<p>I, a female, have many male friends that are going to UT next year and we would have no problem rooming together...that is, if we are allowed to. Are there any off campus dorms that allow this? I don't want to rent an apartment, but that seems like the only possible way to do this.</p>
<p>uh, do you mean sharing the same room or sharing the same apartment unit but in different rooms?</p>
<p>as in being suite mates with them? I’d prefer it if i was their roommate but can suite mates be done too?</p>
<p>There are many co-ed apartments or condos. I don’t mind sharing apartment with other people but it will have to be girls. Being friends with males must be very different from shaing the same room with them. My mom will freak out and bring me home right away if I do it.</p>
<p>my mom is ok with it. I’ve never been a bad kid and don’t intend on turning into one, but i’ve lived with 3 brothers my entire life and am used to their living conditions, ha! do you know, for a fact, if you can be suite mates with them? If you don’t that’s ok, I’m just wondering.</p>
<p>Do you have brothers? Guys and girls have VERY different ideas about cleanliness-compare a ladies’ restroom to a mens’ restroom. You may have some close guy friends, but living with them may end your friendship.</p>
<p>Yes, THREE brothers! I’m quite used to it!</p>
<p>Freshmen guy girl groups of friends… New Guild maybe?
[ICC</a> Austin: House Comparison Chart](<a href=“http://www.iccaustin.coop/join/compare-houses.shtml]ICC”>http://www.iccaustin.coop/join/compare-houses.shtml)</p>
<p>Furnished, contract by the school year not 12 months, meals served, close to campus, don’t need to pay utilities. A lot of the advantages of a dorm. No RA’s though. And coops are not for everyone; you have to work about two 2-hour shifts a week to help keep up the house.</p>
<p>Thank you so much! This really helps me out a lot!</p>
<p>I would do an apartment over an ICC coop. They are kinda…I would visit and stay for dinner or something before you sign the lease. To make sure you like it. Like for serious. The coops are really really REALLY less strict on stuff like drinking and partying.</p>
<p>And as for labor, it can be 4 one hour shifts, one 4 hour shift, two two hour shifts or a combination. You might have to do it on the weekends (which sucked a lot) or all 4 hours in one day. Around finals and holidays it’s kinda annoying because it’s a free for all ‘temporary’ sign up and some people end up doing time consuming labor (cleaning/cooking dinner, cooking brunch, etc) alone because no one else signs up for it or they forget and dont come.</p>
<p>It makes more sense to just get an apartment for all of you, really. It’s basically like living in a coop except people won’t steal food you put in the fridge and you don’t have to work four hours a week and go to meetings all the time or deal when there’s a party and you want to sleep.</p>
<p>It’s also a lot easier to guarantee you will all be in the same place with an apartment.</p>
<p>Things I don’t like about apartments for upperclassmen are the need for the 12 month lease and the need for furniture and kitchen stuff. I think older students are more able to balance in the cooking, grocery shopping, keeping kitchen and bathroom clean, etc.</p>
<p>For freshmen, I wish they would not have to worry about cooking, grocery shopping, keeping kitchen and bathroom clean, etc. their first year of college. When possible, I think it is great for freshmen to be in dorms.</p>
<p>Coop life is unusual. Not everyone who lives in a coop is a 23-year-old vegetarian pot-smoking hippie, sophomore or junior credits wise, who plays loud music late into the night 
(no offense!), but if you join a coop, you will have to learn to enjoy day-to-day life with a wide variety of people. Whether a coop or an apartment is better depends on a long list of issues including but not limited to the person, finances, whether they play to stay in Austin over the summers, how easy it will be for them to equip an apartment, their attitude toward cooking and cleaning, and their personality.</p>