UC Irvine Sophomore Dorms Ranked

Number 5

"I lived in VDC Norte and had a shared room with someone. It felt like a huge room for a portion of the time because I didn't have a roommate for about a month, but when he moved it I felt like everything had downsized only just a little. There was still enough room for the both of us! Since I lived in the shared room we had our own bathroom that was connected to our room. If you live in the single then you have to share the bathroom in the living room with the other single room occupant. It was nice to have our own kitchen and living room! Great wifi and there was A/C. The building had a lot of amenities, like a study room, game lounge, pool, washing and drying, and conference room. Only downside is that you had to walk to get to those places so you may be having to take your laundry down 3 flights of stairs and down the hall. Kind of got annoying when I had to continuously go back and forth to wash and dry. Parking isn't the greatest, so if you have guest coming please plan accordingly! Also it is like a 15-25 minute walk to campus so you either have to plan ahead and take the shuttle or bike/walk there. Also camping paring passes do not work at the apartment lot, so unless you have a lot of money you have to choose whether you want your car on campus or at your housing!" - 2 years ago

2 student reviewers said they lived in VDC Norte during their sophomore year

Number 4

"I lived in middle earth for 2 years: Being 5 minutes away from social sciences and engineering was very nice. I lived in a 1st gen double, so it was a bit larger than the 2nd and 3rd gen dorm rooms. Large number of couches and a good number of outlets in the common areas, perfect for game nights or study sessions. Brandywine dining hall is okay, seating is limited at peak hours and the food is decent, but gets boring after a quarter.

My suite had 2 bathrooms for 11 people, with there being 1 toilet, 1 shower, and two sinks per bathroom. Private showers and toilets. The first floor has the ADA bathroom which is VERY spacious.

Room sizes varied greatly, as the upper floors tended to have smaller rooms on average and size varied depending on where in the suite it was. Heaters on the first floor are either constantly on or need maintenance to turn on during the winter and to shut off in the spring. Bugs are an issue, mainly crickets.

The kitchens can either be extremely cramped or very open depending on the individual floor plan of the hall. The Shire has a extremely narrow one while Rivendell has one that is completely open to the common room. My hall cooked a friendsgiving dinner in that kitchen, 20 lb turkey and all the sides, so it's doable, but limiting. The sink is small so dishes pile up." - 4 years ago

2 student reviewers said they lived in Middle Earth during their sophomore year

Number 3

"Camino Del Sol 4bedrooms/4.5bathrooms.

Pros:
You get an entire room and bathroom to yourself. You have privacy for yourself and if you want to bring a friend over. The lodge let’s you print for free. The place comes with a washer and dryer. There’s a shuttle so you don’t have to walk to campus (it’s about a 25min walk).

Cons:
The walls are very thin so I was able to hear my housemates talk on the phone or whenever they had sex LOL (Buy earplugs!). The WiFi sometimes sucks too and your calls might end. The lighting sucks so I recommend buying a lamp for your room. Oh and buy a shower curtain!

Overall:
It also depends on your housemates and how chill they are.
My housemates were very chill. My boyfriend came over every weekend and they brought guys over too. One of my housemates’ boyfriend lived with us and he was very chill as well. Me and the other two housemates didn’t care. They were super understanding. They would clean, I would clean. Sometimes I’d let them borrow kitchen gadgets for food in return ahah. I was very happy to be placed with cool, fun roommates and that made the experience at Camino even better despite the cons." - 4 years ago

2 student reviewers said they lived in Camino del Sol during their sophomore year

Number 2

"I was in VDC and had a single with a shared bathroom.
Pros: single rooms for decent price (compared to the other options around UCI), pretty quiet unless you're very unlucky in your neighbors, you only have to share communal space with ~4 people so things are usually much cleaner. furniture is provided.
Cons: FAR from campus, limited bus options, big parking lot but they do check it. laundry room is in a separate building. other than your roommates/housemates, you prob won't get to know anyone else in the building or community. Very few community activities, if that's your kind of thing. Also, you'll need to bring your own cookware and make your own food, cuz no dining halls. Also, no elevators, which is a hassle during move in/out" - 4 years ago

3 student reviewers said they lived in VDC (Vista del Campo) during their sophomore year

Number 1

"i live in a 2b2b shared plaza verde apartment. apartment itself is so perfect. bathroom is nicely sized and you get your own sink too. my bedroom is shared with another roommate but there's a "dividing" wall that separates us; it doesn't go from wall to wall but it's the perfect balance between privacy and sharing. i love how everything is already furnished as well, including the living room. the apartment is basically perfect tldr. you can't say you lived in plaza verde unless you took advantage of the amenities. study spaces, private study rooms, gym, game area, all of it is so luxurious and makes you feel so productive. i would say there are two downsides: location and parking. location is somewhat far from campus; from PV to social sciences area the walk is like 15 minutes. but buses come and go regularly so in the end it's not really an issue, unless you have to get somewhere that the buses don't go to. the other thing is parking, which is absolutely horrendous. the PV parking structure gets full around 5-6 PM on a good weekday, meaning you have to park at ECPS. again, it's only a 5 minute walk from PV, but it's really inconvenient to not have your car nearby in case of an emergency or when you have stuff to unload. parking passes are also $300 a quarter </3" - 1 year ago

5 student reviewers said they lived in Plaza Verde during their sophomore year