Hi! I recently was admitted to USC and need to fill out the housing application soon as it is directed on a first-come-first-serve basis. I’m not familiar with the buildings and was wondering if I can get some input on that. I want to be social but not overly social in that my floor is constantly flooded with people. I would like AC and a nice room, but nothing over the top.
Also, for finding roommates, is it better to find someone through FB or get matched by preferences on the housing application? I feel the outcome is similar as you can’t completely get to know someone through FB so either way isn’t foolproof. I just want someone that shares the same practices as me, and I feel I’d get that through the housing application.
I concur with the above… recommend suites in either Parkside (not International) or the new USC Village… followed by suites in Fluor. As for meeting potential roommates, there are a variety of potential ways… here on CC or via Facebook or trying to use the USC Housing portal itself. If you really want Parkside, you may also want to consider for one of the Special Interest Communities there… that will guarantee placement there if approved.
Fill out the app, put down any choices and submit to get your place in line. You can go back in and change it.
If you want AC then Village, Parkside or Fluor but be prepared for different social experience than the dorms. Fluor is very isolating and closed door. Parkside is on the other side of campus, close to engineering. I would add additional factors to AC as the highest priority of your USC living experience. It is California, not the south. There is a reason shacks go for millions here.
If you don’t care about AC and want social aspect (but not party dorm, just super friendly atmosphere with lots of activities and ways to meet people) then Birkrant, Pardee, Marks Tower would be our priority. New North is definitely known as the fun dorm. Birkrant kept some of it’s honors reputation and there is a Starbucks in the bottom of it.
Do not put all five configurations in one building because if full, then they get to make your “second choice” and will put you wherever they want. Give them some choices. I think people are going to be surprised where they end up when Village is full since sophomores were already assigned most of those. But there isn’t a bad living arrangement at USC, truly.
Kids that are interested in going Greek live in New North. It has been known that way for years. It has a big sorority/fraternity contingency that chooses to live there.
The entire freshman quad area (Birkrant, Pardee, Marks, etc.) is one of the most magical places you can live, even without AC. It is where you do the most as a freshman and can meet the most freshman. USC is a HUGE school with 40,000 people, a lot of them graduate students. In the freshman quad area it is great to be grabbing coffee at that Starbucks or sitting out by the pond with other freshman. If you are throwing frisbee in the lawn, or studying at a table outside, it is freshman sitting next to you and walking by. Anyone in that area is a freshman - all those buildings might as well be considered one building, they way everyone interacts. So if you choose or end up in the freshman quad area it will be great too.
When trying to choose for my fourth at USC, we polled 15-20 current seniors (yes, that many, all of my sons friends when they were seniors last year), they all said the same thing - whether they had lived in the freshman quad or lived elsewhere as freshman - they all agreed, if they had to do it over again they would live in the freshman quad area. It is so much easier to make friends over there.
Sophomores are given housing priority in the Village, so if you don’t live in the Village as a freshman (most don’t), you have a really good chance of living there as a sophomore. That way you get to experience two different types of housing in college. It all works out!
