<p>There are several housing options for freshman, ranging from dorms to apartments to suites. If accepted, you will receive a housing packet in which you list your top four choices, and if you submit it early enough, you will probably get one of your choices. So here's the breakdown of freshman housing:
New/North - most social dorms
Birnkrant - also fairly social
Pardee - also fairly social, not as much as the above
Marks - quieter, honors floors are here, less rowdy
Parkside - suites & apartments, best cafeteria, lots of international students, less social
Fluor - suites, somewhat social but also far away from most other freshman housing
Century - apartments - this is where i lived; apartments are what you make of them, not stereotypically very socail but they can be, include kitchens, living rooms, pool
Cardinal Gardens - apartments, not as social as Century because they are much bigger, majority of athletes are housed here
Radisson - overflow students get placed in the Radisson which is sweet, but you cannot request it, and you may be forced to move into regular housing at any time it becomes available</p>
<p>thanks, trojang05, very helpful. A few more questions....</p>
<p>DO I NEED TO THINK AHEAD? I think I would like to be in a fairly social dorm the 1st year or two, then move to apartment or suite later. But do I need to request an apt now to be able to get it later? Do upperclassmen usually get their choice of housing, or do they get booted off campus? </p>
<p>And does "fairly social", which I think I maybe want, like Birnkrant or Pardee, mean I will have to go to the library every night to be able to concentrate? I will REALLY NEED TO STUDY, think engineering, but I also want to be social and enjoy all the school spirit and meeting all kinds of new people, that SC is so famous for. I don't want too rowdy, well unless it is a football weekend FIGHT ON!!!but I also think a quiet dorm with everybody's doors shut sounds like a boring place to live. Any thoughts on this? </p>
<p>thanks!</p>
<p>messedup- trojangirlie pretty much answered your question. Freshmen get to choose where they want to live unless they are full, and what she gave you are your options. </p>
<p>premier- You go year to year requesting housing, so you don't apply for a future apartment now. They have a process called R3, which is for returning students applying for USC housing.</p>
<p>There is no age superiority to get into housing. Freshmen get the dorms, and there are only a limited amounts of spots for sophomores. The rest of the students apply for apartments (while I guess we are "booted off campus" as you said, most WANT or are ready to be), and each person gets a random lottery number, no matter what year you are. The lottery number determines the date and time of your appointment to schedule housing. If your first choice is filled up, you have to choose something else. If the people you are planning to live with have higher lottery numbers, you can be bumped up with them. If you want to return to the same apt that you were in the previous year, you are pretty much guaranteed it, and don't need to worry about the lottery process.</p>
<p>premier, it sounds like you are going to be an awesome SC student! Look at all that spirit! I love it. :) Since I never lived in Birnkrant or Pardee, I can't say for sure, but I think you would be able to make it work. You can close your door when need be, and you should be fine. And you are right next door to the library, if you really do want/need to go there sometimes. There are also study lounges in Birnkrant that you can use. So I can't be sure on how suitable to engineering studying it truly is, but I think you can choose what you want to make it.</p>