My freshman housing experience was awesome. I was lucky enough to end up in the elusive and illustrious Birnkrant Triple, what is in my opinion the best housing option on campus. It’s two rooms, one with beds and the other with desks, for three people.
The “living room” upon moving in
- The bedroom
We had a ton of space for the three of us which made everything easier. What really made things easy though were my roommates. I met one of them on the admitted students facebook page and the other was randomly assigned to us through USC Housing and it worked out perfectly. We had a great roommate dynamic and I think that was the number one thing that contributed to such a great freshman housing experience.
The room furnished with a roommate
Because of the size of our room, we tended to attract all of our friends to come and hang out in our room, which was a ton of fun. My favorite part of living in a dorm as always having my friends around, so it was even better that they were always in my room.
A typical scene
I met a ton of great people through dorm life and I can’t imagine having started college another way. It really was the perfect way to get to meet people and adjust to life at USC.
Birnkrant is also great because of the location. It’s right next to a 24 hour library and on the first floor, there’s a 24 hour convenience store/coffeeshop. This means it’s the most well equipped dorm for late night studying and snacking, which always comes in handy. It’s also right on the quad with most of the other dorms and even has a dining hall right next to it. It’s the perfect location.
USC also funded lots of great events for us, capped off by a trip to Disneyland at the end of the year. Essentially any activity a RA came up with could happen. It was a good way to make the housing experience a universal experience across a building, not just the floor.
The RA’s were also a cool part of the experience. My RA was a really fun guy and could frequently be found in my room playing FIFA or NCAA with us. He was really accessible if you ever needed help and because of his unbelievable networking experience, was a huge resource for me in getting resumes made and learning how to treat career fairs and networking.
I was pretty used to communal living because of years at summer camp, but I think it’s one of the most fun things around. Your friends are around all the time which means that life never gets boring. There are a few things to get used to about sharing rooms and bathrooms but it was really never an issue for us and my roommates and I had a problem free year. It was a great experience and I wouldn’t trade my year in the dorms for anything.
