<p>My 1st year son tonight asked me about housing choices for next year. Some advice from people on this board would be helpful. </p>
<p>He mentioned possibly applying for the International Residential College. Anyone have anything good or bad to say about it?</p>
<h2>I told him I lived in a large International House in grad school and really enjoyed it. My son has a moderate interest in international relations. </h2>
<h2>Anyone care to express opinions about the other residential colleges?</h2>
<p>It is October, which means that some landlords are trying to convince first year students that they must sign a lease immediately because of a "severe housing shortage." I can certainly understand that a student should not wait until April to look for housing, but other people have said that there is sufficient housing, and that there is no need for an extremely early contract signing. </p>
<p>Anyone want to offer opinions about living on-grounds vs. off-grounds, particularly as a second year?</p>
<p>He also may rush fraternities in January, but I understand that most people pick their housing before they pledge a fraternity, and therefore live in the fraternity 3rd year.</p>
<p>IRC is great. I would have lived there if I had not lived in Brown. I had many friends live there, they loved it the way I loved Brown. Hereford is much more off the beaten path. I mean, Brown is definitely out there, but it is so centrally located that some normal people make their way in. Hereford is just so far away from everything.</p>
<p>The really good apartments do go quickly and for a premium. Think… Woodrow (location is great, apartments need to be renovated), some of the ones near Bice, etc. Other people group together and rent houses in JPA. It really depends on what your child wants out of their 2nd year housing experience (big house, big apartment complex like 1821 jpa, littler apartment complex, near, far, on grounds residential college, on grounds dorm, single, double, suite, etc??). Different people like different things. I had friends who loved living in the single/suites in Gooch/Dillard before they were 1st year dorms, I even had friends who liked Copeley, and friends who hated it. I know people who have lived in big houses, littler houses, 1821 (big complex), little complexes, JPA, Corner, eagle’s landing, language houses (Shea, German, French for sure got amazingly high marks for people very into that lifr style) etc. Your housing is just what you make it to be. Anyways run some things by your child and see what they are looking for and we can give you a better idea.</p>
<p>I don’t know about the other houses, but one of my best friends lived in the French House and while they force you to speak French at dinners, the culture of lively French was more lacking…not quite the immersion experience (as a visitor!) I thought it would be. The Shea House might be different. The French House is really cute though. Had many a jam sesh there…</p>
<p>Also to my disappointment, they don’t serve French dinners at the French house, despite making a big fuss about dinner attendance.</p>
<p>Two of my friends who lived at the French house are now living at the IRC…and this will be my fourth year at the IRC.</p>
<p>So about ~47% of the IRC is actually international (technically). The rest are some form of immigrant or TCK or “international in spirit”. This makes for quite a nice mix, I think.</p>
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<p>He can also join if he has an interest in music, food, calligraphy, a bunch of hippie-food movements, playing international soccer games (not necessarily FIFA) on wide screen televisions.</p>
<p>International relations (between the states) can be interesting I guess! But isn’t relations between cultures and societies so much more interesting than cables between diplomats? Some IR majors are fine…but often they have – how shall I say it – a sheltered approach to the world? I guess I often wish for a wider socioeconomic representation because some of the “my parents are diplomats in Thailand/Taiwan/etc” kids can get pretty snobby. But generally I love the IRC.</p>
<p>Whatever his options are, there is no need to rush into a decision forced by landlords. There IS no shortage of housing in Charlottesville. At schools like Wisconsin and Michigan, there is a city ordinance that prohibit leases to be signed more than 6 months in advance to prevent this kind of pressure on incoming 1st years from landlords.
It is very unfortunate that Charlottesville allows the landlords to create this catch-22 situation for first year students: if you don’t act fast, you may not get premium apts, but if you act fast, you may end up with poor decisions and roommates you barely know, thus creating more problems later. After all, they are just in C’ville a month!</p>
<p>I totally agree with crazyadad. I feel like this early housing signing is almost forcing me to room with my high school friends (not that it’s bad, but it is college and it’s time for a change).</p>
<p>I’m definitely going to try to look at some houses for rent, they seem cheaper than some of the mid level apartments.</p>
