<p>what % of berkeley students in dorms in freshmen year live in the dorms sophmore year?</p>
<p>and does your housing assignment carry over from freshmen year to sophmore year? (or do you need to reapply)</p>
<p>also, do students need to clear out of the dorms during winter break? </p>
<p>thanks</p>
<p>I remember it was about 13% or something like that. Though this year I know a lot of people that are dorming again because of the two-year guarantee.</p>
<p>Your housing assignment dos not carry over from freshman year to sophomore year.</p>
<p>Students need to clear out of the dorms during winter break. You don't have to move your stuff out; you're just not allowed to stay.</p>
<p>13%? It's possible. I've never read anything showing any percentage. Do you remember where you read that, nanday0?</p>
<p>About the assignments. nanday0 was correct, assignments do not carry over. However, if you apply and get the same sort of thing (for example, if you live in a double in unit 1 and get a double in unit 1) the next year, you can request to keep your room and you are guaranteed to get it.</p>
<p>So if we live in the dorms, do we have to leave for winter break? Hopw long is winter break? Do we have to leave for summer? Is there any other time that we have to leave besides summer and winter break?</p>
<p>I believe we have to MOVE OUT before summer, even if you are going to live in the same dorm next year.</p>
<p>Haha GoldenBear10, do you not like home? (Anyway, I don't, so I'm always thinking about breaks)</p>
<p>Winter break is about a month, depending on your last final. However, dorms open a week before the first day of classes, so you can sort of make your break (at home) three weeks. </p>
<p>You don't have to leave Berkeley in the summer, but you have to leave your dorm room. A lot of students move into apartments in the summer for summer school, whether it's a sublet or their new apartment that they intend to keep for their sophomore year. And if it is the case that you just don't want to go home, try finding an internship in another city (that's what I did) </p>
<p>Spring break is a week, but the dorms stay open for that. Thanksgiving is about 2.5 days off (plus weekend), and you can stay as well. So, yes, the only times you have to leave are summer and winter.</p>
<p>Are sophomores usually advantaged in getting suites?</p>
<p>Yes, we get to choose first over freshmen.</p>
<p>The 13% is believable. I lived in Foothill and of the 20 people on my floor, two will be returning next year. I can imagine why: at half the price I pay for a dorm, I'm living in a ~200 sq ft room that I get to myself. I can enjoy privacy, set my own bedtime, and work without loud music and other distractions.</p>
<p>There is something called room draw night, during which continuing students (ranked by random lottery numbers) get to select their rooms (and at the same time find out who their roommates are.)</p>
<p>...I never have understood why Berkeley students are SO eager to get out of dorms. Maybe it's because most of my friends are at private schools w/ four years housing, so the idea of off campus living is a bit foreign. </p>
<p>I'm living again in the dorms next year, and intend to leave after my sophomore year regardless of whether I get a housing offer or not, but I don't feel like leaving yet. I'm in a mini suite next year, the room is reasonably sized; I'm only sharing a bathroom with three others. And I don't have to worry about electricity/water bills, plumbing, bad landlords, security, setting up Internet, cleaning my bathroom, etc. Plus housing sets up a way for you to meet more people.</p>
<p>Maybe because the dorms are overpriced and really small...just a guess.</p>
<p>Some people just don't like... (choose any combination of the following)
* having to wake up at 8 a.m. when your first class is at 11 because your roommate has an early class and has to set his alarm
* hearing loud, obnoxious music that echoes through the halls constantly (this really bothers me and perhaps more so than for most other students--I just can't easily focus when there's noise around)
* waking up in the night to drunken fratboys who return at 3 a.m. on Saturday mornings (the parties often start on Friday nights, of course)
* having to put up with disgusting bathrooms because the other guys urinate on the floors and throw paper towels everywhere when the trash bins are full
* having a difficult time sleeping because your roommate has a big project due tomorrow and must pull an all-nighter
* being tempted to play games and do other "fun" stuff when you know you have to study because your floormates want you to join in
* the ridiculously high prices for small, mediocre rooms with no air-conditioning
* the inability to have any kind of privacy whatsoever
...and the list goes on and on.</p>
<p>Also consider...
* if your roommate has strong body odours and/or general bad hygiene
* if your roommate has a significant other and likes to bring him/her into your room all the time
Thank God I didn't have to deal with either.</p>
<p>I'm sure pretty much everyone who decided to leave the dorms did so for one or more of the above reasons.</p>
<p>
[quote]
And I don't have to worry about electricity/water bills, plumbing, bad landlords, security, setting up Internet, cleaning my bathroom, etc.
[/quote]
The one I live in has all utilities covered except for the phone/internet bill, and cable setup was a snap. The day I moved in, a guy from Comcast arrived and set the thing up in half an hour. Everything's been working great since.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Plus housing sets up a way for you to meet more people.
[/quote]
That is true. There are pros and cons to everything. I personally thought that the cons of living on-campus far outweighed the pros, so I moved out without much hesitation. I'd also like to say that although people in dorms generally get along pretty well, those kinds of relationships often only last for a year. Once everybody moves out, you'll have to make new friends once again.</p>
<p>Dorms are the most convenient housing available, period. That is their huge advantage. Food always made, extremely close to campus (oh how nice it was to live in Foothill with classes in Cory). However, they are more expensive, generally, than off-campus housing. You also have less flexibility in housing--you can't choose your roommates or location. There are trade-offs in either case, but both on- and off-campus housing options are fine.</p>
<p>I was actually planning on living in the dorms my 2nd year, but three people I knew were looking for an apartment, so I made it an even four and we all moved into a 2-bedroom. Thus, I get people I know, cheaper rent, and no rats (another disadvantage of dorms). Location is father, but by my 2nd year I got the hang of the buses, so it is no big deal.</p>
<p>RATS???!!! are you serious</p>
<p>hahaha good thing i didnt get housing on campus
i'll save myself from rats</p>
<p>Yeah, rats. Don't know where they hid (never actually saw one), but if you left food out it'd be gnawed by the time you got to it. During one of those welcome week things they gave us free bags of Ramen, sort of as a joke. I just shoved it in that second drawer under my bed in Foothill. By the end of the year, the bag was gnawed open, and there were rat droppings in the drawer (not an insignificant amount, either). Needless to say I considered much of what was in that drawer a loss.</p>
<p>Key advice: Do NOT leave food around (anything in a thin bag will get itself chewed into). I don't know how the other dorms are, but this is especially true in Foothill.</p>
<p>Nope, I've not seen any rat where I lived in unit 2.</p>
<p>There are absolutely pros to living off campus; I just think people rag on dorm living a bit too much and they don't appreciate the convenience/pluses of dorms.</p>
<p>Why is food an issue? There are off-campus meal plans. I live about 2.5 blocks from Crossroads and I have one.</p>
<p>it probably was a "country" mouse, there are a lot of those in the Berkeley hills, where Foothill is. Rodents aren't common at Cal, but ants are.</p>