Questions about Dobie Center

Colleges and Universities A-Z The University of Texas at Austin
1

<p>I'm still trying to decide where I'm going to be living, and I have some questions regarding this place. Is it for both Males and Females? I was looking at the Private Studio, and it's about $14,685 with 7 meals per week. Would you think this is too much for what I am getting? And is a meal plan required? </p>

<p>I would be alright living on campus if I knew a friend that I could room with, but I definitely don't like the idea of living and sleeping with an absolute stranger. There are just so many issues with this. What if I end up hating this person? And hygiene is another issue.</p>

2

<p>That seems a bit expensive compared to some of the other rates of UT Dorms. Perhaps try the UT 2013 Facebook group; there’s a thread all about roommates, and a bunch of people are looking.</p>

3

<p>I would consider a double and take the chance.
Paying twice as much for a single room is kind of not worth it.</p>

<p>You also might want to consider co-ops.
They have single rooms for 6k which is much more affordable. </p>

<p>[College</a> Houses Cooperatives: Student Owned and Student Run](<a href=“http://www.collegehouses.org/about/rates.php]College”>http://www.collegehouses.org/about/rates.php)</p>

4

<p>Hello, I hope I’m not hijacking the thread, but I would like to ask a few of my own questions about Dobie Center.</p>

<p>I read on ApartmentRatings.com that Dobie is not quite as nice as people make it out to be. There is one user who posted complaints of what I would consider borderline sexual harassment. There are also claims of loud, disruptive elevators and faulty A/C on the upper floors. Also, people say the food sucks. Is this true?</p>

<p>Also, how close is Dobie to both the UT rec center and Natural Sciences portion of campus? Actually, does Dobie have its own rec? I’m not looking for anything fancy, just perhaps a treadmill/elliptical and bench presses. </p>

<p>I would assume one has to pay for usage of the laundry rooms as well. Do any of you know how much it would cost? I am at UNT right now, and I feel like I’m getting ripped, at $3 per load in EACH machine. </p>

<p>How do the room sizes compare to the ones in Jester? What about the beds? Are they bunkable, or lofts?What other furniture comes with the room? Its a bit silly, but I’m actually looking to stuff a futon into the room. When it comes down to cost per square foot, does anyone have an estimate of the cost?</p>

<p>Also, what are the bathrooms like? Are they small, with a toilet and cubicle-like shower, or is there an actual bathtub?</p>

<p>As for the purported free internet, that includes both ethernet and wi-fi, right? What are the upload/download speeds? Is there any bandwidth cap? I’m not a terribly heavy internet user, but I feel that ResNet’s measly tier one 4 GB-per-week is a bit too stifling. I do enjoy my fair share of Hulu and Youtube. I also visit many graphics-intensive sites, seeing as web design is a hobby of mine. I have also just recently saved up enough to build my dream computer, and it would be so terrible if I hauled my system down to UT only to find I can’t do ANYTHING with it. </p>

<p>And just in general, what do people think about Dobie? Is it worth the pricetag? Decent living? A conducive environment towards study?</p>

<p>Thank you all for taking time to read this.</p>

<p>Edit - sorry, I just thought of a few more things! I have not yet put down any money towards Dobie yet. Is it too late? Particularly to get an Efficiency room for the fall 2009 semester? When is the ideal time to apply?</p>

5

<p>Psychic,</p>

<p>Dobie is a decent place to live. Its a dorm so don’t have too high of expectations. Probably one of the better off campus dorm, and better than some of the on campus dorms (jesters, etc)</p>

<p>The food can get repetitive but, for being cafeteria food its pretty good, especially since you can pretty much eat as much as you want. Laundry machines are 75 cents each. </p>

<p>Im not sure about the efficiency, but the studio and everything else is bigger than the jester rooms. the studio isn’t too much bigger, and the furniture takes up alot of the extra room. For each person there is a desk, bed, and dresser.</p>

<p>Bathrooms are small, but you only share it with your roomate so thats the advantage over on campus dorms. Its a bathtub style shower, but I wouldn’t take a bath in there, just a shower.</p>

<p>Internet is wifi and ethernet with no bandwith restrictions or anything, speed depends on how many other people are using it, but in general is pretty fast. The wifi can be slow at times with heavy use, but you can hook up to ethernet and should be fast.</p>

<p>Go to dobie site for prices, etc., not sure if its too late just call, shouldn’t be too late.</p>

6

<p>Alright, thanks for the reply, UThopeful.</p>

7

<p>Hey I’m a little frustrated. Has anyone recieved their dobie room assignments? Everyone else I know going to UT already has their information but I have recieved nothing in the mail or via e-mail from Dobie!</p>

8

<p>Dobie hasn’t sent out any room assignments yet, but will soon. As for the questions regarding Dobie, it’s a dorm for females and males. It’s a little too late to get a efficiency, studio, or studio plus floor plan, but you can still get a corner suite or side suite. Their a little more expensive, but theres a $500 gift card promotion going on. People are always switching floor plans or fail to pay their deposit, so keep calling to check if theres any openings. Always ask for leasing. </p>

<p>I’ll be at Dobie this fall and read all the positive/negative comments about them. Most of them are pretty inaccurate, for example, their food is not that bad. I went to take a tour during my orientation and their cafeteria had a lot of variety and the kids seemed to like it. The minimum meal plan is 7 meals a week, you can’t go lower. Their rooms are bigger than UT dorms, even the efficiency. If you go to this site, [Dobie</a> | Overview](<a href=“http://www.dobiecenter.com/Apartments/module/property_info/property]Dobie”>http://www.dobiecenter.com/Apartments/module/property_info/property)[id]/21712/, click on view under layouts and you can see how the different floor plans are set up.</p>

<p>They have a small gym down stairs, but no free weights or bench press. Other things Dobie has: free printing & computer room, pool room, theatre room(waiting list), swimming pool outside, and a not so great basketball & tennis court. Honestly, Gregory gymnasium is a minute away from Dobie and you’ll probably end up going there for all your fitness/sports activities. I’m not sure how close Dobie is to the natural science building, but I do know its less than a minute away from the business school.</p>

<p>I would also recommend not getting a private dorm. It’s too expensive and your going to miss out on the whole roommate bonding experience. Even though theres a chance your roommate could be the worst ever, they could also end up being your closest friend.</p>

9

<p>We have house keeping once a week too. They clean our toilets :)</p>

10

<p>I’m just going to give a tad bit of feedback regarding Dobie, since I’ve stayed there for numerous summers during camps.</p>

<p>The food was mediocre. It tends to be repetitive and sometimes you will just want to eat from the salad bar because the food isn’t nearly what you wanted. The plus side is that there is a few restaurants on the lower floors (L1 and L2, I think), as well as a convenience store that sells things you can cook in a microwave. A few of the places are open late.</p>

<p>The bathrooms are fairly small, but you shouldn’t have much to do in there anyways. I had a Corner room (not exactly sure the name of the plan) and the sinks were in the room itself. This is both good/bad, but I guess that’s for you to decide about. </p>

<p>The air conditioner is definitely not at its prime. I would suggest bringing a fan if you get hot easily, because there are some days that it’s very warm and some days where it gets to a good temperature. The best advice I can give you for that is to keep the blinds closed during the middle of the day if you’re not expecting to be there. It really reduces the temperature of the rooms.</p>

<p>Last but not least, lighting seems to be an issue. Some floor lamps or side table lamps may help you out. The living room in the Corner seemed to be really really dark (especially for those late nights). The bedroom lighting was probably adequate. </p>

<p>Just some thoughts. I enjoy visiting UT and going to camps, but Dobie is definitely the downfall of my trips, mostly due to what I have mentioned. You learn to adjust to the situation though, so don’t take my negative reviews of Dobie to heart.</p>

11

<p>The name of the joint is doobie. That’s funny.</p>

12

<p>@Hookem, it sounds like you had an efficiency floor plan(lowest/cheapest), not a corner suite. Sink inside the rooms instead of the bathroom section are in efficiency plans and some in the studio plans. I don’t think lighting and repetitive food is going to bother me much. If you go out to eat and have a lamp, your set. As for the temperature, that could pose a problem, but bring a fan and complain to leasing if there is a temperature issue.</p>

13

<p>DenuMZ,</p>

<p>It was a Corner Suite, because it was the last door on the left hand side, when you get off the elevator. The building comes to a pretty sharp point there. Our room also looked exactly like this (<a href=“http://www.dobiecenter.com/media_library/1353/4b9a777e95663879.gif[/url]”>http://www.dobiecenter.com/media_library/1353/4b9a777e95663879.gif&lt;/a&gt;).</p>

<p>When I was there we ate at the restaurants pretty often, because the cafeteria just becomes annoying. There is a Subway and a pizza place on L2 (I believe) that stay open until around 11PM I think. The lighting issue can be easily solved with lamps and such like you said. It’s just I’m only there for summer camps, so bringing a lamp is easier said than done.</p>

<p>I bring a small fan to camp every year and it usually gets the job done. As I said, if you learn to close your blinds and keep the thermostat on the coolest setting, you should be set. Management does get a little sketchy with complaints though. </p>

<p>On the plus side, their private security is quite good if you are someone who follows the rules for the most part. With that being said, if you’re there to make a bunch of noise at their designated quiet hours and such, you will hear keys jingling together and then a knock on your door. They do check the parking garage, even at night. My car has always been safe out there.</p>

14

<p>Oh, ok. I would prefer getting a studio plus or a side suite. The toilets are in the bathroom section. I never looked heavily into a corner suite.</p>

15

<p>I would suggest using the stairs often. If I was tired, I always used the elevators, but they’re particularly slow, so I always used stairs to go down. Then again, I was on the sixth, seventh, and eighth floors - not like 22. </p>

<p>My overall experience with Dobie hasn’t been fantastic, but that isn’t to say you can’t make your dorm something unique and cool. It’s at least larger than a regular dorm room, and you get a bathroom that at the very least you’re only sharing with 1 room-mate. I guess I can see why students would want to live there, it’s just the whole idea of the place is very bland to me.</p>

<p>The lobbies and amenities are all great, but when you start moving up to the dorm floors, it’s all really not my taste of things. :/</p>

16

<p>I just got room assignments from Dobie and I’m already very unhappy with them. They assured me I would get 2 or 3 floor, the intensive study floors, so that is why I cancelled my dorm on campus and signed up with them and now I find out they placed me on the 6th floor. =.= When I called to ask them they said the first two floors had been filled since last August by returning students and I signed the lease this June!!! They would tell you anything for your money. -sigh- I would drop by and asked them like 10 times every time I came to visit campus. :confused: Not very happy with the staff right now.</p>

17

<p>I just received my room assignment as well. I requested below the 10th floor, I’m on the 7th. I requested 2 closet style studio plus, got that as well. After a 20 minute conversation with my roommate, he seems to be a great roommate so far. Dobie is treating me well.</p>

<p>@moochi- 6th floor is not bad at all. Think about those on the 27th floor.</p>

<p>Also, studio plus floor plan has a sink in the bed room and not sectioned off. Sorry for the mistake.</p>

18

<p>DenuMz,</p>

<p>The 7th floor is pretty good about the air coniditioning. That was one of the cooler floors while I was there over the summer. Again, I’d suggest using the stairwell if you feel like a bit of excercise. During the busy hours, the elevators will be very very slow. The sink in your room won’t be a biggie, it’s not a hassle or anything. </p>

<p>Congratulations on your roommate.</p>

19

<p>Oh I know. I just heard from a lot of people that it was noisy on floors that weren’t intensive study. :confused: Not sure if that is true or not.</p>

20

<p>^ Honestly, not really. All the parties are in west campus or elsewhere, not in dorms. The worst you have to worry about is if your roommate or suitemates will make noise, since that’s the only people you’re going to hear 95% of the time.</p>