<p>What are the best choices? Can anyone offer some insight?</p>
<p>I tried using the search feature with the terms ‘transfer housing’ for the Berkeley forum. Here’s the page link: <a href=“Search results for '' - College Confidential Forums”>Search results for '' - College Confidential Forums;
<p>This reddit post on the same topic is helpful: <a href=“http://www”>http://www</a>. reddit . com/r/berkeley/comments/240cjt/transfer<em>student</em>here<em>whats</em>a<em>good</em>housing/</p>
<p>Wada (unit 2) is great. It’s mostly new junior transfers, with some second year sophomores/seniors mixed in. Wada is apartments, each has two double (or triple) bedrooms, a little lounge/common room (couch, chairs, table), a bathroom (cleaned once a week), and a kitchen (full fridge, stove, oven, microwave, sink, cabinets, big table w/ 4 chairs). You also aren’t forced on a meal plan, but can get it if you want (don’t do it). And it’s the cheapest “dorm” option. Only downside is that it’s considered off-campus for aid.</p>
<p>There’s also Martinez apartments, those are 4 single rooms (bedrooms are tiny) per apartment, similar set up as Wada. I don’t think it’s quite as transfer oriented, but it’s still all upper division. And there’s channing-bowditch, but I’ve not lived there and it’s a bit different than the other apartments. Also considered off-campus for aid.</p>
<p>The other housing options will be predominantly freshmen… living with freshmen isn’t too bad, but you probably won’t have as much in common with them. Mini-suites/suites are considered on-campus for aid, and you’ll have a semi-private bathroom if sharing with the floor doesn’t appeal to you, but those are kinda expensive and still mostly freshmen. Otherwise, it’s up to you what you want.</p>
<p>Will I get the same amount of financial aid package if I live in Wada apartments vs the dorms? In what way will it be different?</p>
<p>How do housing applications for UCB work? Is it first come first serve? I’m scared I’m going to turn in my app too late and be stuck with freshman or something… lol</p>
<p>@failure622 </p>
<p>What’s the best on-campus housing? </p>
<p>@ocnative That depends on what you’re looking for. Price? Distance to campus? Bathroom situation? Room size? Not everyone wants the same things… and given the housing lottery, there’s a chance you won’t get your first choice anyways. 
But it’s really hard to pick a “best” (outside of the apartments) without knowing what you care about.</p>
<p>@failure622 By freshmen, do you mean students entering Cal as freshmen?</p>
<p>@LaysOriginal Yes, that’s usually who lives in dorms… first year students, fresh out of highschool, just entering college. There are certainly older students/transfers that stay in the dorms as well, but there are few relative to the number of incoming freshmen.</p>
<p>@failure622 So do sophomore, junior, and senior live in dorm? Or do most freshmen live off-campus after their fist year?</p>
<p>@LaysOriginal
Most freshman and transfer move out of dorms after their 1st year at Berkeley. </p>
<p>What are the dorms that most transfer students live in? I know that most move out of dorms but I’d like to try on campus housing for one year </p>
<p>@ocnative Wada and Martinez (the apartment dorms) tend to have the most transfers. The rest are mostly freshmen.</p>
<p>@failure622
Do many students live off campus? Do you recommend it, or is on campus generally better? I would like to be in a social atmosphere, but also have my own bedroom. Thank you!</p>
<p>Anyone else know anything about how popular it is to live off campus?</p>
<p>@failure622 </p>
<p>Isn’t that off-campus only though? What about on-campus?</p>
<p>@music1990 I would recommend on-campus if you don’t know anyone else at Cal. If you’ve already got best friends there and you can find a good place off-campus, might as well. If you come in knowing nobody, I’d say campus housing is pretty good. But you probably won’t get your own bedroom unless you’re in Martinez.</p>
<p>I’m not sure what ratio of transfers live on/off campus. I know the ratios from the floors I’ve lived on, though. In the mini-suites, on my floor of about 40 people, there were 3 transfers including me (one moved out shortly after), one continuing junior (the RA), and I think 1 or 2 sophomores… the rest were freshmen. In Wada it’s a bit more mixed, there were 2 seniors (transferred last year), maybe 5 or 6 sophomores, RA is a junior, and about 20 new transfers. Anyways, it’s hard to judge just by looking at a handful of floors, but that should give you an idea. A majority of students seek non-dorm options after their first year, I’m not sure how many new transfers choose to live on/off campus.</p>
<p>@ocnative They’re only off-campus for aid purposes… something about no meal plan makes it different than the other options. It IS on campus in terms of everything else… you’ll be living with other new students, the location is in/near the other dorms, you can get a meal plan if you want it, there’ll be dorm events, you’ll have an RA, and you get the usual dorm resources (mail room, laundry, security monitors, housekeeping, study rooms, rescomp, wifi…). If being on-campus in terms of aid is important to you, there’s not really a “best” or popular option for transfers, as far as I know.</p>
<p>So I haven’t SIRed but I will as soon as I talk to my TAP counselor this Tuesday, what would be the best options for someone who is about to transfer this Fall? I want to be able to meet new people but I also do not really want to deal with Freshmen… </p>
<p>@failure622
Thanks for the response. Where do you live? What has your personal experience been? Also, are you a social person and has it been easy to meet people? And what is it like sharing a bedroom, assuming you do? Thanks again!</p>
<p>@music1990
I transferred two years ago, my first year I ended up in a unit 1 mini-suite. I had some bad luck with roommates (first moved out halfway through first semester, new one was nice but not much in common). My floor in general was pretty quiet. I mean, people were nice, I just didn’t talk to many of them. When it came time to figure out housing for the next year, I wasn’t too close to anyone in the dorms, and everyone else I knew already had housing figured out, was a guy, was graduating… etc. So I went for dorms again, and landed in Wada. Definitely prefer it to mini-suites, the rooms are nicer. And the floor is a lot more social than mine had been the year before… some rooms are quiet and we never see them, but we’re friends with about half of the floor, and they come over to visit a lot. How social your floor is will depend on your neighbors though… remember that it’s a whole new group of people living there each year!</p>
<p>I’m not a social person. I like having people around to talk to and hang out with, but I’m usually pretty quiet and not a party person. I haven’t had trouble making friends in the dorms or in class, though. Actually, I probably make more friends in class, but that’s because EECS projects and problem sets are miserable alone. Those who are more social or like to party don’t seem to have trouble meeting people either.</p>
<p>Sharing a bedroom will depend on who your roommate is. It’s a bit of a lottery… roommate questionnaire helps some, but you never know when you go random. My first year I had bad luck… first roommate was passive aggressive, rude, always coming home drunk and throwing up at 3am, and eventually moved out and stole my fridge. So, in that situation having a roommate was absolutely miserable. My second roommate was really nice, but she was a morning person which didn’t work out too well. But we got along okay and didn’t have any problems living together. This year I really like my roommates… they’re really fun, we do things together, and we all agree on when bedtime/studytime is. So, it varies a lot. Personally I still prefer having my own room, but only because I’m a really light sleeper and I hate sleeping with earplugs. But apart from that, you kinda get used to having a roommate, and so long as you’re both relatively reasonable people and willing to compromise a bit, it usually works out.</p>
<p>Whoops, that ended up long…</p>