<p>Hi, what would be better for an international student spending a year at berkeley as part of EAP, the coops or the ihouse?</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>If money is not a concern, definitely I-House. I-House is great, you’ll meet tons of people, lots of social events, the building is nice. The co-ops are dirty, you’ll still meet people though the diversity is not that great, but you can save money. Personally, I think the only thing that the co-ops have going for them is the price.</p>
<p>^^ i agree with this person. i house is great, and fantastic fooooood</p>
<p>i think coops are good for partying at…and then coming back to your own clean, safe abode to study :D</p>
<p>coops are pretty…umm idk dirty, unsafe for expensive belongings, etc. If you’re really tight on money, which you’re probably not since EAP costs a good amount, then I would choose I house. It has a great environment and caters to students like you the most.</p>
<p>I will be doing the second year of my degree at Berkeley though, so will I be a bit younger than the others at Ihouse because it is mostly post grad? Thanks for your replies, they are very interesting because I had previously heard great things about the coops!</p>
<p>Don’t listen to them, the co-ops are great.</p>
<p>They will expose you to a lot of different and interesting people and experiences (and not bad ones) and all the EAP students I know living at my house love it here. </p>
<p>If you are worried about cleanliness the smaller co-ops (Euclid, Kidd, Davis, Ridge) are very tidy. If you gravitate towards a larger party scene than one of the bigger houses (CZ, Cloyne, Kingman, Castro) is for you. If you’re vegetarian, there’s Loth.</p>
<p>There are a lot of misconceptions about the co-ops left over from their debauchery of the 80s and 90s but it’s very different now. Not only that, but the small houses have never had and probably never will have any craziness anyway.</p>
<p>But really it would be good for you to visit and look around before you make a final decision.</p>
<p>(P.S. I knew a girl who lived at IHouse and she hated it … so yeah)</p>
<p>“i think coops are good for partying at…and then coming back to your own clean, safe abode to study”</p>
<p>The reason most people think this is exactly because they only see co-ops during parties,and the kind of parties which we open to the public. They think we’re dirty and gross because they themselves vomited in our bathrooms or spilled drinks on our floors.</p>
<p>But whatevz, we make bank off you losers :)</p>
<p>Ok, as someone who has lived both places, let me tell you: </p>
<p>If you are an international student and want to have an “immersive” experience, IHouse will NOT give you that. You will be hanging out mostly with other international students. This is not to say that you won’t have fun. IHouse can be, depending on your scene, VERY fun: people are always partying/drinking/socializing. I lived there for a semester and loved it. Some other drawbacks: food subpar, TINY rooms (with bunkbeds), very expensive. </p>
<p>I live in the coops now and love them. As the person above me noted, there are two kinds of coops- larger party ones (mostly CZ and Cloyne) that tend to be dirtier, and, on the opposite side of the spectrum, smaller, quieter, cleaner ones (Euclid, Ridge, Davis, and the 2 all-female ones, Hoyt and Sherman). In the middle are and Castro, Kingman, Wolf, and Stebbins, which have a good mix of parties and cleanliness, as far as I can tell. The coops are the best for the following reasons: INCREDIBLE food, awesome people, cheap, shared media (music, etc) servers, close to campus, highly social, great parties, and so on. </p>
<p>Either way you can’t really lose, though. Good luck with everything.</p>
<p>Have to agree that the smaller co-op houses are the cleaner ones.</p>
<p>But is it still the case that new members are rarely assigned to the smaller houses, since priority for choosing a house depends on seniority within the co-op system?</p>
<p>Not always true. Knew people with no points assigned to Davis House (for fall).</p>
<p>I live in a co-op and one of my housemates migrated over from I-House. He apparently had a weird ass foreign roommate and an unbelievably small room, didn’t like the food either. Co-op food is awesome. And it’s all yours to cook. Dinners (usually) six days a week.</p>
<p>small houses usually are harder to get into, except maybe Wilde (LGBT-themed) and Kidd (lots of drama last semester?). I’ve had friends with points apply to Davis with no success, but as long as you’re not picky, you’ll get some clean house. But there are definitely fewer foreign students in them – none at Euclid, for example. Maybe something in between? Hoyt and Stebbins are mid-sized and have a couple EAP students regularly, if you want to hobnob with some fellow EAP people.</p>
<p>Thanks for your replies, they have reassured me about the coops. Do you know why she hated IHouse?
I have put lothrorien as my first choice…do you know if that is one of the ones that is really difficult to get in to/if it has lots of parties?</p>
<p>Are you a female? The person at the Co-op office told me that it’s extremely difficult for girls to get into Lothrorien since most vegetarians are girls. But if you’re a guy, then I’d say you have a pretty good chance.</p>
<p>oh 
I’m a girl</p>
<p>For the record, international students get priority over almost everyone else, so points are not a huge issue for you. Loth is definitely one of the dirtier ones, although everyone I know who lives there loves it.</p>