Cal housing for freshmen

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of California - Berkeley
1

<p>Admitted freshman here. Can any current Cal students explain what Berkeley's housing is like and what the options are (from the website it looks like there are mostly residence halls and a limited number of suites)?</p>

<p>How hard is it for freshmen to get a suite? Or does the lottery eliminate any advantages for current students? Are the bathrooms communal ones in the hallway, or are they shared between smaller groups of students in their rooms? How prevalent or not prevalent is Greek life, and how quiet/loud is housing generally?</p>

<p>Thank you!</p>

2

<p>There are several dormitories you can apply for: Units 1, 2, and 3; Foothill; Stern; Bowles; and Clark Kerr. (There are others but for the most part they don’t house freshmen.)</p>

<p>The units are all pretty similar, and are your typical college dorms. Big buildings, lots of floors, many rooms (mostly doubles or triples) per floor, and a fairly social atmosphere. They’re on the south side of campus, so they’re close to Telegraph Avenue, the Asian Ghetto, and the like (so good food!), as well as many of the campus buildings, but the area can be a bit shady.</p>

<p>Foothill is on the east side of campus, and it is made up of a few buildings, each with several suites. Suites can range from a Unit-like floor with lots of people to a fairly small group with, say, 4-5 rooms, each a double or triple. (The smaller suites are usually single-gender, while the larger ones are usually co-ed.) There are lots of stairs, and you have to do a bit of hiking to get home every day, but it’s relatively close to the EECS, math, chemistry, and physics buildings (to name a few), which is why many of the residents are math/science/engineering majors. As such, it tends to be more quiet and less crowded than the units. Though it’s a relatively peaceful part of town, it isn’t social enough for some people. (I live here.)</p>

<p>Stern is a female-only dormitory right next to Foothill, and Bowles is a male-only (I think freshman-only too) dorm a block or so away from Foothill and Stern. Stern looks like a pretty standard dorm, but I’m not sure about much else since I’m a male. Bowles rooms are all quads, but they’re fairly big, and Bowles itself is kind of like a castle (a lot of people think it reminds them of Hogwarts). These two and Foothill share a dining hall, and together are colloquially referred to as “Unit 4”.</p>

<p>Clark Kerr is a bit removed from campus, but it reportedly has better food and better rooms than the other dorms (one hypothesis for the better facilities is that many athletes live in Clark Kerr). I’m not sure about the room distribution, but I imagine it’s similar to the others (mostly doubles or triples).</p>

<p>As for your specific questions:

  • You can get a suite pretty easily, since Foothill has most of the suites, and it is generally seen as less desirable (due to being more quiet and “antisocial”, though I’m not a fan of that word). Lotteries do favor current students, but most people move out of the dorms by junior year, and a lot move out after freshman year, so you’ll be competing against mostly freshmen.
  • Bathrooms are generally shared by the people on your floor/in your suite.
  • Greek life is present, but not really prominent.
  • The units are fairly social (and hence loud), while Foothill/Stern/Bowles are generally less so. Not sure about Clark Kerr, but I think it’s sort of in between.</p>
3

<p>The suites have their own bathrooms, except in Bowles.</p>

<p>The traditional residence halls have communal bathrooms. Note that coed floors have coed bathrooms.</p>

<p>About 11% of undergraduates are in fraternities and sororities, although the fraternity and sorority houses look more prominent in the area southeast of campus.</p>

4

<p>How hard is it for freshmen to get a suite?</p>

<p>A lot of incoming students will apply for a suite so your chance of getting this is somewhat low, but not impossible. Priority is given to regent scholars.</p>

<p>Or does the lottery eliminate any advantages for current students?</p>

<p>Housing offers are already sent out to current students. I believe they reserved only a small amt of suites for current students. The rest go to incoming freshmen. Most current students usually apply for Martinez Commons so I wouldn’t worry about this.</p>

<p>Are the bathrooms communal ones in the hallway, or are they shared between smaller groups of students in their rooms? </p>

<p>Suites (in unit 1, 2, 3) have their own restroom & shower stall. This is to be shared with your other 4 suitemates (1 triple and 1 double).</p>

<p>Each floor in normal halls shares a communal co-ed restroom (~3-5 toilets and ~3 shower stalls). The restroom will only be gender specific if you’re living on an all gender floor. </p>

<p>How prevalent or not prevalent is Greek life, and how quiet/loud is housing generally?</p>

<p>It depends on your floor. Some are rowdier while others are pretty dead. The dynamic/environment is all based on the people who will be living on your floor. Suites are known to be less social though.</p>

5

<p>

</p>

<p>CKC was the reused buildings of the California School for the Deaf, which moved to Fremont. Because it was a residential school, some of the buildings’ upper floors were already dormitory floors (with very large rooms compared to the older buildings in Units 1-3). That is also why some of the buildings have windows that resemble those found in K-12 school classrooms.</p>

6

<p>Thank you all for the detailed feedback.</p>

<p>Does the coed living ever create any problems or awkward/questionable situations? Also, does “coed floor” mean that members of the opposite sex share the same room? Or does it merely mean that both sexes live on that floor?</p>

7

<p>Each room or suite is single-gender. Coed floors have rooms with both genders on that floor.</p>

8

<p>The coed bathrooms have never been a problem for me. I found it rather fun and interesting, actually. I lived in an all-girl’s dorm at Berkeley before and the coed bathrooms were surprisingly 10x cleaner. The all-girl’s bathroom got so bad that my RA threatened to shut it down completely if conditions didn’t get any better.</p>

<p>Also, suites tend to have a reputation of being “antisocial” because people can’t just knock on your door to say hello like they would in a regular dorm.</p>

9

<p>Which dorm was the newly renovated one? Also do any of the dorms have hard floor?
Are there are dorms for freshmen-- that people usually like the most?</p>

10

<p>Unit one,two, and three all have mini suites which are the newest as far as I know. They are all really nice, but are hard to get as priority goes to sophomores. All dorms have carpet floors. Clark kerr is the biggest and has all the athletes. So ladies if you want to be with the hot guys thats where I would choose lol. You also can’t go wrong with any of the units, unit one is closest to campus and unit two is only a block further. Unit three is known for being the craziest/loudest dorm, but it all depends on who gets placed where that year. Foothill is VERY quiet, I lived there but switched because it was too antisocial for me and it is far away from everything. So plan to walk a mile there and back. Good exercise though. If i could choose all over again I would choose clark kerr because the rooms are very spacious and you get the social factor, unlike foothill. Clark kerr really isn’t all that far off either.</p>