Third-year perspective on living at UC Berkeley
As I near the end of my third year at UC Berkeley, I also conclude my experience living in on-campus housing, specifically the residence halls. I have lived in a different place each year — after taking in the sights of the hills and turkeys at Foothill, I joined the hustle and bustle of Southside at Unit 1 and then at Martinez Commons. Each year, my roommate situation has differed, and each year has provided me a unique experience socially and academically. Don’t get me wrong, I am excited to move into an off-campus apartment with my friends and start cooking for myself, paying for bills, and adulting in general, but there are plenty of benefits and other aspects I will miss about residence halls. For continuing and new students to get an idea of what to expect, I will detail my experience and share my overall advice for making the most of living in campus housing.
Adapting to college life
“You’re on your own. Awesome, wow! Do you have a clue what happens now?”
The first semester is the hardest. Part of the difficulty comes from adjusting to academics; heavier course loads, quick turnarounds of classes, figuring out how to manage regular assignments and attendance with midterms, and finding a sweet spot in work-life balance. For STEM majors, this may also mean adjusting to new grading methods, like grade bins, overall grades based heavily on exam performance, and curved courses. However, another crucial aspect is the new living environment, and finding the time to do your schoolwork in between. You may not be living totally alone, if you have roommates, for instance.
The aspect that is difficult for me is being responsible for myself. For almost all of us, that’s a big change from high school. Among many things, outside of work or academic responsibilities, you’re now independently responsible for personal hygiene, exercise, space cleanliness, eating, sleeping, and socializing. Considering the fact that many of us are doing school, work, and internship or job applications, it’s a struggle to find time for these outside of school necessities, especially during what’s perhaps one of the busiest times of our lives.
“Go clean your room!”
Unlike back home, when only your family was likely to see your room, in a Residence Hall, you are likely living with at least one other person. If you’re social, you might want to invite people to your space too. So I found myself cleaning more regularly to keep my space presentable.
“What’s for dinner?”
While your family may have made food for you before college, you are now entirely responsible for feeding yourself, and if you don’t, then you’re going hungry. As a result, you have to be smart about food, and sometimes plan out when you’re going to eat, where, and your budget. This will be covered more in the “Meals” section.
“Look good, feel good”
With how much we present ourselves to others, we have to keep ourselves clean and ensure good personal hygiene. Hopefully, this has always been the case, but the kicker is dealing with communal bathrooms in residence halls. All of a sudden, you need shower shoes. Maybe you go to take a shower, but the bathroom is being cleaned. These are minor inconveniences, but they can add up, especially with the limited time in student schedules. At least in my residence hall, bathrooms are cleaned during the middle of the day, so whether you’re a night shower or morning shower person, saving the trip until either of those times of the day is ideal.
We’re also at a point in our lives where a good majority of students devote time to exercise — whether to stay in shape, for health, de-stressing, or other reasons. For some, this isn’t different from high school, but for others, this is a new routine. It takes a lot of time and energy to do this, especially for gym sessions at the Recreational Sports Facility (RSF), where you may have to wait for machines. Luckily, there are plenty of other ways to stay active, exercise, and play sports!
“With a little help from my friends”
While college isn’t the end-all be-all for friendships, the circumstance of the social setting means that it’s a prime time in our lives to seek and form lasting connections. These social settings will have some overlap with your personal living, especially in your first year. People will come over to your room, floormates will congregate in lounges, and if you get an apartment, that often becomes a social hub too. There will be noise, there may be dorm study rooms that are already taken — things like that. Balancing living, socializing, and work is tough, especially at night when we primarily use our living spaces to sleep and study. This is why I am a big advocate for parallel play. It ensures you have the benefit of socializing and sharing the same space, while doing your own independent ventures, without the commitment of one set social event for everyone to participate in. Of course, those are very fun, but there are plenty of times for that (weekends!). For me, going over to my friend’s apartment, the primary social space for my friend group, lowers the stakes of homework in my ADHD mind and helps me focus. I may not be fully productive, but I’m more consistent.
Overall, interacting with more people creates more inconvenience, and that’s all fine and dandy if it isn’t damaging. However, I would advise taking into consideration the distractions that social settings provide. Some people can work well with that stimulus around them, but I can’t. There’s certain work that I just can’t do during parallel play because of the focus it requires. So, it’s vital to balance work productivity with these hangouts. If there’s an essay due, for instance, that tight deadline requires a space with minimal distractions. I’d advise studying and getting as much difficult work done as you can in the morning or afternoon, so that you can have time to hang out in the evening. If you do have work, by then it’s ideally easier work that you can do in that shared space.
Meals in residence halls
Being in residence halls is really convenient when it comes to food, and it makes sense why the school requires that form of living for all freshman students. It teaches you to get food on your own, which helps you work your way up to the next step of moving into an apartment, which is making food for yourself. Luckily, even when you do reach that stage of college life, off-campus meal plans help ease some cooking stress.
During my time at Unit 1 and Martinez Commons, Crossroads Dining Commons was my go-to before and after class. When I was living at Foothill, it was the dining commons located there. I have been very lucky to live in spaces within short proximity to these dining options. The ability to choose which dining location to go to, what to eat there, and how much of it, is really nice when you’re figuring out college in your first year. It saves you some time and effort in the midst of this huge life adjustment.
Though this might be a little bit overboard, what I sometimes do is block out my meal schedule at the start of the week. Dining commons menus tell you what they have six days in advance, so you can plan ahead. Of course, it’s always subject to change, so this system isn’t perfect, and things naturally happen where you’ll decide to pivot your dining plans.
One piece of advice I’d give would be to always have some sort of easy-to-make meal at home. There’ll be days you can’t get to the dining halls for dinner before they close, so having a quick option you can microwave, like mac n’ cheese or ramen noodles, is a lifesaver.
Living in residence halls means you have a meal plan, so take advantage of it! Being able to use flex dollars through Grubhub is helpful when cravings arise, when you don’t like what the dining commons are serving, or when you need a meal after they’ve closed. More expensive for sure, but helpful in a pinch!
Don’t forget about campus restaurants either! You can use your meal swipes and flex dollars there. For me, the portions are big enough to have leftovers to take home. When you have a short slot of time between classes or don’t want to leave campus, these are ideal places to get lunch before your next class. But beware: everyone else knows this too, so lines can be long, especially at Golden Bear Cafe (GBC). At least in that case, the food is always made very quickly, so it ends up being faster than it’d be to get food off campus and scurry on over to your next lecture hall. Beyond that, the flex dollars that meal plans provide can also be used to buy food and snacks at GBC, along with Bear Market near Café 3!
Treks to class (and other side quests)
Luckily, treks to class are pretty easy when you’re in resident halls. Most of them are very close to campus (Clark Kerr being a notable exception). Being in Martinez, my time getting from place to place depends on where my classes are. Most of them are in the northern part of campus, so my walks to class take about 10-15 minutes. You don’t have to take public transit at all from Martinez, and I like taking in the cool morning air to wake up so that I’m somewhat functional in my 9 a.m. classes. Between Northside and Southside, Southside generally requires less walking, because more things are closer to that area, concentrated around Telegraph Avenue. Also consider that the uphill trek to Northside and Foothill makes it take more time than a flat surface route would.
“Seatbelts, everyone!”
Bear Transit is truly the magic school bus of UC Berkeley, and is a great way to get to and from class from your residence hall. While getting your steps in by walking to class is nice, sometimes you just want to chill and turn off your brain before using it in your first lecture of the day. All of the residence halls have Bear Transit stops very close by for both the day and night routes, making it super convenient to get to the stop and get back home at the end of the day.
Bear Transit and AC Transit are great introductions to public transportation for freshmen. Additionally, with BayPass, traveling to San Francisco and elsewhere with BART is more affordable. While other places see a lot of students commuting, not being the one driving means you have some freedom to be productive.
My favorite trick for using Bear Transit is to take the earlier bus. For instance, the half-hour intervals mean the Reverse bus is scheduled to reach Martinez Commons 20 and 50 minutes after the hour. I could take the 8:50 bus for my 9 a.m., but a lot of other students had the same idea, so the bus is crowded and arrives late. With factors like traffic and how behind the bus might be running, getting to my stop in time to get to class comfortably isn’t a given. Instead, I take the bus 20 minutes after the hour, so the 8:20 a.m. bus if I have a 9 a.m. class. The bus isn’t as crowded and is more on-time that way. In the 10-15 minutes it takes the bus to get to the Mining Circle, I can respond to texts, check my emails, and sometimes do a bit of homework. Then, by the time I get to class, I’m early and do more work before classes start. When I do this, it helps me feel productive, and it’s always nice to be early and not stress about being late to class.
Side Quests
The school routine quickly gets monotonous, so I like to find ways to shake things up. This is why I like to take the early bus and get there ahead of time. Sometimes this means catching the tail end of the previous lecture, which is no problem as long as I find a seat in the back and do my work in peace. One time, I sneaked into a class that had a no electronics rule, and the professor saw me and gave me grief for having my Chromebook out. He got a good laugh when I told him I was in the class after.
Especially for students new to UC Berkeley, I would strongly recommend exploring around the campus and the immediate areas outside. Go and explore Telegraph Avenue, the lecture halls, and your own residence hall! There are so many things to see.
No matter how busy I am, I make sure to take the sunset sidequest. When I see one that’s really nice, I take a minute to admire it. Sometimes I take a picture of it, sometimes I don’t. (Credit: Nolan Zils)
A Journey Down to Emeryville
Emeryville is one of my favorite places to travel to that’s beyond the campus and its immediate surroundings. I have fond memories of seeing movies at the AMC with my friends. The whole shopping plaza is really nice, and they sometimes have markets and parades on the street. I’ve found some really cool stuff there for gifts and birthday presents. Beyond Emeryville, there are plenty of other places in the surrounding Bay Area to explore!
Favorite res hall memories
One of the best parts of residence hall living is the lore that happens while you’re there. In freshman year, Golden Bear Orientation (GBO) is always a crucial week, because that’s where you meet your floormates, and the constant activities mean that shenanigans happen.
The Most Embarrassing Way to Dislocate Your Shoulder Award Goes to Me
My first week at Berkeley was chaotic. After getting into an accident on the way to school (everyone was okay), I was late moving in. My roommate told everyone why I was missing for a few days, so when I got there, many floormates knew me as the “guy in the car crash”, or the guy who got hit by a car, depending on who you asked. After finally taking part in a few GBO events and meeting my roommate and floormates, day two ended with a movie. And ended with me dislocating my right shoulder when sliding down the Glade headfirst when the sprinklers went off. Returning back home in a sling, it was quite amusing to my floormates to see me caught up in another accident. A quite painful occasion before my shoulder popped back into place, but a funny one to look back on.
Foothill adventures
My favorite residence hall experience at Berkeley was living at Foothill last year. The dining commons food was quite good, and I liked the rustic, natural setting of Foothill. It made the uphill treks back every day worth it.
By far the best part of living there was the friends I made. That’s when I really found my tribe, for lack of a better term. There were so many adventures with them. Whether it was late-night tomfoolery in the dorm itself, movie nights, or treks around the city, this was where I started to really feel at home at UC Berkeley, and a lot of that I owe to my friends. Almost all of them are going to be living in the same apartment building next year, and I cannot wait to see what that experience has to offer.
Before I go, consider the following…
There are a few rules of thumb I have after three years of living in residence halls. One of them is that I try to avoid studying in my dorm. My bed is so close… and that’s a battle you’re bound to lose at least once. It’s a canon event in college to fall asleep the second you get home from classes for the day. Instead, consider studying at the many libraries UC Berkeley has to offer!
While the residence halls are nice, they shouldn’t be the place you’re in for the majority of the time. This is one of the most social times of our lives, so I would advise spending as much time as you can during the day outside of your dorm. Beyond classes, find places to study, go out on walks, do intramural sports, hang out with friends — the choice is yours!
Lastly, I would say to enjoy the whole experience! Chances are, you’ll make a lot of friends — possibly some of your closest — through your residence hall experiences. Be social, keep your door open, and put yourself out there!
Nolan Zils, Class of 2027, is majoring in media studies and minoring in creative writing and journalism. Cover photo by Nolan Zils.
Want more?
- Check out Nina’s article about how to make friends at UC Berkeley!
- Figuring out where to get food? Explore your options and dining resources!
- Interested in being an RA at a residence hall? Read Nate’s personal account of his experience in Reva’s RA blog post.
- Explore Berkeley, the surrounding Bay Area and master public transit.