Hi! I’m having a difficult time choosing my housing preferences and since I can’t make it to Cal Day to see the dorms in person/ask questions, I’d really, really appreciate any info/advice, especially from current students and those of you going to Cal Day tomorrow!!!
I’m a female ChemE major and I’ve heard that Foothill and Stern are conveniently located and have a great dining hall, but I’ve also heard that they’re antisocial??? Is this true? Since I’m an introvert (who enjoys being with extroverts but can be a bit shy at times), I’m not sure that a suite (especially if it’s not very social) would be the best environment for me, and I think that a large floor might make meeting people easier/inevitable:) Because of that and since Foothill’s also so expensive, I’m thinking of Stern, although I have mixed feelings about an all-female hall… (like, I want to interact with males, but not sure if I’m feeling the Units’ co-ed bathrooms;) ). Any current students who can comment on Stern?
I’d really like to learn more about the WiSE theme program. I can’t find any info on it outside of what’s given on the theme program housing website… It would be great to hear about the experiences of/ask questions to anyone who’s participated!
I’m also considering Freeborn in Unit 1; I don’t drink/smoke/do drugs and would ideally not live with people who do. Is Freeborn really substance-free? I mean, in general:) I know it’s college, and although I don’t myself, I’m okay with moderate drinking. How social is it? Does it have a decent atmosphere to study in as well? I don’t party at all lol but I want to be in a place where people are friendly and it’s easy to make friends with my floor-mates. Also, are there no co-ed floors in the Units with single-gender bathrooms?
For all of you going to Cal Day tomorrow, have fun!!! Go Bears!!!
Based on what you’ve said, I’d recommend Foothill.
Here’s why I recommend Foothill, based on your description:
Chem E major: Foothill is much closer than the units to engineering buildings (Stern is close as well).
Genders / bathrooms: You’re likely to be in an all-girls suite, so no sharing bathrooms with guys. On the other hand, you’ll likely have suites of guys next door and on the floors above or below you. So it’s kind of a win-win. Even if you get a mixed-gender suite, all the mixed-gender suites I’ve seen have two bathrooms, so you’re still better off than the totally communal units bathrooms.
Social-ness / drinking / drugs: This somewhat depends on your individual suite, but I’ve found that foothill suitemates tend to be pretty social with each other. I certainly was with my suitemates. At the same time, drinking / drugs seem to be a lot less common than in the units, my suite only had alcohol in the suite something like four times over the course of the year. Personally I think that the suite model is just a lot more enjoyable than traditional dorms - you get more common space and you never have “strangers” in your living space. It also seems to be a bit easier to become good friends with seven suitemates than with seven or so of 40 people on your floor.
Other nice things: The rooms are bigger than any other dorm except Clark Kerr, and the food seems to be better.
The only real negative is price. If it’s too much, I’d recommend requesting a triple, to shave $2000 off and get the price pretty close to Stern / units. Foothill triples are huge, so I wouldn’t worry about space - you’d still be doing better than a units double in terms of space.
With regards to have two bathrooms in mixed gender suite so one bathroom for is male and the other for female, my guy said that it is up to the individual RA to decide whether the bathroom is single gender or mix gender. However, a piece of paper will always be posted to the bathroom door to let people whether it is single or mixed gender.
During Cal Day last week, the Foothill tour guy (he is a RA there) also commented that the food in the Foothill cafe taste better than the Crossroads cafe (largest cafe in Cal and is situated between Residency Halls Unit 1 and Residency Halls Unit 2).
From what I saw freshman year, it tends to be up to the people in the suite if bathrooms are shared or if one is male and one is female - which speaks a bit to the fact that suitemates know each other well enough to make decisions collectively, which doesn’t really happen on floors.
And yeah, food is better that crossroads. Crossroads just generally has a massive number of people eating there compared to foothill’s smaller DC (which is shared with Bowles and Stern).
