My son took the random room-mate assignment and was in Lassen Hall and had a great experience. The old school dorm layout (and the fact that you could keep the door open) made making friends and having people to go do stuff with a lot easier. , You could easily see into the rooms with the open doors so, while walking to the stairs for lunch, you could easily extend invites to join you - sounds silly but, in the more suite like dorms, there are sometimes 2 doors between you and a passer by so it adds friction when making connections early in the year. Shasta - is the same setup as Lassen - For some reason Whitney had closed doors as a default. Sutter was just for transfer students. UV is also good option for transfer students without a friend network yet.