<p>Anyone have experiences they'd like to share living off campus? How common is this at Cal? For freshmen? How is the surrounding area for a student budget? Transportation/parking? How hard is it to find a part time job to fit a student's schedule? Any advice appreciated.</p>
<p>Most freshmen live in the dorms… I think most students move to apartments or co-ops or other off campus housing after that. Parking is generally difficult, but public transport is pretty good. You get a free (well, included in tuition) bus pass from school, and if you need to go somewhere else BART can get you pretty far.</p>
<p>Budget/job… dunno.</p>
<p>off campus housing can be expensive. Its like the triangle of CS (social life, good grades, sleep): price, proximity, and pristineness (tried to come up with a third P, basically I mean the cleanliness of the housing). You can only have two at most and usually its like one and a half.</p>
<p>For the job, its easy if you have work study. If you don’t, you have to look a little harder and may not be given every chance that you apply for. But either way, you’ll have to search for what you want. This is where having friends tell you what is out there helps.</p>