Cal Poly San Luis Obispo Freshman Dorms Ranked

Number 5

"Farthest dorm building which means it’s quieter. Older but smaller floor sizes to know more people. The wall around the outside makes if feel safer. Being right next to the hill is a plus for outside time. " - 1 year ago

2 student reviewers said they lived in Yosemite during their freshman year

Number 4

"I gave this dorm a really mediocre review because, honestly, it wasn't great. The building is horrific 50s brutalist architecture that reminds one that the cold war really wasn't that long ago. The rooms were decent, although extremely old. That being said, the designers did exactly one thing right: every room is no more than 15 feet from the common area, which really helps foster extremely tight and social communities. It's really easy to meet people in these dorms, as you have to walk through the common area every time you enter or leave." - 4 years ago

2 student reviewers said they lived in Sierra Madre during their freshman year

Number 3

"In my opinion, I believe that NOMO is the second-best, if not the best, dorm on campus. I think that no other dorm can really compete with it for location since it is so close to campus. It also has some of the biggest rooms on campus, which gives you a lot of room to work with. The bathroom is pretty nice in the sense that you do not have to share it with many people since you only share it with two other rooms, for a total of nine people sharing one bathroom. The only downside is that the showers are pretty small, so it did take a little getting used to using them. Now on to the cons which I don't have many. The major one is not having a kitchen and that may not be an issue for most people as campus housing compensates by giving you a microwave, but for me if I wanted to cook I needed to walk to another building while carrying all the supplies to do it. Also the only other thing I can think of which are minor and may not just be for NOMO is the initial room layout was weird and in my opinon was need to be changed and then also there was not much social aspect." - 1 year ago

2 student reviewers said they lived in North Mountain during their freshman year

Number 2

"Lived here last year, and honestly I'm so glad that I got to live in these dorms. They're the newest ones on campus, and for what you're getting its a great location to live. It's a five minute walk to Vista Grande for food, as well as food trucks that come to the PAC in the evening that you can spend you dining dollars on.
The bathrooms are co-ed, and there's four bathroom stalls and four shower stalls, but usually there's always an open stall, else I would just go to another floor's instead (there's two bathrooms per floor). I lived in a quad (one of two per floor as well), and I had plenty of room for my stuff. Being so close to the PAC was also a really great plus, as I often went to plays and talks that were held there (tickets for most events are usually only $10 for students).
One of the major downsides would be that getting to buildings across campus, such as the library or the business buildings, can take quite a while to get to, though I usually bike to those locations (It is a bit killer having to bike back up the slope though).
I highly recommend these dorms if you're able to get them, as they're much better than any of the others by far (Yosemite, Red Bricks, Cerro Vista) and are super nice to live in!" - 2 years ago

8 student reviewers said they lived in yakʔitʸutʸu during their freshman year

Number 1

"Honestly, I don't think these dorms are the worst. I enjoyed living here and being close to my friends while also being in close proximity to my classes, the dining hall, and recreation center. The bathrooms are generally pretty gross and they don't get cleaned as well as one would hope but other than that it's fine. The double room isn't bad but is still cramped. The study room is connected to the kitchen which results in that room being pretty loud and very difficult to study in. It can be loud on any side of the building. On one side we have the dumpsters and the garbage trucks come to collect every morning very very loudly. On the other side there's a street that people tend to speed very loudly on. And on another side there are business dorms that party from Thursday to Sunday. The dorm is great for socializing and getting to class on time, but it is very outdated and our dorm specifically (Santa Lucia) is shared with all of North Mountain which can make spaces get crowded, though other people from other dorms tend to spend more time here actually. Overall, the dorm is very home-y but also in need of renovation so it's less like a prison and more like campus dorms." - 1 year ago

9 student reviewers said they lived in South Mountain (Red Bricks) during their freshman year