UC Berkeley Dorms for Freshman

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of California - Berkeley
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@ccinfo2

  1. How safe is BART at night? Can she take BART and then uber from there to the dorm?
    It’s a subway. It’s pretty busy, a lot of times standing room only. Takes about twice as long as driving. I, personally, wouldn’t take the BART alone at night, but that’s just because I haven’t done it before. Some BART stations are shadier than others. The Oakland Airport to Rockridge BART, then the 51B to the dorms is acceptable. Rockridge is pretty rich, Oakland Airport BART is for people who take planes, and the 51B is 90% college students, comes every 15 minute and is a 15-20 minute trip to the dorms. Downtown Berkeley is passable normally, but not the best when both alone and at night compared to Rockridge. BART and Uber are usually an either/or because the BART station is pretty close to campus and there are a lot of buses near the BART which go straight to the dorms. (Buses are safe. Lots of different people, but safe).
  1. If my daughter ends up in Clark Kerr - can she take bus to far off classes? Yeah! 79 every 30 minutes right outside the complex. 51B every 15 minutes 3 blocks away (5-7 minute walk? Maybe less). Everyone gets a free bus pass and most people get the Transit app which tells you when the next bus is coming with a map of where the bus currently is, updated every few minutes. It's pretty accurate. Otherwise 15-26 minute walk, great for exercise, listening to music or podcasts. Seriously, message me and I will be excited to walk you around Clark Kerr, show you some dorm rooms, our dining hall has dinner from 5:30-8:00 that you should totally try out and if you want to crash Physics/Bio/Theater in American Cultures/Econ you can come to class with me.
  2. What do your kids do if they have to stay late in the library? It sounds like the dorms are scattered. Do they walk alone or wait for Bear Walk? I have heard that Bear Walk can take up to an hour. There's the night shuttle every 30 minutes. There's a website that also shows real time where the shuttles are. They go right up to the dorms, even closer than the buses (at least for Clark Kerr), but the app is sort of a pain to find, so bookmark it.
  3. I have also read on Niche that sexual assaults are on the rise. Is that true? From the comments above, parents don't seem to be too concerned about the safety other than taking the regular precautions. They give us a whole lot of sexual assault training. There's an online required class which technology forces you to pay attention to, a 2 hour mandatory lecture during orientation, posters everywhere, and whenever you go to a frat party the frat guy at the door won't let you in until you're told the 5 pillars of consent. They have covered all of their bases. There's also Path to Care and you're educated about all of your options in the instance of sexual assault. So to answer your question, I don't think so? If there are more reported cases it's because they're doing a really good job about clarifying definitions and educating the populace.
  4. Another complaint I have heard often is students finding affordable housing after Freshman year as the housing is not guaranteed after that. Any advice/comments? Off campus housing is cheaper (850$ per month vs 1000$ not including food for either) so even if people get offers for sophomore year, they don't take them. But if you wait long enough to get an offer sophomore year, you usually do. There's 3 waves: mid march, late March, and late April (much smaller) (probably because people keep turning down their offers in each wave so there's always housing left over for the next wave). Usually people find off campus housing before the last wave though. As far as I know, everyone who applied for on campus housing has got an offer. I got mine end of spring break. I'm in the don't worry about it, there's always graduating seniors camp. There's also the make craigslist your homepage camp. It's messy but everyone finds housing before they need it if they put a mild bit of effort in.
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Here’s sort of an expensive but interesting option, if you can afford it, re: off campus housing. Many years ago (early 2000s) I bought a condo in the Marina Bay part of the city of Richmond, about a 15-20 minute drive to the UC campus. Unfortunately for me, the housing prices didn’t really spike up much in that area, so the area is relatively speaking affordable. You could probably buy a one bedroom condo for $300k or a 2 bedroom for $375K (very cheap for he Bay Area) and rent out one of the rooms for say $900 a month, then use the other room for your kid. The area is very close to the Richmond Ferry terminal which is a 30 minute ferry ride to SF. It’s a beautiful area, along the water. I think that pricing will eventually go up a lot there.

Once my kid turns into a sophomore, if he can tolerate the 20 minute commute and tight parking, that’s going to be his housing.

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So much good info guys! For an aspiring PublicHealth major (general classes, science classes), what dorm do you recommend? Sorry this question is so vague, I recently committed :slight_smile: Clark Kerr sounds really nice, would I be able to meet people around that dorm?

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OP, yes, lots of people at Clark Kerr. Since it’s a bit separated from the other dorms, it might be even more of a “hey, we’re kind of out here on our own so let’s all band together” thing, but @Walter924 would have a better idea of the culture there. Clark Kerr rooms are slightly bigger than the older dorms, but the trade-off is distance from campus. You will just need to give yourself a bit more time to get there and back. Keep that in mind along with whether you are an early bird or not, and how early you think your classes will be.

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@AYF9510 Yeah, it’s a bit closer knit because the same people come to the dining hall every day. Not too many people are willing to make the walk to Clark Kerr (from the units) or to Crossroads (from CKC), so the same people are there at the same time every day. In Building 12, at least, the rooms are so big that we don’t even have to bunk our beds, but then we only have 2 closets. Other buildings, especially 8 and 9 (since I’ve seen those) have bunking, but a higher density of closets and at least one room they managed to fit a couch in there. There’s some good hiking trails around Clark Kerr, some volleyball, tennis courts, and gym. Some buildings have a kitchen or small fitness center (think hotel). There’s a senior living center at the back of the complex so Bill and Jim come eat dinner at CKC dining hall pretty often. They have some good stories involving wars and the hippie era. There’s always a busy lounge with people.
The 79 stops right outside and drops you right next to campus in 10 minutes. Music and podcasts are great walking entertainment. Relaxing.
I like Clark Kerr dining hall. Crossroads has too many people and lines. Cafe 3 is isolationist with few people sitting or talking with each other. Foothill is small, actually pretty similar to Clark Kerr, but we have better weekend brunches, and foothill suites are expensive. Clark Kerr looks like Harry Potter and on Harry Potter fancy food day, they had a lot of cool desserts like butter beer, some green sprite ice cream thing, a cold stone like ice cream station (made for you), and delicious cupcakes with waffle cone hats.
For the sake of everyone who’s not in Clark Kerr:
Crossroads has a lot of food diversity, with both normal food and Fusion, so 2 main dishes, and it’s spread out but with good sight lines. You can usually find someone you know pretty easily. Cafe 3 has both breakfast and lunch 10-2 every day which is great at 1pm when you crave pancakes and pastries. It’s got a lot of good niches and was recently remodeled.

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What dorms should she be looking into to stay closer to classrooms?
My daughter started in 2015, and chose to live in Freeborn Hall (Unit 1), the substance-free dorm. Many of my daughter’s friends actually did drink alcohol and smoked, but chose Freeborn as they claimed it was a cleaner and quieter dorm versus the other buildings in Unit 1. Her floor was quite social (approx. 10 rooms per floor) and went out often during the weekend. Anyone accepting a place in Freeborn has to pledge not to engage in drinking alcohol, smoking or doing drugs. Some kids who would go to parties during the weekend, if they drank alcohol then they would have to sleep over at friends’ dorms to avoid getting caught and expelled from Freeborn. She really enjoyed the people she met there, and has stayed close to all her floor mates. Then for her sophomore year, she had to move out of the dorm. When my daughter was accepted in 2015, her letter stated that she was guaranteed housing for two years, however, at the end of freshman year, she was told to look for other housing options as most probably they would not be able to accommodate her. My son will attend UC Berkeley in the Fall 2018, and even though he is in engineering, he is applying to Blackwell Hall (the new dorm) and Freeborn in Unit 1, as his top choices. It is important to note that most Freshmen do not want to commit to the Freeborn substance-free lifestyle for an entire semester/year, so it is usually easier to get a spot here if you select it as a top choice.

Based on my daughter’s and her friends’ experiences, do not choose a dorm based on the location of your classes, but rather on what type of Freshman Experience is desired. Both of my kids are very social, and wanted to be close to shops and restaurants, so Unit 1 was perfect. At the end, Berkeley classes start on what is called “Berkeley Time” and students somehow always make it “on time,” even when arriving 10 minutes after the hour.

How safe is the campus and surrounding areas for students? Reading some of the online reports is making me very nervous.
My daughter is quite active in several campus organizations and walks everywhere on campus, and she has never had an incident. She also schedules her classes before 6:00 p.m. and when she goes out in the evening, she is usually in a group. Last semester, she had an evening class until 9:00 p.m., and she called Bear Walk to escort her home. Bear Walk has worked for her fairly well, except during peak times (Midterms and Finals), when the wait times can be considerably longer (on one occasion she waited for 45 minutes).

  1. How do students get to and from airport? My daughter has used Uber with no problem. Getting to the airport is also possible with Bart, but it is not a direct trip. Your daughter would have to take the Bart in the Berkeley Downtown station to the Coliseum station, and then transfer there to take a direct Bart to Oakland or San Francisco airports.

UC Berkeley is indeed and amazing place, with amazing professors, and incredible students. Even though academics are rigorous,my daughter has found her classmates to be cooperative and never cutthroat (she is in STEM) . So when my son got his acceptance, he did not think it twice. Congratulations and welcome to Cal!

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Thank you so much y’all for the very detailed responses. This gives me a clear picture. My daughter is visiting this weekend and can’t wait to hear her experience when she gets home.

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Hehe this will be one crowded weekend at UCB. We’ll all get to step inside the dorms and take a look for ourselves (not Blackwell unfortunately, don’t see how it will be finished by August based on what I see).

BTW this past weekend I walked from the front of Clark-Kerr to the Amazon store next to the Student Union and it took 22 minutes. A lot of it was slightly downhill so it will take longer to walk back.

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@tepui1 My D was also in Freeborn (built in 1960) her freshman year. Her roommate urged them to pick it because it would probably be quieter and cleaner. Except for the noise drifting from the frat houses across the street on weekends, that assessment was accurate. D was sold because she’s not really a party girl, but much to their surprise (and the roommate’s chagrin), they learned that the “substance free” bit means all the time you are living at Freeborn - in the dorm, on campus, off campus, etc. I wouldn’t say enforcement was ridiculous, but you just won’t find a bunch of partiers wanting to live there, so managing that probably isn’t as tough as it sounds. Freeborn has all co-ed floors except for the 7th (where my kid wound up, not by choice). Lots of STEM students who are a bit more serious - two of D’s roommates this year were from her floor - so that’s one of the places she found her people. Rolled the dice for sophomore year and got into a Martinez Commons apartment (less than 10 years old) - sweet gig, but it’s off campus next year.

BTW, when D applied in fall of 2015, Cal was guaranteeing 1 year of on-campus housing. Later in the year, when she was accepted, we were tooling through the website and it said that housing wasn’t guaranteed for even the FIRST year. Thank goodness for the new dorm opening up, but housing at Cal is and will continue to be an issue.

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My two year experience with housing

  1. Applied
  2. They sent email to @berkeley.edu email which I didn’t know existed. (on the other hand. Got a double suite in Stern which was my first choice)
  3. Housing Expired in 2 weeks
  4. Found out about email account. Freaked out. Emailed and called reshall
  5. Got put on waitlist for housing
  6. Got CKC triple. Both my roommates also messed up their housing. One was in China on a trip. The other also had the email issue.
  7. Applied for sophomore housing.
  8. Waited a bit. They do waves.
  9. Got CKC double apartment. Expensive compared to off campus. Cheap compared to suites and residence halls.
    It’s messy, but if you wait long enough, you almost always get offered something somewhere.
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@undercrackers So true! I had forgotten about the frats across Freeborn. My D got lucky and was on a high floor away from the street, so noise was not bad. Thank you for adding that perspective!

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@Walter924 points out something very important - make sure you check ALL of your email accounts (including the @berkeley.edu) for communications from the school. You don’t want to miss important stuff like this.

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does anyone have any updated info on blackwell? I know it’s new this year, but curious

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I pass by the campus a couple of times a week and it almost seems like there’s no progress on things. But with everything covered up it’s hard to tell. Though everyone insists it will be ready by August. I’ve heard that people will be moved to temporary housing if assigned to Blackwell and things are not ready in August.

A slight negative is that there will be no cafeteria in this building - need to use Cafe 3 in Unit 3.