Experience: double for a month in Van Slyck hall during the month of SeptemberPros:Relatively affordableFood (breakfast and dinner)ProximityKind staff and studentsShared suppliesGroup eventsDemocratic in terms of menu selectionCleanliness for bathrooms is pretty decent (shared)Quiet, limited noise issuesCons:Poor responsiveness from managementInitially sneaky fees (application ($50 one-time), linen ($75, one-time), resident services ($85, one-time)Overcrowded shared fridgesQuality of food is highly variableWifi is close to absent in some rooms including the one I lived inBreakfast is later than ideal (0 food available at 6 AM)Mismatched furnishings in roomsResidents can be temperamentalSeveral laundry machines do not work (cold setting, laundry comes out hot)Only one microwave for warming foodYes I understand it is dorm style living. Doesnt mean you should lower your expectations so steeply.

Ive been living at ISH for a couple of months during an executive university Summer program on 2009, great place and great people!

Historical building, best location, and terrific community atmosphere. Everyone should experience once in his(her) lifetime here.

Loved it, and recommend it

For foreign students and interns, this is the best house and family that you will have if you stay here. I am an ISH alumni, and I love this place and all the friends that I met here.

My review is bit dated since I stayed here in 2004 for a year and summer of 2008. I had a wonderful experience and met incredible ppl at ISH. Things have changed since, but would still recommend a stay to anyone new to DC.

ISH is a great place to live, and I would highly recommend it. I lived here for two years (June 2014- August 2016) and enjoyed my stay. Ultimately, the resident experience is what you make of it. If you are excited about living with around 100 young professionals from all over the world, this is a great place for you.- The People: By far the best benefit to living here and you will make connections. Think tankers, international scholars, visiting professors - ideas are well represented here. I made many lifelong friends all over the world, went on road trips and vacations, went out to classical concerts and operas, went for evening dinners, and took advantage of everything historical and culture DC has to offer. Its nice to be around people who always want to do something, and you will not get lonely.- The price: Its unbeatable for the location. For $1,100 - $1,600 a month, you get a room in one of the best neighborhoods in downtown DC, food, utilities, maintenance, and resident activities included. You will not find better. Trust me, I looked.- Booking: You can book for a minimum one month stay and can book month to month. That flexibility is crucial if youre trying to extend your stay in the US.- The Staff: The staff and maintenance are all welcoming, warm, and sincere people. When problems arose, they were addressed properly, professionally, and promptly.- The Facilities: Since Google came in and took 360 panoramas of the house, you can get an idea of what the communal areas are like (not the case when I applied).- The Rooms: Some rooms are nicer than others. If you arent comfortable living in a somewhat small room with others, you may not want to live here. Marpat (the mens hall) is essentially dormitory style living and is in need of updates.

I stayed at ISH-DC starting in summer 2018 and had a wonderful overall experience.LOCATION (5/5): Dupont Circle is a fantastic neighborhood — its safe and pleasant with tons of food options, a very central location, and easy transit access. The metro stop is about a five minute walk from ISH-DC, plus theres a Capital Bikeshare station right outside the door.COMMUNITY (5/5): ISH-DC has a strong community, and its very easy to get to know other residents through the meals, occasional events, and group outings arranged in the WhatsApp channel. If you enjoy interacting with people from differing backgrounds, youll love it. Id guess around a third of residents are domestic during the summer, and less than that during the academic year. Almost all residents are in their twenties.PRICE (4/5): D.C. isnt cheap, especially in a neighborhood like Dupont Circle, but my understanding is that ISH-DC is very reasonably priced. Consider also that youll be saving some money on food compared to living elsewhere (see below).ROOM QUALITY (3/5): I stayed in Marpat Hall, which is a short outside walk away from the main building. The rooms are fairly old, and look/feel a little quirky and dusty, but theyre perfectly satisfactory and (crucially) air-conditioned. More recently, I stayed in Van Slyck Hall, which has a more modern but less homey aesthetic. Generally, maintenance issues are addressed reasonably quickly. Most rooms are doubles, and theres a waiting list for the singles.COMMON FACILITIES (4/5): ISH-DCs main building is a gorgeous tudor-style mansion. (You can check it out on Google Street View.) There are several great common areas, including a library with a TV, game room, and exercise room. The main hall is straight out of Hogwarts. The laundry is free, although there arent always enough washers/dryers to go around, and they sometimes break down. The house lacks adequate facilities for personal food preparation, as there is a microwave but no kitchen available to residents. The communal refrigerators are overcrowded and unclean, and the cleaning staff often remove food that has not yet gone bad.FOOD (5/5): ISH-DC provides free breakfasts and dinners every day from Mikko, a local Nordic restaurant. Its a great perk that helps reduce living costs and brings the community together. The food is high quality (not the same as a restaurant, but much better than the old Sodexo services), and the Nordic elements (e.g. lingonberry jam) are fun. Coffee, tea, and milk are available at all hours. Its possible to order late meals, but this needs to be done by 4 p.m.POLICIES (4/5): Packages and mail are all handled conveniently at the front desk, which is staffed 24/7 by a resident (someone youll probably know). Some house policies are frustratingly restrictive, though. For instance, visitors are not allowed after 10 p.m., and if you have a friend visiting D.C., they cannot stay with you unless you arrange it days in advance and pay $75 per night.

ISH is definitely the best place to stay if you want to meet incredible and engaged young people from around the world, with nearly a hundred residents, you cannot but find friends with who you will share so much. I first intended to stay only a couple of months at ISH as I didnt know any one in DC, make some friends and then move out in a flatshare..but no, I stayed the full length of my one-year in DC. Just could not leave the community.Staff members are devoted and doing their best to make our living at ISH a great experience. And it definitely was for me!

This place definitely deserves more credit!I lived at ISH for two semesters and it was one of the best experiences I had. If you are seeking housing at the great location, don’t have time (or don’t know how) to cook, prefer international crowd to mingle, discuss global issues and hit the bar on the weekend, this place is for you.The location of the house is unbeatable. You can easily reach almost any part of DC metro are from Dupont Circle. World-famous institutions with great speakers and events are just around the corner (Brookings, Carnegie Endowment, German Marshall Fund, AEI, Johns Hopkins SAIS…). When it comes to restaurants, this area provides everything from upscale dining, casual seating, take-out, to 3am jumbo slice pizza (i.e. Duccini’s). The neighborhood is probably the safest in DC, LGBT friendly, with a lot of international people, young professionals, and plethora of cultural events. Public pool, tennis courts etc are not far away. You can enjoy a morning run, read a book or sip coffee on the ISH patio or in the library, or hit the bars and indulge in the nightlife at the U and 14th Street, just a few blocks away.When it comes to facilities, ISH buildings are old, but in a solid shape. The main building is a Tudor style mansion with dining hall, TV room, library, patio, great hall, and the residence area. It looks like Hogwarts! Van Slyck and Marpat Hall are built later, very simplistic, but still a good living area. Rooms are warm in the winter and there are AC units or central HVAC in all rooms. Common areas are clean and well maintained by the support staff, but the cleanliness of your room depends on you. It is a true convenience to wake up in the morning or come in the evening and have a hot meal. While food is not the best in the world (this is not a hotel or your mom’s kitchen), it is pretty good. There are usually two dishes, vegetarian option, salad bar, soup, desert, coffee, tea,… plenty to choose from.Now, the monthly price varies between $1,300-$1,650 per room, depending if it’s a single or shared room. This includes room, food, use of the common facilities and all events. Also, if you stay a bit longer you can work at the front-desk for a few hours every week and save some money. Good luck finding studio (without food) for this price in the neighborhood!The best part of ISH are people. We organized a variety of events, traveled on the weekends, went out together, had movie nights, cookouts, Halloween party, attended a bunch of fancy events with Congressmen and Ambassadors visiting the house. Alcohol is not allowed in the common areas, but having a few drinks in your room with friends before going out is totally ok.Again, this is not a hotel so don’t expect a queen-size bed, etc. It is a student dorm. For your money, you get decent housing, food, great facilities for common use, great location, safe neighborhood and opportunity to make friends worldwide and enjoy yourself.I strongly recommend it to students and interns! ISHers will become your DC family.

Let me say that I completely disagree with the other reviews. I have never had any problems with wifi, pests, or the management, and while my friends arent the craziest of partiers, Ive definitely been in a room with more than five people and didnt get yelled at. Drinking definitely wont get you fined either- I dont know if thats an old rule thats no longer in force, or if the reviewer from 4 years ago lied or exaggerated, but ISH is definitely alcohol-friendly as long as youre following DC law and not drinking to excess or otherwise harassing other residents.Maybe the other reviewers decided to throw a wild party after midnight, during quiet hours? The staff does take noise complaints overnight very seriously, as this is a residence for committed students and interns currently working and studying in Washington DC. Thats not to say that the residents dont know how to have fun and go out on the town- the community is great, vibrant, and probably the best feature at ISH, and at any given time we have dozens of countries represented by our residents, many of whom are in study/intern abroad programs here in DC.If you dont like dorm living, ISH isnt for you. Its basically a dormitory, you cant cook in your room, and you get 13 meals a week included with your room and board. The food is as good as you can expect cafeteria-style food to be, healthy, vegan/vegetarian friendly, and has a decent variety. Given that its included in the rent, you save a lot compared with expensive DC food prices.Other amenities: free laundry machines, study areas, and the occasional social event. Sometimes we even have ambassadors and congressmen come by.In short, if youre looking for value, you really cant do better living in Dupont than ISH- provided you are able to live with 50+ other people from all over the world. If that sounds more like a burden than an asset to you, maybe you should look into an apartment somewhere.

Terrible place to live.I lived there for 6 months, and for 1600 dls I got NO WI-FI (really you never get WIFI in your room), terrible food, terrible service, terrible accommodations and worst resident managers, once they enter to my room without permission and they are really unkind and rude when you present complaints.The place is full of cockroach and rats.Horrible!

Beautiful house and nice location.

Interesting place with lots of character.

Very beautiful historic building, but desperately needs air conditioning