<p>I heard the Clark Kerr dorms are the best. Is this true? How do they compare to the others?</p>
<p>Pros: Rooms are larger (really quite a bit larger) than the units.
Beautiful grounds with room to wander around, even a view from parts.
Quiet and less riotous than the units.</p>
<p>Cons: Pretty long walk from campus.
Overall less social atmosphere. Can be isolating, especially in the suites.</p>
<p>Clark Kerr is pretty far from campus. It matters where you live when you consider when you want to wake up to get to class or when you have an hour break between classes. Though, the dorm area is nice. The buildings are all spread out, which is not a great thing for social interaction. I thought about dorming in Clark Kerr before I went to Berkeley, but now, I know it wouldn't have been a good decision.</p>
<p>I think it is a very good point about going home between classes. If you live in the units it's easy to go back to your room between classes, it's quite a trek if you live at Clark Kerr. </p>
<p>However, if you are the type who likes to study in your room, the units atmosphere might be a serious problem.</p>
<p>Foothill (Hillside and La Loma), Bowles, and Stern (Unit 4) are the closest dorms to campus.</p>
<p>Distance from campus from least to most</p>
<p>Bowles (Unit 4)
Stern and Hillside (Unit 4)
La Loma (Unit 4)
Unit 3
Unit 1
Unit 2
Clark Kerr Campus (Unit 5)</p>
<p>i acutally stayed in clark kerr during my overnight visit for regents. it's really quite nice. Though it is a 10-15 minute walk from campus, the walk is pretty nice, and since the dorms are somewhat inside, it's rather safe as well. as for socialness, it was really socially active when i went. i guess between dorms it may not be extremely social if you want to stay in your room all day, but it's pretty social inside the dorm building. plus, the rooms are reallllly nice, size-wise</p>
<p>Could anyone rank the dorms from "quietest" to "loudest"? And rank size of rooms too, please?</p>
<p>Usually, suites are the largest. I'm not sure about the suites in the Units, but the Foothill, Stern, and Clark Kerr ones are big. As for Unit rooms, they're pretty small and cramped. A triple in a Unit is what you don't want unless you want to have minimal space. Bowles is a little different, where 4 guys share one common room where they have their desks and then 2 guys share a "bedroom" where a bunkbed and the closets are.</p>
<p>To make it simple, the Units are loud; anything other than those are quiet.</p>
<p>Bowles is one of the loudest and Stern is one of the quietest, quite ironically</p>
<p>How likely are you to get your first-choice and does it make any difference if you apply for housing early?</p>
<p>
Doesn't make a difference, just apply before the deadline. As for first choice, it's actually pretty hard (I'm assuming you'll be a freshman in the fall). Quite a number of friends did not get any of their five choices and were put in dorms they didn't want. A lot of people apparently did not want to live in Clark Kerr or Foothill this year, so people who didn't get their five choices were put in there. There are options to transfer into the minisuites in the units, and some people chose to live there instead.</p>
<p>How hard is it to get into Freeborn? I've heard conflicting answers in other threads.</p>
<p>My friend who attends Berkeley said that Clark Kerr will be closed next year. I wonder why?</p>
<p>The cal housing website says that Clark Kerr is undergoing renovations, but it never says anywhere that it is closed.</p>
<p>
<p> [quote=sputnik] How hard is it to get into Freeborn? I've heard conflicting answers in other threads.
I guess it really depends on the year. This year it wasn't that easy cause a lot of people just wanted Unit 1 and were afraid to not get it so they put in free substance as a choice even though their lifestyles don't abide by it.</p>