Worcester Polytechnic Institute Sophomore Dorms Ranked

Number 5

"Messenger doubles aren't too bad - while they are relatively small, they have AC, and come with decent furniture. The AC is mapped to the outside temperature, and while you have a thermostat in your room, it's a glorified display, and doesn't allow you to control your room's temperature. The temperature range in the rooms never leaves the 60s, which is fine in the winter, but it gets chilly when you're wearing shorts and a T-shirt in the summer. Since Messenger is new (as of 2018-19) the furniture is in good shape, and is an adequate amount of storage for your average college student. Each floor has two washers and three dryers, same models as in Daniels. Each floor also has two tech suites, which are nice if you need to get some work done in relative isolation. While they aren't truly soundproof, they work well enough. The communal bathrooms are nice, and well-maintained, and the hot water never really runs out, even on the fifth floor. Messenger also has two common rooms per floor, one overlooking the quad, and one overlooking the campus center. The larger quad-side common rooms provide a nice view over (you guessed it) the quad, excellent for counting the number of pre-frosh that step on the seal during move-in. The CC-side common rooms have better seating for watching movies or TV with friends, and are also where the elevators that connect the floors are located." - 4 years ago

1 student reviewers said they lived in Messenger Hall during their sophomore year

Number 4

"Founders was a fantastic choice for my group, I'm very glad we went with it. There was 8-10 people hanging out at any given time on average, but there was a total of 20-25ish people who would rotate in and out of visiting. Sometimes it was to do work, sometimes it was to play video games, sometimes it was to watch movies or shows. We had a decent group of people to watch sports too (hosted a great Super Bowl party, for example). We were definitely more isolated from the other dorms, but we still had people from them coming in sometimes. Overall, there was no shortage of social life in our experience.

The suite's common room provided a lot of extra space. People could work in the bedrooms while others socialized in the common room, or vice versa. It gave us a space where we could play VR, or could store extra items (sleds for winter, etc). The full-size fridge and included microwave is a game changer, even if washing dishes in the bathroom sink isn't ideal. On The Go food isn't very high quality, but it's very convenient and they started to improve the options by the end of the year. Goat's Head tends to have heavy and unhealthy food and most of the options weren't great, but there were always a few good options. Two swipes for a full-size pizza is awesome. The location is bad relative to other dorms, but it's closer to city center, and it's WPI: "farthest away from campus center" is about a 5-7 minute walk.

I consider Founders a vastly underappreciated freshman dorm." - 4 years ago

1 student reviewers said they lived in Founders Hall during their sophomore year

Number 3

"I was in a double in an Ellsworth 7-person during the 2019-2020 academic year. The layout is good, even though the buildings show their age. Rooms are decently sized with ample storage and individual climate control. Kitchen and bathrooms are to be cleaned by residents. The kitchen comes with an electric stovetop/oven, fridge/freezer, and sink/storage. Bring your own microwave! Bathroom scheduling can be a bit of a mess in the morning. It is HIGHLY encouraged to install a shower curtain between the shower and the rest of the bathroom to facilitate multiple users. Buildings are literally across the street from the back of Stoddard/Morgan and a very quick walk to anywhere on campus. There is a parking lot as well as laundry under one of the buildings in the complex. Waste disposal/recycling is by unit 15. Overall, not too bad if you organize amongst yourselves." - 4 years ago

1 student reviewers said they lived in Ellsworth Apartments during their sophomore year

Number 2

"I lived in a 3-person studio, which wasn’t great since it was like a glorified dormroom and I couldn’t cook without waking people up, but Fuller does have non-studio apartments. Otherwise my studio was pretty nice, we had a living space with a couch, a full kitchen, a small dining table, and a bathroom that was the only private area. We each had a bed bunked on top of a desk, and a wardrobe. We had a spacious pantry that from some odd design choice was located inside the bathroom, but this oddity isn’t a common feature among Fuller Apartments—they usually are separate.

As for the building itself, it’s not super secure. There is a single id-scanner separating you from the outside world, and we’d sometimes have local townsfolk knocking on our door with ad pamphlets. In the event of a power outage or other scanner malfunction, there’s the possibility you’ll have no way to lock your door. But in my experience we only ever got locked out (until the failure was addressed, a couple hours tops), not lock-less.

Compared to some other WPI apartment buildings, like Faraday and East, Fuller is much older and not-as-nice, but it gets the job done and it’s right across the street from the quad which is a great location. Sadly it doesn’t have laundry facilities, so you have to cross the street to Ellsworth to use the facilities there. Not a major inconvenience, just annoying.

Overall, I’d recommend this apartment building mainly because its location is great." - 4 years ago

3 student reviewers said they lived in Fuller Apartments during their sophomore year

Number 1

"Probably one of the nicest dorms on campus second only to East Hall. Faraday basically has the same amenities as East, it's just farther away from campus. Honestly I got used to the walk pretty quick, and it's really not as bad as some people (generally people who haven't lived in Faraday) seem to make it out to be. I could leave 10 minutes before a class and still be there with time to spare (depending on where your class is).

The only other complaint was the heating/AC thermostats in some of the rooms were just flat-out wired wrong when the building was constructed. On top of this Res Services/Facilities is unwilling to even try to resolve these issues. Unless you're willing to take matters into your own hands, so to speak, be prepared for the fact that the A/C might just not work in half of your apartment (I don't really know how widespread this issue is, but I know my apartment wasn't the only one with A/C issues)." - 4 years ago

4 student reviewers said they lived in Faraday Hall during their sophomore year