<p>Upperclassmen do their USC housing applications sometime in February or March, so that’s probably why you didn’t get any of your choices. Keep in mind, spaces open up in the first few weeks of the semester, too.</p>
<p>Sierra is on Portland which is very close (about 30 feet?) to the Row and houses a lot of Greeks that don’t live in their houses. It’s also right next to Beta, one of the off-row fraternities.</p>
<p>I did just hear, however, that USC banned parties Sunday-Thursday – can anyone verify? – so honestly, the noise/overflow from the Row might not affect you that much with the change.</p>
<p>On Fridays and Saturdays during non-midterm/finals weeks, you’re most likely not going to be sitting in your dorm or apartment (which is when the Row will be at its peak busy hours) so by the time you get back from the movies, your friends’ places, dinner, another party, etc., most things on the Row will be dying down. DPS was cracking down really hard on the Row in my last year mainly because (I think?) of the noise.</p>
<p>The worse thing you might have to deal with would be drunk girls stumbling down Portland between 10pm-2am and the muted sounds of thumping bass from massive speakers. To be perfectly honest, I never lived near the row and I always got worse noise from my neighbors on Ellendale or on 22nd St. My boyfriend lived in non-Greek housing on the actual Row (not off it, like on Portland) and it honestly wasn’t terrible noise-wise. Parking just sucked.</p>
<p>You’ll be close to campus, which is good – and because it’s near the Row, it’s a very safe area with a ton of DPS/Security presence, which I guess is an added bonus? (Because, you could live on 22nd and Hoover like I did senior year…I wish DPS was around there sometimes.) Sierra is also a designated USC Tram stop, which will come in handy more than you think.</p>
<p>The way these USC-owned apartments worked with housing when I lived in Cardinal Gardens was that you were charged a flat rate each semester for it – if this has changed, can anyone hop in? It was added to your USC bill at each semester and it wasn’t more than $50. I remember it was calculated for the whole building, not each individual apartment. </p>
<p>To put it in perspective, you could be living in a house or apartment not owned by USC and have to pay every utility, which adds up. I think for my senior year in a house with one other person, the bills broke down like this, per person:</p>
<p>Rent: $850
Gas $10
Power/Water/Trash: $120
Internet: $20</p>
<p>An off-campus, non-USC apartment usually has some utilities added in; junior year with 3 people in an apartment was like this, per person:</p>
<p>Rent: $600
Gas: $5
Power/Water; trash was included: $40-50
Internet and cable were included</p>
<p>So…my whole point is that utilities in USC-owned housing are actually way cheaper and more cost-effective than living in non-USC housing in the area. It can get expensive!</p>