<p>What freshman dorm is considered the best? I plan on balancing studying and partying so an all-party dorm would be undesirable.</p>
<p>I’ve kind of been wondering the same thing, as I don’t want an all-party, or all-study, dorm either. </p>
<p>After talking to a Sophomore at USC, I have gathered a FEW note worthy things:
- New/North are definitely the “party dorms”, so that’s out of the question for you.
- Parkside is said to be EXTREMELY quiet, so that’s probably not too desirable for you either.
- Definitely look at the “specialty floors” offered in each building before making a decision. (i.e. Pardee Tower has a “Business Floor” associated with Marshall).</p>
<p>Hopefully other posters will help make the distinctions even clearer!</p>
<p>for a balance, you can’t beat Birnkrant… small floors so you get to know everyone really well, great location, and triples are HUUGE.</p>
<p>I think they turned it into the honors dorm this year, though. I don’t know if it’s going to be the same next year</p>
<p>New/North = a lot more partying
Brinkrant = honors dorms from what I know. the people i know in there are all laid back from what i’ve encountered so far.
Pardee = a good mix of both partiers and studious students.
Parkside IRC = has a bad reputation at times since it is less of a party atmosphere and there are a lot of international students but it isn’t all that bad. met a lot of cool people here and they have suites. it’s also a lot cleaner than most other dorms.
Fluor = don’t know much but people do party a lot here. a lot of athletes live here.</p>
<p>So is Pardee in a good location? I’m a Marshall school student so that sounds nice for business majors.</p>
<p>pardee is in a good location since i believe its the closest dorm to the Marshall buildings.</p>
<p>And hows the quality of the facilities there?</p>
<p>Another question – Can one submit their housing contract prior to submitting their SIR? Since it’s first come first serve, I’d like to submit my contract now even before deciding if I am going to attend USC… just to be safe.</p>
<p>^ yes, you can. definitely submit the housing contract even if you havent decided.</p>
<p>Pardee’s not bad, but the floors are all single-sex, if you’re cool with that. they recently took out the built-in desks and replaced them with standard usc housing furniture</p>
<p>Pardee shares a dingy basement gym/dance studio thing with marks tower/marks hall. Lobby’s nice though, the chairs are comfy… though the bathrooms on the floors could be nicer.</p>
<p>TROJAN HALL!!! (just kidding thats a bad joke) but seriously anything besides marks and trojan hall…didn’t like pardee too much but its not bad.</p>
<p>best advice is to go with new/north unless you are very reserved and don’t want to party often. new/north typically has the most outgoing people so you’re bound to have fun.</p>
<p>what about the vibe at the arts and humanities residential college? </p>
<p>and is interaction between dorms common, like say parkside kids going over to the north/new area for parties and stuff?</p>
<p>I applied to Fluor, Birnkrant, New, North and Pardee in that order. I still want to party a lot, but Fluor looks really nice.</p>