
I can still remember the excitement leading up to my first week of my freshman year at Berkeley. Like most other freshmen, my mom and I spent hours shopping through Target, Bed Bath and Beyond and Kohl’s, searching for dorm necessities in all my favorite colors. There was just one twist. Unlike most other freshmen, I didn’t live in the dorms my first year.
Housing at UC Berkeley is unique in that students are not required to live in on campus housing during their first year at school. My freshman year I decided to live in a building called Tellefsen Hall, which serves as a housing option for members of the Cal Band. It was cheaper than living in the dorms, and it seemed like a great way to form an immediate community at Cal. Unlike the dorms, Tellefsen Hall houses students of all grade levels and places students of varying grade levels in the same rooms.