<p>Due to the rising tuition costs, I'm planning to move to an apartment second year since it's a lot cheaper (or so I've heard).</p>
<p>Could anyone please give me some recommendations on where to look? How's the experience different from living in the Res Halls? Would you advice a second year moving to an apartment rather than staying in the Units?</p>
<p>If you want a cheap option, put in an application to the [Berkeley</a> Student Co-op](<a href=“http://www.bsc.coop%5DBerkeley”>http://www.bsc.coop) now for fall 2012. Priority for 0 point applicants without other preferences (e.g. EOP) is based on application order. A way to jump ahead of the 0 point applicants is to stay there or board there during the summer to get a fraction of a seniority point.</p>
<p>Apartments around Berkeley come at a pretty decent price, depending on the location, etc.
It’s quite different from the res halls, which may or may not be a good thing depending on how the dorm experience was for you. It mostly depends on who you decide to room with, how many people, etc. I’d recommend moving out second year, since you’d save a ton of money. A good place to search for apartments: [Apartments</a> for Rent - PadMapper Apartment Search for Oodle, Apartments.com, Kijiji, and Craigslist Apartments](<a href=“Apartments for Rent from the Trusted Apartment Finder | PadMapper”>http://www.padmapper.com/)</p>
<p>Thanks for the replies!</p>
<p>I was taking a look at all the locations for the Student Coop Houses and Apts. and I’m pretty interested living in Rochdale for my 2nd year. However, I read that it’s ‘very unlikely’ for me to be offered a spot in an apartment for my first semester at BSC. Would I be able to secure a spot for Rochdale if I roomed with BSC over the summer?</p>
<p>Just a general pointer (that may or may not relate to the Berkeley co-op), be sure to keep in mind other costs that dorms take care of and might make an apartment more expensive than you think–be sure to look at the costs for utilities (phone, internet hookup, water, sewer, gas, electricity, trash removal); and parking fees for apartment and/or campus now that you don’t live there. Also these are unfortunately common stories: a student I know at another school had a drawn-out argument (about 6 months) with a landlord about a dryer that didn’t work and broken windows that were safety problems; I myself had an apartment with a hole in the shower wall you could fit a basketball through, and it took several months of arguing before he took care of it. These are great learning moments for taking care of yourself and dealing with people, but do you want to spend the time and energy dealing with these kinds of things while you’ve got class work to do? These are some of the things you’ll take on when you move off campus. Just be aware of it.</p>
<p>Generally, getting into Rochdale needs co-op seniority points to get in.</p>
<p>If you want to see the waiting lists for the current semester, look here:</p>
<p>[Fall</a> Waiting List Main](<a href=“http://berkeleystudentcooperative.org/component/content/article/25/149-waiting-list-main]Fall”>http://berkeleystudentcooperative.org/component/content/article/25/149-waiting-list-main)</p>
<p>If there is any possibility of wanting to live in the BSC in following year, apply now to get an early application number, which determines priority within the various classes (e.g. between all applicants with the same number of points).</p>
<p>My friend, who’s a transfer, is living in Cloyne and he told me that drug addicts pretty much inhabit that coop. Is this true of the other coops? Are there any substance-free coops? I would really want a cheap alternative to a res. hall, but right now living in a coop next year doesn’t seem to be a good idea :\ </p>
<p>Where else is a good place to live and save money after the first year? It looks like Wesley House is a good alternative because it’s really near the RSF and Campus…</p>
<p>Any comments/ suggestions? Thanks!</p>
<p>Which co-ops are clean, quiet, and do not party a lot? Does anyone have any comments on the cleanliness and noise level in Rochdale or Fenwick?</p>
<p>Generally, the smaller houses are cleaner and quieter. The main problem is that they are harder to get into, especially for new members. Past waiting list observations indicate that, of the smaller houses, Sherman, Hoyt, and Wilde are most likely to exhaust the waiting lists earliest.</p>
<p>You may want to visit Cloyne and CZ and ask people who live in both to see which one would be a better fit for you if you are only able to get into a large BSC house.</p>
<p>If the druggies seem to be at one specific house, they probably are not a bothersome presence in other houses (they tend to be attracted to the house with that reputation). Past periodic BSC attempts to stamp out the druggies (after they abuse the generally libertarian attitudes toward such things and get too wild, and the neighbors complain too much) usually result in eventually some other house being targeted by the next generation of druggies.</p>