<p>I just decided to SIR to Berkeley for graduate school. When I visited, my department told me that Berkeley doesn't offer any graduate housing. However, looking through their graduate student site says otherwise. They list Mannville and Ida Louise Jackson as University owned housing. The International House also appears to be an option.</p>
<p>Do many graduate students choose these options for a living arrangement, at least in their first year? Does anyone have first-hand experience living in these places? They seem pretty pricey. I guess the other alternative would be to use the Cal Rentals site to just find an apartment, but I'm not sure I'd like entering an apartment-style living situation with people I haven't met before.</p>
<p>Well I could, but the point of this thread is to gain insight into what graduate housing might be available, and what it might be like living there. Most other schools seem to have a lot of grad housing, but Berkeley does not. It’s a lot more convenient than trying to look for housing in an area I’m not familiar with, and sharing a room and/or common spaces with people I’ve never met. I feel like sharing an apartment with people I don’t know is a lot riskier than sharing just a dorm room, like freshman year.</p>
<p>So, if anyone knows anything about these possible places to live and has something to share, please contribute :)</p>
<p>I’ve been meaning to post. I lived in the International house (i-house) for a semester and had a mixed experience. I’m really busy at the moment, but here’s a quick pro/con summary:</p>
<p>Pro:
-Unparalleled exposure to an international community you will probably never experience again.
-ihouse has its own–somewhat inclusive–social world. If so inclined, you could very easily associate with only ihouse residents while maintaining a vibrant social life.
-Their motto (to facilitating lifelong friendships that cross nations–or something like that) while appearing to be complete ******** holds true for most residents. Most all my friends in Berkeley, and all my roommates, were former residents of ihouse. Unfortunately, forming a social circle with ihouse residents can lead to cyclical isolation when your friends move back to their respective countries. For instance, I am the last remaining member of my initial Berkeley social clique left.</p>
<p>Con:
-Food: ihouse forces their residents to buy into their meal plan. The food is beyond redress. I lived on cottage cheese and raw vegetables at the salad bar (the only healthy options) for 5 months. I don’t really want to get into it, but: imagine chicken that was cooked and served on Monday, reheated Tuesday, incorporated into a sandwich filling Wednesday, and finally turning up in Thursday’s “chicken stir-fry” (loaded with sugar, salt and oil to compensate for the four day old reconstituted chicken).
-Rooms are expensive and (depending on your choice/location) small. Singles aren’t bad, though.
-The 3rd and 4th floors are quite loud as they house most of the undergraduate students. Some of the undergraduate international students at Berkeley on exchange treat their stay as a vacation. Complete with the stereotypical European techno music which creeps out of every Dutch student’s room on Friday/Saturday night. Writing a 35-page research paper to the muffled bass of some terrible Justice song is something to experience.</p>
<p>I lived in University housing for 3 years as an undergrad. I always wanted to live in Ida Louise Jackson house but never got in. It’s a fairly new building and the location is amazing. If you can afford it, I’d live there.</p>
<p>Thanks for the response. I actually found some Yelp reviews for i-house that pretty much say the same thing you did. It sounds like it would be interesting and probably fun. Could be a good experience for my first year there. I’ll give it some thought.</p>
<p>Manville is very quiet (about half the residents are law students who are busy studying in their own rooms). There are a few social gatherings that are organized by the apartment assistant but only a very small number of the residents attend. Yeah, pricing is kinda high for all 3 options you listed but no more than $100 above market for the location/size. You are paying for convenience (don’t have to deal with a landlord).</p>
<p>I also lived in I-House for a year as an undergrad. The first semester I shared a room on the 4th floor, the second I had my own room on the 5th floor - I got super lucky. Grad students generally live in single rooms. Other than the dining hall food and the bloated cost of living, I actually liked living at I-House. It was super convenient to campus, not terribly noisy (I lived far down the hall from the Dutchies who partied a lot), and as social as one wants to make it. Like EK, I made excellent friends in the first semester who all moved back to their home countries or graduated from Cal during the winter break, so I ended up having a slightly less social time during my 2nd semester there (it wasn’t because I didn’t have a roommate, since I hardly ever socialized with my first roommate). I’ve maintained contact with many of the friends I made, and it has to be said it is quite interesting to meet people from, literally, all around the world.</p>
<p>Overall, I would say I-House is a great place to live for the first year of grad school if you are new to the area and can afford it. There are some people who have lived there for almost their entire time undertaking a PhD, which I haven’t really been able to figure out, but if you like it, after your first year you can apply for an RA job and live rent free in exchange for work. If you end up on a noisy floor and don’t like it, you can ask for a transfer to the top floors - one of them is like a graveyard, it is so quiet. </p>
<p>Oh, one more gripe I had was about the I-House library. Many people like to camp out there, even though there are supposedly rules about not leaving unattended stuff in the library. I can’t say how many times I ended up moving stacks of books and laptops aside to make room for myself, only to study for several hours without ever seeing the person return. That was totally annoying. (Along with the strange temperature fluctuations in the library from totally sauna-like to arctic blast.) Fortunately, Cal has more than one excellent library mere steps away, and as a grad student, you would be able to study at the law library just across the street.</p>
<p>Oh, also, the Berkeley co-ops have two grad student houses. I briefly lived in HiP House (Hillegass-Parker) and found it to be a very friendly place. HiP has a mix of mostly grad students with some re-entry, upper division undergrads, and all single rooms. I ultimately moved out because I found a shared flat in San Francisco with a friend, which is where I wanted to be instead. The co-ops are not for everyone, so it would be a good idea to visit them first if possible, but the information on the website is pretty clear. Just search for “berkeley co-op” and it will be one of the first links listed.</p>
<p>As I’ve heard, the co-ops can have lengthy waiting lists prioritized on some point system. My current roommate (and former ihouse resident) is trying to ‘get into’ HiP for the fall–apparently it’s not a sure-shot. </p>
<p>If you decide to try the apartment route, I’d advise checking out the Rockridge and Elmwood regions. They’re about a mile south of campus, and much, much more livable than the regions closer to campus. For some reason, I really cannot stand to be around campus (outside of Barrows Hall) for longer than a couple hours. Something about the atmosphere is so…grating? I can’t put my finger on it. In short, I’ve found Elmwood/Rockridge to be a great environment for productivity and (perhaps) more importantly in establishing a healthy buffer between home and campus.</p>
<p>so far I’ve heard about I-house, Ida Jackson House, and Manville Apartments.</p>
<p>Has anyone here lived in the I house or Ida Jackson Apartments and can share your experiences? Is I-house loud, since it’s dorm-style living?</p>
<p>I’m more interested in those two, not not Manville so much (my buddy told me that 2 students passed away in Manville Apts this year, so most people, including him, are moving out)</p>
<p>Jackson House and I-House seem to have similar locations</p>