<p>Some of you may remember me from last year, as I was as college-applying-obsessed as I'm sure many of you are now. I go to UT now and I'm in the business school, and while the first semester was a little rough, I'm starting to really enjoy it here.</p>
<p>Anyways, I felt like I needed to jump on CC and warn you all to NOT LIVE AT THE CASTILIAN. It is a 22-story private dorm in West Campus, and seems affordable and convenient, but this place was a living hell. Our shower was broken for 7 weeks, there is loud construction over there from 8am-2pm basically everyday but Sunday, kids are constantly screaming in the halls, the elevators take 10 minutes and are ****, the food sucks, and the security guard is CREEEPO!</p>
<p>I suggest living at Towers or Dobie, or at one of the on-campus dorms instead. Towers people have the most freedom so if you like to party that's the place to live - but other people's parties won't bother you. Dobie is quieter but nicer.</p>
<p>I agree completely. I stayed there my freshman year and it was not pleasant at all. There are four elevators, and one is guaranteed to be broken at all times. Then there was an incident with management deciding it would be cheaper to shut off the air conditioning the week before vacation, leaving us in the sweltering heat. Then during winter, they couldn't manage to get the heaters working. And obnoxious kids are rampant there. We got stuck next to a few guys who thought thumping bass on the walls with Kelly Clarkson and Christina Aguilera was something to be proud of. And that laundry room with all the washers? Count on half of them being broken. If you manage to get laundry in there, good luck keeping it in. Kids routinely decide their clothes are more important than yours and throw them out. I could go on and on, but just take my word for it, Castilian is terrible. Terrible. Wouldn't recommend it to anyone. What you say about University Towers and Dobie I've heard as well.</p>
<p>Live in a dorm if you applied early enough.. san jac or duren are the best. Although duren is a bit far away from most other freshman, Jester and San Jac have the best location, but san jac is MUCH nicer than Jester in terms of amenities, but you will be paying for it.( I think like a 1000 more total)</p>
<p>CNMQ, my son is a freshman at UT now and lives at Towers. He loves it - loves his suitemates and roomie, likes the food, loves the proximaty to campus and west campus activities (I see that you are from the midwest -his roommate is from Indiana and he met him and his suitemates over the summer at orientation). </p>
<p>From what he tells me, and from what I've observed when there, is that there are many different kinds of kids, but maybe a preponderance of fraternity type guys if you know what I mean. </p>
<p>There is a reputation of it being a party dorm, but my son has 8 am classes and isn't having any issues of getting there (and yes, they take attendance!) so it can't be too bad.</p>
<p>The girls that he knows live for the most part at Scottish Rite Dorm or at Harden House. I know the ones at Scottish Rite are really happy and it is in a great location and is a beautiful dorm. </p>
<p>One thing I am surprised about is how I have already had to sign the lease for NEXT year's housing and send 1st and last months rent to assure his spot! I guess it is really hard to find good housing on the west side of campus if you wait too long :(</p>
<p>MTV chose this place recently for their Real World Auditions - that has to tell you something right there. Also, the UT football camp chooses to hold their Summer Camps at The Castilian. They could choose any place they wanted to on or off campus but they select the Castilian. Really when you see this place, its amazing. I live there now and this place is 1) the cleanest dorm on campus 2) the best food on campus 3) the best location -- right smack in the middle (but across the street from campus).<br>
You should know that there are a couple of bad posts about the Castilian on this board and others but go check this place out for yourself. You wont' find a nicer staff anywhere and the maintenance of the place is top notch. The elevators are great. A couple years ago they had a heating issue that was fixed with all new equipment from what I hear - it just won't happen again -- what are the chances. Visit Dobie and its like a prison. Towers is like a dump. On campus is a guess -- sometimes ok and sometimes not. I would live here again in a second.</p>
<p>Um...no offense "longhorndude" but you seem to be very interested in the Castilian, even bumping up threads from TWO YEARS ago to say how cool it is. </p>
<p>yeah i would pretty much disregard any overly-positive post among a sea of negative posts.</p>
<p>the castilian really is bad. from the outside, it looks more like a parking garage with windows than a place to live. i could name at least 10 (better, in my opinion) apartment complexes within 5 blocks of the castilian.</p>
<p>if they hired more people to care about the tenants rather than spending money on people like you, there would probably be a lot less complaints about the terrible management at the castilian.</p>
<p>My daughter has a few friends who live there this year and it has been okay for them. They like the location, the convenient parking, and having fewer rules than on campus dorms. They say the food is not as good as the food in Kinsolving. Air conditioning, heating, and electricity have not been problems at Castilian for the current residents since the current class of freshmen moved in August 2008, right? The horrific complaints about no heat, no AC, and no electricity are not from the 2008-2009 school year, right? - from the past.</p>
<p>I'm not saying Castilian is great or highly recommended - my D loves the on campus honors dorms and if you are in an honors program, I think these are a wonderful place to live freshman year. Another great choice would be a residential FIG living in Whitis.</p>
<p>I think that this 2008-2009 year, Castilian seems to be okay. Perhaps they put real effort into improvement.</p>
<p>Castillian is pretty much a **** hole. I was on an elevator once that failed to stop at the top floor, and proceeded to change directions in mid ride. Seriously thought I was going to die.</p>
<p>Dobie is not that much better. (From my experience.) The halls are darker and creepier than Jester. And the food is pretty crappy.</p>
<p>I agree that the elevators used to be bad but the office told me that they spent over 1million dollars replacing all the mechanicals. Thyssenkrupp elevator services them and I actually called Thyssenkrupp and they confirmed this.</p>