One of the most common questions that admitted students is “Whats the best dorm on campus and where should I live?” As you’ll see throughout many of the housing blogs, just about every student will argue that their dorm was best. One thing I really liked about USC Housing was that there were a variety of options for freshman (you can choose to live in a dorm, suite or apartment) and that all the housing is mixed by major. For me that meant that as a Freshman, my roommate was a Film major, across the hall was another engineer and IRGB (International Relations Global Business) major, and next door were two girls studying business and journalism, which I thought was awesome, because while I made a ton of engineering friends through my classes and Viterbi student orgs, my Birnkrant floor was a whole other network of friends!
When looking at housing, I think there are two categories to consider: style and location. For style, you’ll find differences, both positive and negative of living in a dorm vs. a suite vs. an apartment. Personally I wanted the traditional dorm experience, and our floor always kept our doors open when we were in our rooms, making it a very social and inviting atmosphere on our floor between the 40 of us. As far as location there are a bunch of dorms by McCarthy Quad, which is also right next to Leavey Library, TroGro (coffee shop thats open 24 hours which was very important to me!), and EVK (one of the dining halls on Campus for freshman). Many of the other housing options are located near the south end of campus (near RTH and Parkside Dining Hall) or near the Lyon Center and Cafe 84! You really cant go wrong, but may find that some options appeal to you more than others.
To read more about my freshman housing experience in Birnkrant read here.
Also be sure to check out two of our webisodes relating to what students do every day (eat and sleep!) in USC Campus Eats and USC Housing!
Hope this helps and feel free to comment if you have any questions about housing and dorm life at USC!
