2014-10-29, 09:32 PM
Freshman year I wanted to live in the Units of CAL berkeley because that's where all my friends and family said things happened and people had LOTS of fun. Thing is, the dorm situation is a literal lottery and I barely got a dorm. It was the all guys dorm, Bowles Hall. Now generally I've heard great things about it- it's got amazing history, it used to be the athlete's only dorm, and it was like living in a fraternity house without the Fraternity.
Bad news: I literally got the one year where every single person on that floor was a HUGE introvert and stayed to themselves. It was ridiculous. When all my friends made TONS of friends on their floors, I couldn't name a single guy on that floor besides my roommates. I mean my roommates and I brought in a TV AND Super Smash Bros and left that door open almost all the time- not a single person took interest. We had Smash bros Melee with 4 controllers- the ultimate party game that all of the super nerdy people like me would be into. Not. one. Soul. To make things worse, the school decided to test a new method of dining hall- a la carte and no longer served late-night meals. All my friends were in the units- a 20 minute walk at midnight through campus. It was a lonely walk to and from. And my friends came out in their pajamas. The place ancient, so everything was a run down piece of junk and there was dust everywhere. My roommate woke up at 2:30 in the morning when I had 8 am classes, which pissed me off. He also couldn't wake up with a single alarm, so he had 2 cell phone alarms go off AND A FUCKING BOSE STEREO. Do you know how LOUD that pomegranate is at 3 in the morning? Oh and it's not by his head since he's on the top bunk. It's down below near my head. And he maxed out the volume.
Good news: because the dorms were designed to be the Athletes' dorms, they were SIGNIFICANTLY bigger rooms than what my friends had. We had a living space so large, we could have all 4 of our desks, a mini fridge, a giant TV, a lawn chair, and 2 closets in the room with space to spare. AND we had the bedrooms separated by a door, so my roommate (who was from Shanghai and didn't sleep til 5 in the morning) could do what he wanted in the living room and I could sleep in silent darkness. Considering the living space allotted to my friends at the unit triples, I got a hell of a bargain. Some of my friends could literally not open their front door because the standing closet and drawers blocked the way. The A la carte was actually really good for me because I was athletic and ate constantly, but not a ton in one sitting. So I could go buy a cheeseburger or a burrito for $4-5 instead of paying $6-9 for one at other dining halls. It saved me LOADS of meal points that I would use later to buy a shitton of snacks and stuff for my upper class men friends. And having antisocial floormates forced me to join my fraternity because I needed to socialize somehow.
oh MEGA bonus- it was super chill at my dorm and we didn't need to swipe people in with security when we invited people over. Every other dorm has night monitors that require you to swipe your friends in and if pomegranate goes down while they're there, you could be held liable.
Overall, not a bad experience. Could have been a lot better though. I did learn to sleep through pretty much anything, but still light enough that I can wake up to any alarm I had.
Bad news: I literally got the one year where every single person on that floor was a HUGE introvert and stayed to themselves. It was ridiculous. When all my friends made TONS of friends on their floors, I couldn't name a single guy on that floor besides my roommates. I mean my roommates and I brought in a TV AND Super Smash Bros and left that door open almost all the time- not a single person took interest. We had Smash bros Melee with 4 controllers- the ultimate party game that all of the super nerdy people like me would be into. Not. one. Soul. To make things worse, the school decided to test a new method of dining hall- a la carte and no longer served late-night meals. All my friends were in the units- a 20 minute walk at midnight through campus. It was a lonely walk to and from. And my friends came out in their pajamas. The place ancient, so everything was a run down piece of junk and there was dust everywhere. My roommate woke up at 2:30 in the morning when I had 8 am classes, which pissed me off. He also couldn't wake up with a single alarm, so he had 2 cell phone alarms go off AND A FUCKING BOSE STEREO. Do you know how LOUD that pomegranate is at 3 in the morning? Oh and it's not by his head since he's on the top bunk. It's down below near my head. And he maxed out the volume.
Good news: because the dorms were designed to be the Athletes' dorms, they were SIGNIFICANTLY bigger rooms than what my friends had. We had a living space so large, we could have all 4 of our desks, a mini fridge, a giant TV, a lawn chair, and 2 closets in the room with space to spare. AND we had the bedrooms separated by a door, so my roommate (who was from Shanghai and didn't sleep til 5 in the morning) could do what he wanted in the living room and I could sleep in silent darkness. Considering the living space allotted to my friends at the unit triples, I got a hell of a bargain. Some of my friends could literally not open their front door because the standing closet and drawers blocked the way. The A la carte was actually really good for me because I was athletic and ate constantly, but not a ton in one sitting. So I could go buy a cheeseburger or a burrito for $4-5 instead of paying $6-9 for one at other dining halls. It saved me LOADS of meal points that I would use later to buy a shitton of snacks and stuff for my upper class men friends. And having antisocial floormates forced me to join my fraternity because I needed to socialize somehow.
oh MEGA bonus- it was super chill at my dorm and we didn't need to swipe people in with security when we invited people over. Every other dorm has night monitors that require you to swipe your friends in and if pomegranate goes down while they're there, you could be held liable.
Overall, not a bad experience. Could have been a lot better though. I did learn to sleep through pretty much anything, but still light enough that I can wake up to any alarm I had.