<p>I am going to be a freshman at Cal Poly in the fall and am starting to look at housing. Curious to know any personal opinions on any of the dorm choices whether you have lived in them or just seen them.</p>
<p>Here are the choices:
Poly Canyon Village Suite-Style Apartments
Cerro Vista Suite-Style Apartments
Trinity, Santa Lucia, Muir, Sequoia, Fremont, Tenaya
The North Mountain Dorms
Sierra Madre and Yosemite</p>
<p>Starting to lean towards Cerro Vista Suite Style, especially if I get into the honors program, but not too sure on the pros and cons on any of them. </p>
<p>Poly Canyon Village:
Pretty bad for first years. The apartments are nice, but you’ll be stuck in the back of PCV away from all the other freshmen. You also get less food money because they expect you too cook more and use less campus dining. PCV is also the farthest away from campus. Most sophomores live in PCV, so if you can hold off living here for 1 year I would highly advise that.</p>
<p>Cerro Vista Suite-Style Apartments:
Another apartment style, it’s decent. It still lacks the “freshmen dorm” feeling because you’re in an apartment. It can be a bit of a walk depending on which one you’re in (still closer than PCV). Overall, a better option than PCV for freshmen. </p>
<p>Trinity, Santa Lucia, Muir, Sequoia, Fremont, Tenaya:
Also called the “red bricks”, each one is focused towards one of the colleges. For example, trinity is for most liberal arts majors, tenaya for business, and santa lucia for engineering. Each red brick has 3 floors and each floor has 2 wings. Males and females are on one side of the wings. There is a common room in the first floor and a study lounge. They are pretty cramped if you get a triple, but all the dorms are pretty social because you’ll share internal hallways and large bathrooms for your floor.</p>
<p>The North Mountain Dorms:
North mountain is mainly engineering students (60%), but there is a good mix of all majors here. Each of the 5 buildings is motel style meaning the walkways are outside facing. Each room has two doors: 1 to the outside, and 1 to the restroom. 1 restroom is shared between 4 rooms. The north mountain dorms are much more spacious than the red bricks and offer much larger windows and fresh air. North mountain is social, but not as much as the red bricks or the towers, but this may promote better studying habits. North mountain residents don’t have a common area, but have access cards to the entire santa lucia hall giving them a close by study lounge and hangout spot. They are the located nicely equidistant from both of the main dining areas and are a short walk to the engineering buildings and library.</p>
<p>Sierra Madre and Yosemite:
The towers are supposedly themed, but from what I’ve heard it makes very little difference. The buildings are concrete and ugly, but if you can get over the aesthetics it isn’t that bad. There is a common are for each of the towers and they are located slightly far off campus. (Other side of campus than PCV). Often there will be lots of parties here weekends because it is the farthest off campus. If you don’t like excessive noise and partying, then this might not be the place for you. </p>