Hey y’all! Hope your semester is going well and that you are almost ready to make your big college decision! After choosing where you will attend, the next big decision you have to make is where you will live freshman year. At USC you are required to live on campus as a freshman, but don’t worry because it is honestly one of the best parts of freshman year.
My freshman year I decided to live in Birnkrant Residential College in the North area of campus. Just to give you some basic details about BK, it is a dorm style building with co-ed floors that are separated into single sex wings on either side of the elevator. There are single and triple roommate rooms available, but most rooms are doubles and come with a bed frame, desk, chair, closet, dresser, microwave and mini fridge. There are two bathrooms with three sinks, three bathroom stalls, and two showers. There were so many awesome parts of living in Birnkrant, but to keep this blog short, sweet and to the point I’ll give you my favorite parts list-style.
- Location – Birnkrant is right in the middle of the action. EVK dining hall is just below the building for easy access to food. Trojan Grounds/Starbucks (Too Gro) is also right next to the building entrance, so you have the easy late night coffee hook up. Leavey Library is just outside your door (literally 50 feet away), and Doheny Library is a 2 minute walk away. You can see McCarthy Quad from your window, and if you’re lucky like me you can see the Hollywood sign as well!
- Study Space – If libraries aren’t your thing, each floor has its own “Fish Bowl” in the center of the floor where you can study, hang out or procrastinate.
- Size – Each floor has 20 guys and 20 girls, which is much less than some other dorm options. This made for an awesome tight-knit community feel and all of my floor mates were really close.
- People – Birnkrant is the unofficial scholarship dorm, so you get priority to live there if you have received a USC merit scholarship. The people on my floor were among the best and brightest that I have met at USC, but they weren’t your stereotypical nerdy scholarship kids. Everyone took school seriously, but also loved to go out to explore and have fun.
I hope that helps out a little bit for those of you choosing housing! If you have any questions about my experience in Birnkrant you can definitely reach out to me and ask, so follow me on Twitter at @fightonbudde and ask away!
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