<p>I TOTALLY FORGOT TO TURN IN THE HOUSING CONTRACT! I asked them through email if I can hopefully get my spot. DAMMIT! GOd I'M SO FREAKING RETARDED! do you think that I can still get my dorm at foothill?</p>
<p>You better hope someone gets themselves rescinded.</p>
<p>O God... this sux ass... is there any other places I could stay?</p>
<p>Are there any miracle stories where a person still gets a dorm even though they still didn't turn in an application?</p>
<p>y don't u call the housing people?</p>
<p>I don't think it's copen till monday. Do you guys think i'm screwed?</p>
<p>Here's what it was like for me living in Foothill. Please note that these are my views and only represent one perspective. Every Friday night a bunch of drunken frat pledgies return to their rooms at 3 a.m. and make huge rackets. Once every so often your roommate needs to pull an all-nighter and you have to sleep with the lights on. Some people like to blast loud music that can be heard across the entire floor. You get no privacy whatsoever. No one's doing anything wrong, but these problems are inevitable when living with others, and when you live in a dorm you have to learn to deal with these things. I had some occasional good times with floormates, but for the most part people were very occupied in their own business. Many people stay in their rooms typing on their computers all day long, doing God-knows-what. I'm a CS major and I didn't need to use the computer more than 2-3 hours a day. On Friday nights about 80-90% are out -- some socializing, some abusing substances, some doing frat-pledging work, some doing God-knows-what.</p>
<p>However, no one's forcing you to live in a dorm. For one-half to three-quarters of the price, you can stay in an apartment, get a single room, set your own sleeping schedule, have privacy, etc. You should see this as an opportunity. I respect the fact that some people like living in dorms, and there's nothing wrong with that. But when you add price to the list of concerns, the choice becomes obvious -- less than 25% of my floormates said they were returning to a dorm next year. You can find apartments easily through craigslist.com -- the supply is quite high (though finding a good combination of price and location may rather difficult. At least all studio apartments I know of are cheaper than dorms.)</p>
<p>EDIT - One more possible concern is finding study buddies. Actually, the chances of finding someone in your exact same class and section are quite slim, even though Foothill is noted for its high concentration of engineering/science majors. Find study buddies through your discussion/lab sections and get their AIM names and phone numbers -- these work out the best.</p>
<p>but the problem is... i have to pay for everything in an appartment like internet... bills crap like that right? I don't think I would be able to handle that stuff.</p>
<p>Many apartments have all utilities covered (except perhaps internet, but you or your parents can sign up for a one-year plan.)</p>
<p>thanks... i might go into that... do you know where i can find single room apartments?</p>
<p>Living in the dorms is easier, I think. Also, people sometimes forget to factor in food for price of living in apartments. Also, finding an apartment is tough, and many people live in apartments with other people, although often times someone or many, sometimes all of them get their own room.</p>
<p>o yea... forgot about the food factor... damn that's going to suck.</p>
<p>It's okay I lived in an apartment for my first year too.</p>
<p>Yeah, dorm-life at Berkeley wasn't exactly the close-knit experience I was expecting. Don't expect too much and try to find your own clique as fast as possible wherever you live.</p>
<p>Hypnos did you live by yourself? Was it hard to get food and all that stuff?</p>
<p>One of my friends said that she never turned in her housing contract but somehow got a double in Unit 2... I don't know how much credibility this story has though.</p>
<p>A few suggestions:
-Get on the dorm waitlist asap
-Private dorms like Telegraph Commons
-The co-ops
-Rent an apartment and get a food contract with a co-op</p>
<p>Suggest you investigate on the web this weekend, and start calling on Monday. There is a CAL housing office that can assist regarding options outside of dorms.</p>
<p>Food a problem? No way.</p>
<p>Ordering a meal plan for the school dining commons is easy. You pay something like $200 more for not being a dorm resident, but the thousands you save by not living in a dorm more than makes up for that.</p>
<p><a href="http://caldining.berkeley.edu%5B/url%5D">http://caldining.berkeley.edu</a> for details.</p>
<p>omg, that sucks...</p>
<p>Craigslist for off-campus housing has more expensive listings than those from the Cal Housing dept, because it costs landlords nothing to post there, so they "fish" for the upper market.</p>
<p>The most optimal housing solution for your last two years at least is to get together with a group of friends and rent an apartment or a house. You'll get the best of all worlds: cheap, social and pleasant. You'll split one broadband connection, subscriptions to newspapers/magazines and maybe even share meals, have backyard BBQs and dip into the low-price high-quality Berkeley food scene. You can also look for rooms in houses and land in a nice setup with a cool group of students. If you look at a dozen houses, at least one will be great (or a great fit.)</p>
<p>I-House is a good dorm if you want to stay on-campus past your soph year, nice building, decent food, pretty good social life, perfect location. It's also a "mature" dorm with a fair amount of privacy and you have a large number of residents to make lifelong friendships. A few of my friends from there ended up marrying other residents.</p>