Housing and Meal Plan Advice

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of San Diego
1

<p>Housing</p>

<p>For freshmen there are two general areas for housing</p>

<ol>
<li>Up on on the campus "main strip"</li>
<li>Down in the Valley</li>
</ol>

<p>When you are trying to pick your housing the first thing you may want to look at the two areas as they both have pros and cons.</p>

<p>Up on the Campus main strip
Pros
Close to Class (you can role out of bed and walk downstairs)
You are close to many dining options</p>

<p>Cons
You don't really "get away", what I mean by this is you are always up on campus and don't ever really leave it</p>

<p>The Valley
*Pros
*No triples
Missiosn cafe (they are open all day and until about 11)
The Gym is in the Valley
You get to get away</p>

<p>Cons
longer walk to campus
Longer walk to everything actually</p>

<p>First of all I would like to suggest that you do not pick a choice because it is coed or vice versa. It really makes no difference. In the buildings which are coed you cannot get onto the floor/side of the floor of the opposite sex without being let in the door, and in the ones which are there is a bridge where you can get in. If someone lets you in the door. Anyways, like I said, the fact that it is coed alone will not make a noticeable difference, just what aspects that brings out will. Onward...</p>

<p>Main Campus</p>

<p>*Founders/Camino: *
These are the only NOT coed housing options. They are mainly triples (I think) To be honest, most people I know hated founders. But, I know a lot of guys in Camino and they love it. Camino guys tend to form a sort of fraternity and all get to know each other. It is on campus and pretty close to almost everything. The downside is that the rooms are on the smaller size.</p>

<p>*Maher: *
This is another very popular housing choice. These are almost exclusively triples, but they are also nice size rooms with private bathrooms. Aromas is attached, and is open pretty late. The downside is that you have to clean the bathroom yourself.</p>

<p>The Valley
*Missions A: *
This is a very popular choice. The rooms are sweet style and are all doubles and singles. Each floor has 8 students in either doubles or singles and has 2 bathrooms. Again these bathrooms must be cleaned by the residents. The rooms are also nice sized. The only real downside here is cleaning bathrooms yourself, and being kinda far from main campus.</p>

<p>Missions B
Missions B offers traditional housing with bathrooms down the hall. The rooms are large, and the bathrooms are cleaned for you. However, you have two bathrooms with two showers and two stalls for about 30 people. Not fun.</p>

<p>Meal Plans</p>

<p>Here is the problem with meal plans, they are separated into a few parts. While this is all on your student Id, they are used differently. </p>

<p>1. Meals
The number of meals you have is the number of your plan ie. 135, 105 etc. These meals can only be used for dinners and brunch. It is extremely common to have a ton of these left over. For example, I currently have 65 left, and my roommate has 77. </p>

<p>2. Dining Dollars
These are purchased with your meal plan and are a part of it. They are used for breakfast and lunch. These can be used anywhere on campus and in Tu mercado the store on campus for certain items only.</p>

<p>*3. Campus Cash *
These are almost the exact same thing as dining dollars except they are not purchased with your meal plan and can be used for anything in the store along with things such as on campus printing.</p>

<p>My suggestions? Buy the 105 meal plan, the smallest one. You will likely run out of dining dollars (my roommate is down to 24, and I have 75), but these can be supplemented with campus cash. You can not get a smaller meal plan, but you can increase it! Next year I will be getting a smaller meal plan, and using the money I save from that to buy campus cash!</p>

2

<p>Thank you so much for this info! Would you say most people request roommates for freshmen year or do a lot of people just do random request?</p>

3

<p>There is of course a mix of both, but I would say that it is predominantly random.</p>

4

<p>i’m going to be in the honors program next year, and my parents said i have to live with the honors kids in missions b… is it really that bad?</p>

5

<p>When I said not fun, I only meant the bathrooms. But, that is also very traditional. The rooms are really large, and the Valley is, in my opinion the best location. People generally love Missions B because it is the most social of the freshmen dorms. Maher tends to be most isolating.</p>

6

<p>Are there people in Missions B that are not in Honors?
How is Maher isolating? I would’ve thought with so many in that dorm that there were always people around.</p>

7

<p>I have been told that people do not mingle much in maher because there is no real need to leave your room, and because it is outside. </p>

<p>Missions B does have people who are not in honors, but I believe they group all honors into one of the Missions B buildings.</p>

8

<p>This year my son is in a all honors dorm in Missions A. Maybe it is different for next year??</p>

9

<p>It varies, all the housing options are nice, it really comes down to what is best for you, or your child.</p>

10

<p>what about upper classmen housing. Ill be a transfer.</p>

11

<p>Does anyone know when housing announcements will be made?</p>

12

<p>justneedtoknow - my son is staying this summer at Manchester Village…very nice! It is a bit of a walk to the classrooms as it is on the far side of the campus but the walk may be worth it. In his room you have a living room, kitchen and 2 bedrooms & 2 bathrooms. The bedrooms are either single or double. </p>

<p>kkrsj48-last year announcements where not made until mid August, and I encourage you to check on the Facebook page for 2015 because as the announcements come out everyone storms the page looking for their roommate by posting their own room assignments.</p>