<p>Don’t be discouraged if you get placed in Foothill. Foothill does have the reputation of being quieter/slightly more isolated, but all of my friends who lived in Foothill were actually really close with their suites. It’s not like the people in charge of housing had special powers and decided to put all the antisocial people on Hillside and all of the “normal” people in the Units. Whether your floor is loud, quiet, partying, chill, or drama-prone is completely random, and there are floors/suites of all types in every dorm. Hillside does have a higher concentration of engineers, which is extremely convenient if you’re also an engineer, since you’ll be living with a group of people you can do homework with and study together with for Math 53 and Physics 7A, since you’ll all be taking those classes. I realize I just made Foothill sound like some kind of math/science study hall, but believe it or not, it is more convenient than you realize. Plus, as far as I know, the few non-science majors in Foothill still got along fine and bonded with their suites.</p>
<p>That said, dorms are still dorms, so aside from maybe a few under-the-radar get-togethers in some person’s room to drink/smoke, there won’t be any actual partying going on in the units. (I don’t know about Clark Kerr, though, didn’t know anyone who lived there.) The units may be more likely than Foothill to have residents who will go to parties and come back wasted, and you’re also more likely to smell weed in the hallways (again, it depends), but other than that, there won’t be any real partying inside of the dorms, so you won’t be disturbed by that kind of noise in your rooms. Whether or not you will end up in the room right next to the 24/7 floor hangout room is a different story.</p>
<p>Anyone know what CAl students do after freshman year? I heard most don’t live in the dorms anymore, so where do they go?? I heard that in most private schools, students stay all four years in dorms</p>
<p>Most students find an apartment after their freshman year. But its not always the case. Remember that housing is guaranteed the second year so some live in the dorms too.</p>
<p>I would if I could get a single for cheaper. Dorms are so convenient compared to living off-campus. You have a nice, fast internet that won’t break, electricity, water, furniture all there for you. They’re just too damn expensive.</p>
<p>I went to the ROHP and stayed in Unit 1 with my host who lived in a triple. The space was fine. I heard lifting the bed up is very helpful since it adds so much more space in the dorms. The unit buildings seem very sociable and everyone on the dorm floor that I was sleeping in was very chill and friendly. They were all best buds and hung out constantly by going in each other’s rooms and watching TV (we stayed up until almost 3AM watching Ninja Warrior, haha) or going out to eat. Unit 1 seemed very chill and relaxed and the local food restaurants around were pretty good. I didn’t like the Crossroads food that much though. One thing I missed out on in Berkeley is any pretty girls (although I don’t hope to sound superficial, the girls as well as guys were are really friendly though).
Also, the school seems extremely liberal. The frats seemed to be fine serving beer to the prospective students (I’m not sure if they noticed though), and a guy on my dorm floor openly smoked pot in his room and no one seemed to mind.
What I found particularly interesting was the grafitti inscribed on the bathroom walls. Normally, you would expect obscure sex references and random slandering, but all the confetti I saw was about politics, liberalism, drugs, or social activism (such as “down with budget cuts”). At least that’s what I thought was a notable change in what I normally expected.
edit: Oh, right, and the amount of homeless people I saw was a bit unsightly. I think I ended up giving a total of 5 dollars in change to the homeless during ROHP.</p>