cleaned daily by Carnegie Mellon staff, so I never had to worry about doing it myself. Stever is also the most social residence hall on campus. People outside of Stever frequently come to just hang out. The people in my gender wing were like brothers to me, and we still keep in touch today. 

Semi-suite is an option for both first-year students and upperclassmen. Most of our residence halls in our Margaret Morrison Neighborhood consist of semi-suite residence halls, and there are also semi-suite options scattered along our Morewood Avenue Neighborhood. This type of residence hall has rooms of two, three, or four occupants with semi-private bathrooms shared by two rooms. Residents of semi-suites are responsible for cleaning their own bathrooms.

Apartments are shared, large units for one to four people. This is the least common first-year option, with only one residence hall, which is located in our Fifth Avenue Neighborhood. Apartments are mostly for upperclassmen and are located in our Fifth Avenue Corridor and Margaret Morrison Neighborhood. Each apartment has a bathroom and a kitchen, and some have a living room/dining area. Students are responsible for cleaning their own bathrooms, kitchens, and living spaces.

For the different housing options, some buildings have central air, some have window units, and some don't have air conditioning. Each building has laundry facilities. They also have varying amenities such as common lounge spaces, study spaces, community kitchens, pool tables, ping pong tables, TV areas, fitness areas, and music practice rooms.

Our 18 fraternity and sorority houses on campus have single and double rooms with 18-26 residents per house, and they are a great way to meet people and have a family on campus! There are shared bathrooms and laundry machines on each floor. Each house is cleaned regularly and has a kitchen.

And that's a complete run-down of University Housing here at CMU! You can’t go wrong with any housing option. I know people who have lived in every option at this point, and everyone has had a great experience!

Jonathan, signing out.