How likely is it to be able to live in dorms in Berkeley beyond the freshman year? When I asked during one of the residence hall tour during Cal Day last week, she told me freshmen and transfer students took ~90% of all dorm space in Berkeley. Is it the case?
If this is the case, this means most of the students beyond the freshman year are forced to live off campus. I look at some online apartment advertisings. The one to two bedroom apartments near Berkeley are really expensive ($2000 - $4000). How do existing Cal students cope with this housing situation?
During Cal Day residence hall tour, one of the RA said Berkeley is building a new dorm. Does anyone know how many residents it can take, where it will be built and when will it be completed?
It is possible to get housing for a second year, but most students choose not to. It’s really nice to have your own apartment - most people I know can’t believe that so many students at other colleges put up with living in dorms for four years.
When thinking of cost, remember that four students sharing a two bedroom apartment would still be space per person than living in a dorm. Overall I think most people pay somewhere near $1000 a month in rent - some more, some less.
If you need to save money, I would look into applying for the co-ops https://www.bsc.coop/. $830 per month and 5 hours of work per week for room and board. There is also a residence hall for sophomores http://housing2.berkeley.edu/martinez and university-owned apartments for juniors and seniors in that same building as well as http://housing2.berkeley.edu/channing_bowditch and http://housing2.berkeley.edu/wada. You can also stay a second year in the freshman dorms (well, only in less requested dorms such as foothill), but the vast majority of students choose not to.
Units 1 and 2 are about 1400 each, Unit 3 is more like 1200. I believe foothill is close to these number as well. Clark Kerr is about 900, I think Stern is something like 400. There should be numbers here: http://housing2.berkeley.edu/overview
However, these are not good predictors of how easy it is to secure a room in each. My rough estimate of popularity is, in decreasing order:
Unit 3
Unit 1 & Unit 2
Clark Kerr
Foothill & Stern
Within each one, of course, doubles are more popular than triples or quads.
I heard once that most students staying a second year in the freshman dorms are in foothill, this sounds believable for two reasons:
Freshmen get housing priority, so sophomores end up in the least-chosen dorm
Foothill is a bit larger / quieter than the units, which a second-year might value more.
Housing might be expensive, but everyone I know who went to Berkeley loved having their own apartments - given the opportunity, try to split an apartment with more people, cost shouldn’t be $2-4k if you don’t mind sharing.
The $2-4K figure is the rent for the typical 1 or 2 bedroom apartment near the Berkeley campus. Even with 2 to 4 students to share, it still costs ~1k per month just for rent plus food and utility makes it around 1.3k to 1.4 k a month. Given the Unit dorms (cheapest) is ~14k which include a standard meal plan for 10 months. There is not much saving in moving off campus unless 3 students share a one bedroom apt or 5-6 students share a two bedroom apt.
Can some Berkeley students living off-campus share how much they can save compared to living in dorm?
Last year I lived in a two-bedroom with two other people that we rented for $2700 a month (we converted half of the living room to a third bedroom, so we each had our own room). Including utilities, it still came out to less than $1000 a month each.
Now, the dorms may include meal plans, but those plans only pay for something like 12 meals a week, so you’ll still have food costs in addition to them. If you subtract the $2500-value standard meal plan from the cost of the units, then someone living in the units is paying about the same for 10 months as we paid for 12 months.
However, in the units you would be sharing a room with another person or two, you would be sharing a huge bathroom area with 30 or so people, and you would not have a kitchen. It’s a lot nicer to have your own room and share your kitchen and bathroom with only two other people (one of the reasons I prefer foothill to the units, since in foothill you only share bathroom / common room space with your 7 suitemates).
This is not to knock the dorms: I think everyone should live in the dorms their first year, since that’s where you meet other people. Going off to college would be a lot harder without the dorms. But I don’t see a reason to stay in after the first year.