<p>i already payed my $50 housing app fee but i need to know what are the pro's & cons of dorm on campus and co-op? im transferring into fall 2013 & want to know if co-op are cheaper? closer to college of natural sciences classes? distance to library or gym? also i want to still be be heavily involved in on campus activities & party's since its my first year in Austin.</p>
<p>I would really appreciate help!!</p>
<p>Your classes are going to be all over campus, especially during your fresh and soph years. Jester and San Jac as well as some of the smaller (honors maybe?) dorms are pretty close to the center of UT, whereas Kinsolving is probably the same distance away from everything as Dobie. It is pretty much a personal decision and depends on what kind of rules you want to follow and the price you want to pay.</p>
<p>Has anybody here lived in the co-ops? I’ve decided that I would much rather pay the lower price for living in a co-op (plus I don’t want to be surrounded by a bunch of freshman) and I also would rather save myself $50 (I still haven’t done the housing application and at this point it’s pretty much pointless since I doubt I’ll get into a good dorm). Which co-op would you guys recommend?</p>
<p>whats the price difference of a co-op versus say a dorm like jester or san jac?</p>
<p>From this page: [ICC</a> Austin: Affordable Co-operative Student Housing](<a href=“Affordable Student Housing - ICC Austin”>http://iccaustin.coop/)
UT Residence Hall (includes food/utilities) $10,715
ICC Co-op (includes food/utilities) $6,347</p>
<p>Co-ops are great. Live in a co-op. </p>
<p>I have lived in the dorms, an off-campus apartment and in a co-op, and the co-op has been the most economical and the most pleasant experience by far. There is a sense of community here that my dorm never dreamed of having, because you eat with, work with, and hang out with the same people all the time. I have my own room and bathroom and while it’s not luxury, it’s better than the dorms and significantly cheaper. Most co-ops are reasonably close to campus – I’m not much further away from my classes than I was when I lived on campus. Also, it’s been a while since I did the dorm thing, but I’m pretty sure the application process for the co-ops is much less convoluted and time-consuming than with the dorms. I live in a College Houses co-op, which is the other big organization besides ICC: [College</a> Houses | Student Owned and Run Co-operatives](<a href=“http://collegehouses.org%5DCollege”>http://collegehouses.org)</p>
<p>So, in short, co-ops are great. Live in a co-op.</p>
<p>I can attest to the ease of the application. I sent mine in Saturday and got a response back today (this is for the Pearl Co-Op and ICC application although I applied to pretty all the co-ops with meals for both College Houses and ICC). I’m for sure living in a co-op I just don’t know which one yet.</p>
<p>Which house do you recommend by the way? I’m doing a double room.</p>
<p>Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using CC</p>
<p>When can you apply for a co-op? Do you need to know you’ve been accepted first, or should you wait? (Since I’ll be a transfer if accepted, and we get our notifications much later)</p>
<p>I don’t know about ICC, but you can apply for College Houses co-ops now and you should find out sometime after Spring Break. If you get accepted and sign a contract and then end up getting rejected by UT, it’s “only” $75 to break contract. (“Only” in quotation marks because I’m assuming it’s hundreds of dollars to break a UT Housing contract.) </p>
<p>As far as which co-op to live in, it really depends on your personality. Some of them, like 21st Street, rightly have the reputation of being very crazy and full of “free spirits.” Others, like the Super Co-op houses (three different co-ops in one complex at 21st/Nueces), have more grad/upper-class students. Another thing to take into account is that the College Houses co-ops tend to have more members, whereas the ICC ones really are “houses” with no more than 20 or so people living in them.</p>
<p>I’m probably gonna end up applying to the coops. Hopefully, there are still some spaces open. 
Does anyone know what they’re judging the applicants on?</p>
<p>Is it easy to get to know people at the super co-ops since it’s so large?</p>
<p>best co-op for younger sophomore student that still wants to be heavily involved in social stuff to meet new people?</p>
<p>@Featheredfedora I’m in the same position as you and won’t get a decision until late May. I’d go ahead and apply now since it takes like 10 minutes, there isn’t a fee, and you can be put higher up on the wait list in case you want a single. I applied Saturday and got a response Monday so it doesn’t take long for a response.</p>
<p>@Hughstan Like I said earlier I applied to both ICC and College Houses and got a response from Pearl Street (one of the College Houses co-ops) and ICC within two days. I emailed both asking about availability. Didn’t get a response back from Pearl Street yet but ICC said they have plenty of spots open and as long as you can go for a double room you are pretty guaranteed a spot. I assume this is the case for any co-op as on the website some of the co-ops still have spots open even though we are already midway through the semester.</p>
<p>Right now I more into the feel of ICC but I like the meal plan at College Houses more. What are the different ICC houses like?</p>
<p>Don’t do college houses. Live in an ICC co-op</p>
<p>[ICC</a> Austin: House Comparison Chart](<a href=“Affordable Student Housing - ICC Austin”>Affordable Student Housing - ICC Austin)</p>
<p>French House is great</p>
<p>House of Commons- Vegan, kind of alternative lifestyle type of people
Seneca: small, kind of close-knit
Helios: laid back, older students
French house- studious house, good food, no veggie option
New Guild: the best of both worlds, good parties but still has studious, responsible people. Also the best looking house by far, probably full right now, the closest to campus
Arrakis: smaller, relaxed,
Eden: small, also and alternative bunch
Avalon-don’t know too much
royal- vegan, quiet neighborhood, ie not in west campus. But still not too far</p>
<p>As far as food is concerned. Icc rent includes food (groceries: bread, produce, meat, cheese, etc) in addition, house members cook dinner for you five days a week. You can cook too if you want.</p>
<p>Unless you have gotten your name in the queue for next fall, the co-ops are looking to be full. There were a lot of applications made.</p>
<p>Are you sure? My name is in the queue for the co-ops but I can’t sign until I know for sure I’m going to UT. I spoke to somebody at ICC and they said they should have room for next fall as long as I can take a double.</p>
<p>I just got an email from somebody at ICC. They said even if they had room you wouldn’t be able to have a official contract until you get a response from UT (they need proof of enrollment). So if you are a transfer waiting for a response in May/June there isn’t anything you can do. So you can take comfort in that.</p>
<p>They also said people sometimes buy out of their contracts so there should still be room. Hopefully this is the case because I haven’t done a housing application for the dorms and I’d much prefer living in a co-op than in Manor (seeing as to how the RTF community requires you to live nearby for networking and stuff like that).</p>
<p>I usually work 20 hours a week and I still manage to get near perfect grades. Four hours a week won’t be an issue. Besides if I lived in an apartment I’m pretty sure I would be spending more hours a week cooking, cleaning, doings chores etc.</p>
<p>Hi, I’m a transfer applicant who is interesting in the ICC Co-op housing, mostly because of the low price and also I figure that living with a group of people would make me feel like I belong to something, I think it would be better than living in a dorm where you see like hundreds of people everyday and only know your roommate. I’m not a party person, I don’t smoke or drink, and I’m not really outgoing neither, thus, I would prefer the house with fewer than 20 housemates. At the moment, I like the Helios, the house seems to be nice and close enough to campus.</p>
<p>I would love to read some comments and review of people who have live in an ICC Co-op, please give me some advice if you have experience with it. </p>