<p>Hey, </p>
<p>I've got a couple of questions about housing. When it says a single room (versus double triple or quad) does that mean that you would have no roommates? Also, I noticed that almost all of the housing options have a meal plan calculated into the total cost. Would it be possible to get those housing options without the meal plans or are those package deals? </p>
<p>Thanks</p>
<p>One thing I forgot to ask. How much do the meal plans that are calculated in cost?</p>
<p>bump</p>
<p>10 char</p>
<p>Yes, singles are rooms for 1 person, doubles are for 2 people, and triples have 3.</p>
<p>All housing offers come with the standard meal plan of 1250 points per semester (2500 per year). It’s a package deal so you can’t just choose housing w/o the meal plan. You can find more information about meal plan costs here:
[Cal</a> Dining - Residential Dining - Meal Plans](<a href=“http://caldining.berkeley.edu/meal_plans.html]Cal”>http://caldining.berkeley.edu/meal_plans.html)</p>
<p>Thanks for the reply, Copperback. Though I’m curious, would an apartment near Berkeley then actually be cheaper in the long run or would singles housing be the best bet?</p>
<p>It’ll be much cheaper with the apartments.</p>
<p>Does sharing dorm with others make the fee cheaper? If so by how much (for single/double)triple)? I’m trying to budget everything so if sharing will make it a lot cheaper, I don’t mind doing it at all :)! Thanks!</p>
<p>The prices for all the dorms can be found at:</p>
<p>[Living</a> at Cal 2011-2012, UC Berkeley Housing](<a href=“http://www.housing.berkeley.edu/livingatcal/rates.html]Living”>http://www.housing.berkeley.edu/livingatcal/rates.html)</p>
<p>In comparison, in an off-campus apartment, the general idea is that the landlord generally increases rent slightly with more people due to increased wear/tear. Eg. a room in a 2bd apartment that costs $800/mo usually costs $500/mo/person when split between two people for a total of $1000/mo for that room.</p>
<p>Hehe, those dorms are def 2x more costly than apt :(! Does your financial aid (gift aid) decreased once you moved out of the dorms? If it doesn’t then I would actually have extra money to pay back the loans that I may take out for the 1st year!</p>
<p>Thanks for the link by the way :D!</p>
<p>The application is due May 6. If we apply, say, May 5, is it likely that we will not get our first choice house?</p>
<p>@mick, I heard it’ll be a lottery system for everybody who apply before the deadline. I don’t think you get priority based on your file time. I could be wrong since this is what I recalled from some other post :p!</p>
<p>Thanks for your input. Does anyone else have a for-sure answer?</p>
<p>zero priority based on when you submit. All applications, regardless of submission date, as long as they arrive no later than the deadline, are “put into a giant barrel” and each application draws a sequence number randomly. They fulfill your requests beginning with sequence number 1 and working through the list. </p>
<p>For sure answer.</p>
<p>How much time does it take to find a reasonably OK apartment after freshman year? (Considering DS will not have car & will likely not have much time to spend doing it.) Maybe word of mouth from graduating seniors can make it easier?</p>
<p>Thank god! I will save my housing application for much later then. :)</p>
<p>Re: apartment hunting
Not a graduating senior, but I am currently living in an off-campus apt. It took me about three weeks to check Craigslist (once every one or two days), email places I was interested in, set up viewing appointments and sign a lease. I chose to rent a room (in an existing apt) myself though, if one wanted to live with friends then I can see that being a little more work with finding groups of friends, coordinating everyone’s preferences etc.</p>
<p>And yes, financial aid goes down when one moves off-campus.</p>
<p>@Agneisse, even with the financial aid being reduced for living off campus, were you saving or using more money :o?</p>
<p>^ I don’t have financial aid so don’t have the precise numbers for how much $ one receives in each situation (but I’m sure the fin aid office does), but I’d say that by sharing a room reasonably close to campus one can live quite comfortably for $650 a month including rent and (good) food, so multiply that by about 10 (assuming you sublet your apt for the summer - unlikely to find sublets for winter break) and that’s your annual cost. Dorms are the figure they quote on the Housing website, plus a little more each month for additional food and stuff like that. So just compare these ballpark #s to whatever the estimated aid is :)</p>
<p>So if you move to an apartment what in financial aid goes down. Is it pell grant, cal grant or both?</p>
<p>@calbear, from how I see it, they will not reduce your Cal Grant & Pell Grant. However, they will reduce your UCB Undergrad Scholarship. I tried toggling some option to see my new fin aid package and my ucb undergrad scholarships went down to like $400 once I move out of campus :p! My EFC is 0.</p>