<p>There’s an 80% chance I’ll be attending UC Davis next year.
Tell me about each area and how exciting or boring it is.</p>
<p>*Don’t send me the UCD housing link. I read it a couple times and still don’t know where I’d like to live.</p>
<p>Cuarto’s ridiculously far. During winter, the number ONE thing you don’t wanna be doing is travelling in the cold and rain. If you do end up here, you can always take the bus back to campus (don’t worry, it’s free for students). I do know the suites are super nice and big, and you get your own bathroom which is AMAZING. Generally though, you don’t want to request Cuarto because you might just get it anyway. Cuarto also has its own private pool.</p>
<p>Segundo is nearest to Rite-Aid, the ARC, and the University Mall (Old Tea house, Hawaiian BBQ, etc.). I know the floors for a lot of these buildings do not have carpet, so if you have friends over it’s gonna suck for them to sleep on the floor. Fortunately, the new dorms (Alder, Thompson, Miller), where the honors people live, are much nicer with lounges on every floor and generally newer and better buildings. If you’re planning on participating in Greek life or just partying/socializing a lot, this is the OPTIMUM place because you’re so close to the rest of the city and frats. Plus, people who want to live in Segundo generally want to party after school gets out so you’re living with the people you want to hang out with. Great, right?</p>
<p>Tercero is closest to the science/engineering classes. It’s also where I am personally living at now, and it’s really a blessing to be able to walk to class in 2 minutes. You do smell cow, but not in the winter and you really do get used to it. The Pierce and Thille (A-M) buildings do not have elevators, so if you’re stuck on the 3rd floor like me, you gotta deal with it. They also only have one lounge and a study room on the first floor, but this is perfect for socializing because most people in Segundo only know their floormates whereas we know most of our entire building. They have one bathroom per floor (1st and 3rd floor girls, 2nd for guys, EXCEPT for K building which is opposite). However, the new buildings (Kearney and Laben, and they’re also in the middle of constructing brand new dorms!) do have elevators and multiple lounges and bathrooms. Those are superrrrr nice, about the equivalent of Alder/Emerson/Miller in Segundo.</p>
<p>*If you choose to live in Segundo, one way to guarantee your spot there is to join the ISHP (honors program). I don’t know if DHC (the other honors program) does housing. Also, you get priority registration if you are in honors! Now THAT is nothing short of a miracle.</p>
<p>**If you choose to live in Tercero and you don’t mind living in Pierce/Thille, pick a theme house to guarantee your residency in Tercero. The people are not as creepy as you think they might be. Just exercise some common sense, i.e. if you don’t love asians then you might not want to live in the APATH building, if you’re a guy you probably shouldn’t request the all-girls building. Now, for a personal tangent: If you are an engineer, K building is the BEST place to be because your classes are probably the hardest thing you’re ever gonna experience in college, so getting help and forming good relationships with other engineers is the best thing possible.</p>
<p>***If you want to live in Cuarto, just go with the system and see if you end up there. If you’re not in Cuarto, trust me there are PLENTY of people who would die to trade with you. Just ask around and request a room swap.</p>
<p>And now, roommate tip: it’s completely random. You can find your new best friend, or you could be uncomfortable the entire year. To minimize surprises and inconvenience, room with a friend. Otherwise, if you don’t mind opening up your life to a complete stranger, by all means go for it. Just don’t expect anything: I’m a 1st year, and my roommate is a 3rd year!</p>
<p>Hope that long explanation helped? I tried to add some things you can’t really find on the student housing page. Feel free to ask more questions!</p>
<p>My GOD! Thanks so much. It really helped a lot.
I like the idea of knowing the whole building but the social life of Segundo sounds pretty fun. I want that party feel. But yet, I still dont know. I think 'll have to see the place for myself.</p>
<p>Cuarto isn’t <em>ridiculously</em> far. I mean, you’re probably going to end up even further from campus after freshman year when you move into your apartment/house. But yeah, it is generally the least desired dorm area since it is removed from campus, and people who designate Cuarto as their last choice often get placed there anyway.</p>
<p>Malcolm/Ryerson, the newer pair of high rises, are carpeted while Bixby/Gilmore aren’t. These buildings have a little “secret” compartment in which previous residents sometimes leave something for next year’s occupants, like a note or a tequila bottle (hah).
Miller is the only honors building. Regarding ISHP, that’s by invitation only, so you don’t really get to decide to opt into the program. You can apply for DHC, and if you get in you’d live in Kearney, one of the new buildings at Tercero. If you really want to live in Segundo North, you could apply for the African American theme program. Here’s a list of theme programs and their corresponding buildings: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-california-davis/717260-theme-programs.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-california-davis/717260-theme-programs.html</a></p>
<p>Tercero is super-close to a lot of the buildings you’d be in for class. As a non-biker, I kinda wish I had this luxury. But it does smell a lot worse there. Segundo only gets a whiff of the cow smell every once in a while when the winds carry it up here. The construction may be distracting too with all the noises and whatnot–one of the reasons I didn’t want Tercero.</p>
<p>hah yeah, the random roommate process is a gamble, some of my friends who did that ended up with jerkwad roommates. One of my friends had a nice roommate at Cuarto, but she transferred to Segundo because she wanted to be on campus. Let’s just say her roommate now isn’t very considerate. She wanted to transfer again… one of the options student housing gave her was actually a girl that used to be my other friend’s roommate (that friend transferred to a single after first quarter). So you’ll want to be careful about transferring between dorms, especially in Segundo and Tercero, since the open spaces are more likely to be the “bad” roommates.</p>
<p>Theyre all pretty even but…
Segundo is where its at! i know a lot of people at cuarto who hate it there and want to leave… and some actually moved to segundo.
Tercero… my friends there like it…(i hate the cow smell) but they seem to run into power outages during big storms… lol! buttt tercero is building 4 new big dorms right now, hopefully open by next year. I hear they are removing the high risers in segundo next year for renovation… so… iono.</p>
<p>Yupp, listen to herman! Tercero will have four new buildings scheduled to open in the Fall, while Segundo will significantly be downsized during renovations. Cuarto is really nice… I love how serene it is. If you plan to bring your car up for whatever reason, this is the only place you can park it. It’s really not that far from campus, and there are bus stops right in front of the dorms that come pretty frequently.</p>
<p>By the way, if any of you current freshmen use the computer center, you’ve probably seen me since I work there. =D</p>