<p>Try your best to not get Cuarto. If you get Thoreau, that’s ok. Just… yeah, try your best to not get Cuarto, or try your best to get out of it. Almost everything you hear about it is true.</p>
<p>Probably going to attend Davis next year if I get accepted; thanks for the advice? What’s so bad about it? You stuck there?</p>
<p>its antisocial. thats it. it has the positive of having spacious rooms and your own bathroom, but thats about it.</p>
<p>considering you’re supposed to be living in a dorm to meet people… yeah</p>
<p>Hmmm. . .what’s going to happen when you have to live on your own? Why not take the initiative and talk to people? People all over the world make friends WITHOUT having to share a room with them. At some point in time you are going to have to talk to people without the aid of forced social activity/interaction. Good luck when you are living alone. Dorm life doesn’t last forever and it hardly mimics the reality of the outside world. Be lucky you are getting a small dose of the reality that is the outside world. You aren’t always going to live in a bubble with people close to you in age and you have to realize that at some point. I feel bad for the people in the dorms who are going to go through shock living on their own without anyone to guide them.</p>
<p>Hmm…I lived in Cuarto last year and there were pros and cons to living there. You may not bond with the people living around you as much, but you’ll definitely form some sort of bond with the people you’re living with. There’s at least two other people (assuming you got some sort of a single configuration). Socialize with them. I got the creepy shut-in so I bonded with the other four people I lived with. </p>
<p>Yes it is a bit anti-social. But that doesn’t mean that it’s a ghost town. There are people walking around and chilling in the common area. Play the piano. Watch television. I met lots of people that way. Just because you’re not spoon-fed social events doesn’t mean that you need to be a shut-in. </p>
<p>Oh, and I don’t know if you’ve heard this, but in Emerson, at least, you can get away with some pretty messed up stuff in the living room provided that you keep the noise down. I’m not going to give specifics, but let’s just say that some crazy stuff went down without the RAs getting involved. Just try to keep it low-key.</p>
<p>im not gonna say anything else after this post because il think the thread title speaks for itself. maybe things are different with different years, but this year has been surprisingly bad</p>
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<p>yeah, i kind of got to know one roommate and the other one a bit, but my roommate basically doesnt live here. he moved all his stuff in and i see him maybe once every 2 weeks and he’s slept here about 5 times, so none of us have really gotten to know him</p>
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<p>funnily enough, there are not. every weekend i go to the common room to watch sports with my roommate and no one ever joins, they just stop, look at the score or w/e, and keep walking. i rarely see anyone in there at all. in fact, the only time there are a large number of people are when there is some dorm meeting or when jersey shore was on the first week we were here.</p>
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<p>you mean the living rooms in your actual suite? yeah, we live with the RA so that isn’t happening. </p>
<p>im not coming here to have some sob story about how my dorm sucks, i’m just coming to say to incoming people that most the things you hear is true. sure, the people might change year to year. but all i can say about this year is that i made a very strong attempt to meet people, but basically no one did anything you’re “supposed to” (open doors, see people in open rooms, etc).</p>
<p>Well, if you’ve done your part and attempted to be social then I would give up on those other people. They are probably awkward and unsure of their place at the uni still. I have a friend who lived at Cuarto and she told me life there was like a Spanish-TV novela with all of the drama she experienced. At least, you aren’t dealing with that 
If you are social you will definitely make friends on campus or in clubs. If you have the chance, try being an RA; it is a great way to make friends. I forced myself to ask my professor for the opportunity to work in his lab. That is where I met the majority of my friends. I am not going to lie I am antisocial but even I was able to make friends. Maybe some people keep their doors closed because they are embarrassed by the sate of their rooms?</p>
<p>flwrgrl has it dead on. I’ve heard pretty good things about Cuarto.</p>
<p>my son doesn’t live there, but he’s heard good things about cuarto too. and i agree with flwrgrl-- attitude really is everything. you still have two more quarters to live there, so you might as well change your attitude and see what happens. </p>
<p>nobody’s responsible for your happiness but you.</p>
<p>Current freshman. Tailor your housing app to Segundo (I’m in Tercero). If you don’t put “quad” or “suite” anywhere in your housing app, they will not put you in Cuarto.</p>
<p>I called housing when I was doing my application. You get 3 preferences and you are guaranteed to get one of them. Cuarto has no traditional rooms, only quads and suites.</p>
<p>umm… you get 3 choices in order, but aren’t the choices just segundo, tercero, and cuarto?? So you have to put it down somewhere? I put it 3rd and still got it. And by the way, I agree with the original poster - it is not the traditional college dorm experience, but rather what you will get the other 3 years - living off campus in an apt complex.</p>
<p>I’m a transfer living in Castillian south(cuarto). Some of what Simpson says is true, but I think his case is an extreme one(not everyone has to live with an RA or has non existant roommates). It all depends on who you get, and it sounds like he got screwed lol but I personally haven’t found it to be too bad.</p>
<p>As for the sports part, there are people who watch it. Like me, but I don’t do it in the common area. For the Giants world series and for football I’ll usually walk to the grad, or just watch in my dorm or a neighbors. You’re welcome to join me if you’re bored lol. Most people don’t use the common areas though.</p>
<p>thought i’d come back to update my thread</p>
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<p>I don’t understand. Are you saying to just put it last? I’m just telling anyone now: If you don’t register with a roommate (as me nor anyone at our school did), you have an increased chance of getting put in Cuarto, even if it’s your last option. Of course, almost all the people from my HS got into Tercero anyway. EVERYONE wants Segundo or Tercero, and if you come in as a single person, you will probably get put in the dorm that no one wants to be in.</p>
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<p>Yeah, I went with my roommate’s friend to the Grad for the World Series (Literally a block away from Cuarto). Crazy. Then we went back to the dorm, and it was dead as hell. You wouldn’t even know anything just happened. Of course, we waited about 15 minutes before going back.I started blaring “We are the champions” loudly, and the RA came in and of course told me to turn it down.</p>
<p>For normal football watching, I generally watch it in my room (living room) with the door open because I don’t know if anyone is watching it, and the common room is empty. No one comes by.</p>
<p>Doesn’t Castillian have 12 person dorms?</p>
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<p>So a person who doesn’t live there is “dead-on” because of what you’ve heard, but a person who lives there is dead wrong?</p>
<p>I’ll end with
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<p>This is completely true. I will be trying to join clubs and meet people in our discussions (lecture is just too big), but it still makes me sad that I can’t even meet a decent amount of people in my own housing development. Especially after all I was told about how dorm life makes it so easy to meet people.</p>
<p>I live in Cuarto right now and it’s not as bad as it seems to sound. I mean sure you can make friends a lot easier in tercero or segundo because your rooms are literally next to each other and inside a building, but who’s to say you can’t make friends in Cuarto? If you’re willing to introduce yourself and make an attempt to make friends, you will make friends. Plus, you have the advantage of having your own common area (I know many people who’d love to have this). It’s basically your own living room where you and your friends can just chill (inside your 6 room suite or whatever configuration you have). You are also slightly further away from campus; this can be good and bad. For me, at least, it lets me keep my mind off from school a bit because it gives the “home” feeling rather than being stranded on campus. Also, for those who like swimming, you got your own pool. Do any of the other dorms have that? I think not.</p>
<p>I know there are lots of negatives too, but you can’t just say everyone is anti-social and cuarto is the worst place to live — if you live here, you will adapt and maybe like it more than any other dorm area. :)</p>
<p>OK, this will probably be my last post in this thread.</p>
<p>To anyone who comes to this thread and reads it, I may have been a little too crazy. If you get in Cuarto, you are NOT essentially screwed in meeting anyone (I made it seem that way). Not everyone will be in my position where you live with the RA, don’t know your roommate, etc.</p>
<p>Is it harder to meet people in Cuarto? In my (and everyone else’s) opinion, yes it is. The non-communal bathrooms, number of people actually living WITH you (so you have more people to be friends with right away), and the internal living rooms do make it harder to meet people. But if live around social people who DO leave their doors open, and you make an honest effort to meet people, Cuarto is probably the best dorm to live in. Away from campus, own bathrooms, own living room. The only trade-off is that you have the antisocial aspect of it.</p>
<p>To sum it up: If you get in Cuarto and don’t meet anyone or very few people, yes it sucks. But if you meet people, it is probably the best</p>
<p>Good luck</p>