<p>Alright, so I have the opportunity to get a studio apartment for my freshman year and (presumably) on through my time at Berkeley. It's about $700/month for rent, and I know the landlord. Now, I want to do the dorm thing for at least my freshman year, possibly into sophomore since it's guarenteed for 2 years, but I don't know how long this deal will be available. My friend has also applied to the SF Music Conservatory and if he gets in and goes there, he might room with me in the apartment.</p>
<p>So, to current Berkeley students, do you think I should go with the apartment? What are your experiences with dorm life, both good and bad, that can help me make a decision? </p>
<p>(BTW, this is all assuming I get into Cal, of course.)</p>
<p>If you want a "college experience," go live in the dorms. There will be plenty of time in the future (try the rest of your life even) to live in a rented apartment.</p>
<p>Well Locke, I honestly don't think living in the dorms is fun for everyone -- I certainly didn't like it. I feel much healthier and livelier after moving to an apartment + having my own room, but that's just my own self. The main issue with dorm life is that you really do have to manage the fact that you have roommates. This meant for me that I spent very little time in my room, and went elsewhere a ton to study. Which is kind of annoying. The other thing is, I frankly slept at different times from my roommates...and I'm a light sleeper, and it wasn't exactly easy. I like company a ton, but I need to isolate myself often to really get thinking. </p>
<p>Oh, and the food. My goodness, my roommates now have kept meal plans, but I stopped having one. On good days, it won't be horrible at some points, but really it gets very old rather fast, and isn't that great. Expensive meal plan, which I kind of had to force myself to get through. </p>
<p>You can tell my opinion here is one-sided ;) in all seriousness, 15 minutes to class + my current living situation beats, any day, my former 4 minutes to class + the worse living standards. I would just go with the apartment. I didn't meet a single person through the dorms [my roommates were already known to me], and met everyone I'm good friends with at school through my classes -- and sure, some of which aren't even math classes.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Definitely go for the dorm. You greatly reduce your chances to meet people and make friends in an apartment.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I honestly don't even realize how people make friends through dorms. Though, admittedly, I lived in Foothill, which is primarily for people who want to get some studying done (and often, engineers stay there). OK hold on, then again, also, I lived in this suite-style thing with only one roommate <em>in a separate single room</em> besides my roommates, so we were closed off, plus our single roommate was an incredibly studious must-get-a-4.0-in-EECS guy from Singapore. Wonderful fellow, very nice, but we didn't socialize tons as would be expected. </p>
<p>I really somehow think unless you're really the kind of person to take advantage of the dorm proximity to others actively, you won't meet that many people through it -- really depends on you.</p>
<p>It really is difficult to meet people if you're not in a dorming situation. If you end up somewhere isolated and compartmentalized like Foothill, it's quite a bit like living off-campus anyway, so it will be harder than you (but not quite as hard as it is for someone living off-campus who is also far from campus).</p>
<p>As dill_scout says, the "college experience" includes living in dorms. If you don't care about "the college experience," $700 is pretty good for a studio depending on where it is located. </p>
<p>I never lived in the dorms and also have failed to make any meaningful connections with anybody. Part of this is because I tend to be pretty reserved in the first place, but I'm plenty social in class and around campus -- and still the friends I <em>have</em> made turned out to be ones that live in the same apartment building as I do. </p>
<p>Consider your style of meeting people and making friends when you make your decision; it makes a really big difference.</p>
<p>
[quote]
I never lived in the dorms and also have failed to make any meaningful connections with anybody. Part of this is because I tend to be pretty reserved in the first place, but I'm plenty social in class and around campus -- and still the friends I <em>have</em> made turned out to be ones that live in the same apartment building as I do.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>To avoid this situation, I'd say to attempt to talk to the people in your classes -- I met some of my best friends here by working on classes with them. It must be true, I guess, that dorms somehow help one meet people, but honestly especially after one to two years, you'll probably end up sticking mostly to people in your classes. My friend at Unit 3, one of the most social dorms, definitely didn't meet that many people. In fact, he constantly complained how his living condition was terrible. And I mean, he was actually right -- it wasn't just the fact he was in a dorm, it was the fact that his roommate was very strange, and the floor was pretty wild. </p>
<p>And quite a few very social people I know just can't stand the dorms.</p>
<p>I would definitely live in the dorm if your family can afford to pay the difference... people DO make most of their friends that way. If you intend to join a fraternity you can live in the studio since you will meet a lot of guys (and girls from sorority invites) so the dorms will not be as important. I wouldn't plan on the dorms for two years... they are very expensive. You are lucky to have that connection... No one in Berkeley has that kind of housing deal!</p>
<p>I think it would really depend on what you want.
With the dorms, you're really depending on luck. I mean, it's going to be a random room, random floor, random building, random roommate, etc. So yes, you might get a good dorm experience or you might end up with a crappy one. I'm living in the dorms right now and I'd have to say that I'm not particularly enjoying it.
Besides, if you're in any way sociable, you should be able to meet people despite not being in the dorms.
I say that you should go with the apartment.</p>
<p>Oh, one thing I forgot to mention is that I would be part of the Cal Band, so I could potentially live in Tellefsen Hall. I don't know if that makes a difference...</p>
<p>Dorm: Easy way to meet people, provided that you end up in a good floor though. For me, I hate my floor (living in FH). It's a problem because you have to live with them for an entire year; if you get a good floor though, you'll end up becoming good friends with them, more or less.
Apartment: You're gonna have to meet people usually through class, which can be a little bit more difficult considering how freshmen classes are more than likely really big, except for labs and discussions. However, you do get more room and (hopefully) a space all for yourself, which definitely beats having a roommate (in the same room). </p>
<p>My roommate goes to sleep by like 8, 9 or 10 and I go to bed at like 12, 1, and 2. (And I have to get up by 7 every morning while he gets up at like 10...)</p>
<p>I'd say in the end that living in a dorm is one of the things in college life that you should do, albeit the 50/50 chance. (The 700 dollar deal is good. haha)</p>
<p>Finally, someone who sees what I'm saying! :) The "You will meet absolutely nobody and remain a loner if you don't go to the dorms" thing was fed to me before my freshman year, and it really didn't turn out to be the right advice for me.</p>
<p>I feel like this thread is full of the bad experiences so I’ll offer a more positive dorming experience. </p>
<p>I’m currently living in a Unit 2 triple and I’m rather satisfied with my living arrangements. My roommates and I get along great even though I must say we all have pretty different personalities and sleeping patterns. Certainly there are times when we disagree but we’re all good friends and they tolerate my habits. My floor is also fairly nice (though I can’t say I like everyone on my floor but I can tolerate them). They are very helpful though since I can get a lot of homework help, course materials, advice, etc. from my floormates. For example, one of my floormates lent me her organic chemistry modeling kits for the entire semester so I don’t have to spend $60 buying my own. This is perhaps my favorite part of living in the dorms; everyone around is vaulable resource. </p>
<p>Another thing I enjoy is my floormates’ diversity. I’m a bioengineer so I have class with engineers and premeds way too much for my own liking. Sorry to generalize, but I feel like premeds can get way too competitive and some engineers can be way too arrogant or austere for lack of a better word. I have premed and engineer friends in my classes, but I also enjoy my floormates and roommates for being non-engineers and non-premeds. It’s a refreshing contrast in interaction and perspective. I also feel a great sense of camaraderie with the ones who are engineers and premeds because we’ve all gotten to know each other so well and helped each other out quite a bit. </p>
<p>The hardest part of living in the dorms or just living in close contact with other people in general is being tolerant. Yes, there is going to be drama, disagreements, floorcest, and so on and so forth, but it’ll all pass and so what? Tolerance is an important skill to nurture develop in our ever globalizing society or if ever hope to get a job in the future (and maybe promotions). It’s also a great place to learn new experiences (though some are definitely less pleasant than others). I really feel that living in the dorms is a great learning experience for me even though I’m distracted all the time, spend more time watching movies than I should, don’t like wearing shower shoes, wished the bathroom was cleaner, the dining halls had better and more food choices, my room was not de-bedbugged in between two of my first midterms, my floormate didn’t invade my personal space so much, and so on and so forth. Those are all minor discomforts in the grand scheme of things (life can definitely throw worse crap at you).</p>
<p>I feel that the benefits of living in a dorm once outways the costs for me. You have the rest of your life to live on your own in an apartment if you so wanted to, but dorming is something you can only do now. Personally, I think I would have spent the rest of my life wondering about dorming and regretting not doing it if I didn’t give it a try first, but that’s just me. I almost always give any new experience (save for some involving major health and legal consequences) a shot.</p>
<p>Well I’ll be honest, the main issue for me is that I’m a very light sleeper, and roommates had vastly different class and sleep times, and though they were nice people known to me since middle school, it still was not the simplest thing to manage. College work is of the nature that if you are fresh and well refreshed, it’s going to get done incredibly quicker. So, I really feel like it’s important to be well rested and refreshed. Oh, and to have eaten something reasonable. </p>
<p>I genuinely feel healthier living away from the dorms. It’s more like home life, which I vastly prefer. So it’s really up to the individual. I think the best way is to have people living near you in the apartment situation, so that you have the best of both worlds. I have roommates, and am glad not to be all alone – and we frequently crash each others’ rooms. But we have our own rooms for sanity when we need them.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>This is of course true for some people, though in my case, I was really not happy at all with the situation. Especially frosh year, a lot of people I knew were very loose and didn’t study quite as much, and it was very much not the ideal environment for me…</p>
<p>Well, this is one of the better reasons, and I did meet some people, but honestly, the people I really see often nowadays are those from my major courses. Remember, the farther you go in your college career, the less you’ll see of others. [OK fine, it is intrinsically good to meet nice people even if you’re not going to see them every day in the future…but still…]</p>
<p>Well, to be honest, another reason I love my dorm room so much is because its the closest thing I have to “my own space” right now. My parents turned my bedroom at home into a guest room/office after I went off to college since they figured it was going to be vacant for 3/4 of the year anyways. This an efficient use of space and all, but I really feel displaced since going home means I get to sleep in the guest room now. I’m not the only one who’s parents turned their room into something else. Quite a few of my friends went through the same thing, and coincidentally, we all happened to have siblings.</p>