Speare Hall Reviews

Lived here my freshman year. The walls are pretty thin, I could always hear what the people in the room next to me were doing. The common area is a nice place to hang out. The room itself has a good closet and lots of natural light, but it was very small and I just had a view of the wall of Marino Center. However, awesome location, next to two dining halls and Wollaston's, so I was never hungry! Also very close to the Fens, just a five minute walk and its always nice to hang out there.

Literally the only bad thing about Speare is no ac and that the hallways are super echoey which makes doors slamming closed REALLY loud. But as long as you leave your windows open year round, bring fans, and guide your door shut you’re all set. The communal bathrooms are always clean and pretty modern. Nice shower pressure too. The common rooms are very meh, we could barely use them because of covid tho.

Everyone seemed to dislike Speare but personally I loved it. The location is unbeatable for freshmen, ResMail is right downstairs, there’s a lot of lounge area’s and study rooms, the dining halls are 30 seconds across, close to classes. The room size was a standard freshman dorm. I thought the bathrooms were pretty modern for how they were. Only con is that you can hear everything in the hallways and my heat was about 85 degrees all year round so bring many fans and leave the windows open always, even in the winter

I lived in a double my freshman year in the health science llc. The rooms are pretty small but understandable since it’s in the city. The bathrooms were cleaned pretty regularly, but the timing was inconsistent. My floor had a common room with a tv and couches and other floors have study areas which you can use. Resmail is right in the basement which is super convenient. It is also located close to most classes though it was kind of far from classes on centennial. I think that other dorms are definitely better for the party scene but I enjoyed that my dorm was pretty quiet. The walls are pretty thin and doors slam a lot which can be frustrating. It’s also located close to Steast and Stwest for dining halls. The green line is also very close...See more

Pros:
- Modern building with elevators
- Resmail
- Laundry room
- Big windows
- Cleaners for the bathroom come everyday
- Close to the T
- Close to Marino
- Close to university facilities in general

Cons:
- Small room (typical for freshmen in any dorm to be fair)
- If dumb people are yelling at 2am you will hear them as the doors have gaps at the bottom so they're not soundproof
- People who use communal bathrooms are ridiculously nasty. It doesn't mean that someone cleans it once a day that you can just leave it as a mess
- Study rooms are barely ever available

Speare is decent. Best part is the location. Right next to two of the dining halls, across the street from the green line, easy walk to most academic buildings. Bathrooms are ok, nothing special but not awful either. I stayed in a corner room, and they were still decently sized and comfortable, although a normal room would have been preferable.
Many res life services are found in speare, like resmail. So it is nice to not have to leave the building to pick up packages. The lobby is also a nice place to do work, but other halls definitely have better spaces for collaboration.

Speare is one of the best locations for a freshman dorm. You can pick up packages in the lobby, you're right next to the gym and a convenience store, and two of the university's 3 dining halls are a 30 second walk away. However, the location is probably the best thing about Speare. The hallways are an echo chamber, so it gets really loud (you could be talking at a normal volume with your friend 50 feet away from you). Study rooms are nice but they're very small and not very abundant (only 1 of the 4 floors in both sections of the building has them), and the bathrooms can be kinda gross. Despite all this, I really enjoyed living here.

My room was on the west side and was on the first floor so my window directly faced Marino's brick wall and because of that my room never really got a lot of sun. I guess the good thing about Speare was that it's relatively close to central campus and ResMail is in the building.

I mean, hey, its a freshman dorm, so you won't get a very nice place no matter where you end up. That said, the renovations that were made to the building really hurt the community feel of the place and pool table and TV area of 2017/18 school year are sorely missed.

The resmail location and proximity to ISEC/Green Line make this possibly the best freshman dorm, however.

Typical freshman dorm, small room, thin walls, can get pretty hectic and loud at times, communal bathrooms, etc. Location is convenient though.