<p>I am going to be freshman next year at UT Austin for engineering and cannot decide if I should live on campus or off-campus. I am getting a scholarship which will make living off-campus really cheap (the scholarship is for off-campus only). On the other hand, living on-campus will cost me about 5k more per year, which will be difficult to afford (unless I take loans).</p>
<p>My main concern is whether I'll get sort of isolated from the campus if I live off-campus (the apartments are about 20 minutes away from the campus). I am a shy/not outgoing person, so I'm not sure if I'll be able to make too many friends by living off-campus. Or is it just in my head that you get isolated from the campus and can't make as many friends living off-campus?</p>
<p>Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks for reading.</p>
<p>You might benefit from living on-campus, at least for freshman year. Living right next to campus is one thing, but 20 minutes away is kinda far. How much would it cost for gas+parking (if you have a car) or bus/subway pass for the whole year? Remember that living off campus, you’d also lose almost an hour each day that could be spent studying and socializing. </p>
<p>Junior and/or senior year, you could be an RA… live on campus, and (usually) room and board is covered or at least subsidized.</p>
<p>Live off campus if you’re going to save that much money. You’ll have to try a little bit harder to stay in the loop but once you make a few friends the only difference is that everyone will want to hang out at your place since it’s an apartment instead of a dorm.</p>
<p>I would probably suggest living on campus for the year. It will be easier to make friends this way, especially if you are shy. Then live off campus.</p>
<p>Plus, living off campus has other factors. If the place isn’t furnished you’ll have to do so, cost of internet, electricity, washer/dryer (if not included), food, gas/transportation, etc.</p>
<p>Actually there IS a contest if we’re talking about a difference between getting a huge scholarship and going into debt. If you try you can overcome living off campus freshman year and still have a great experience.</p>
<p>it’s called the Texas Student Housing Scholarship. It’s for either Ballpark or Townlake apartments (which are student only apartments on Riverside, which is full of UT Austin students, and buses come and go every 5 minutes). With the scholarship, it will cost me 3000 a year as opposed to 7000 on campus. Electricity, internet, cable, washer/dryer are all covered. I wouldn’t have to keep a car because of the very frequent buses. It’s actually only 4 miles away from campus (it just takes long to get there due to ridiculous traffic and stops).</p>
<p>xobile: I think your last post was pretty convincing… If it’s student only apartments then it’s basically a cheaper and better dorm, you’ll still be able to meet people from your school, and you’ll be saving a nice chunk of money. I don’t see any real advantage a dorm would have over all student apartment complexes…</p>