<p>-I was desperate and without housing. I put down all the choices and got into Cloyne. I had no background in any of the co-ops, and all I knew about Cloyne were the rumors of it being wild, crazy, and dirty. Moving in, I was very apprehensive.</p>
<p>-I hate studying in the library. Personally, I study better in the dining room with headphones on but that's just me. We actually do have a Study Room in the Dungeon (the basement) which is usually pretty deserted and quiet, it has tables and chairs if you are so inclined. But there are no official quiet hours in the house although most people are in bed by 2 on sun-wed.</p>
<p>-Workshifts can include cooking, cleaning, picking up areas, washing dishes, and other miscellany. Bathrooms are cleaned every Thursday and Sunday. Depending on which room you live in, you are assigned a nearby bathroom and every 5 weeks it is your turn to clean it.</p>
<p>-You can visit a co-op whenever. At Cloyne someone is always around, and always awake (a big plus for insomniacs like myself), so you can drop by wheneve, although any time during the day would probably be best. If you come during the first few weeks expect some chaos due to the fact everyone is just living in their temporary room (they have not bid into their permanent room, priority is determined by seniority) and furniture is everywhere in the halls.</p>
<p>You mention drug useplease elaborate. Does that mean that you occasionally get a whiff of pot smoke, people smoke all the time in the co-op, hallucinigenics are common (shrooms, acid, etc), or harder drugs are common (coke, etc). Thanks!</p>
<p>pot is everywhere. at dinner, breakfast, hanging out outside, sit there long enough and someone is bound to pull out a pipe or a bong and pass it around to whoever wants some. if this makes you uncomfortable cloyne is definitely not for you. the really small houses are more anal about smoking and drug use (still less than the dorms though obviously) so look there if the sight of drugs freaks you out. harder stuff is really easy to get and used a lot but people generally do not do it publicly, i mean really why the hell would you.</p>
<p>you get to choose your roommate, you have to decide after about 10 days. you can also just bid into a double by yourself if you haven't found anyone and someone else who likewise was unable to locate a partner will end up living there too. people of the same sex are partnered together for temp rooms but you can live with whatever sex you want. like i said, there are really no rules when it comes to social acceptability. personally, i've known my roommate since high school so there was never a doubt who i'd be with.</p>
<p>if you do decide to move into a co-op just don't be a judgemental douchebag and you'll be fine.</p>
<p>what are you looking for in your housing situation anyways? maybe i can reccommend another house if this doesn't seem like your cup of tea.</p>
<p>I was assigned Cloyne but I found an apt across from the Unit dorms. If I had known Cloyne was so fun I woulda went there. It looks like a fun place to hang</p>
<p>I'm completely independent from my parents. I pay the bills so they can't tell me anything. I shopped the housing market, picked the co-ops, moved in and payed the bills myself. They haven't seen where I live and I don't plan on letting them just because of the unnecessary conflict it would cause. And anyways they are too naive to think I would do drugs, or even to possibly comprehend the magnitude of their presence or use in Cloyne or even college in general.</p>
<p>But a lot of my housemates' parents are cool, they visit, some smoke out with their kids. Most have a sense of humor about the place and realize that as long as their kid is still doing well in school and staying out of trouble that it can't be that bad. It seems that a lot of my housemates were raised with really down to earth and chill parents so it's not a problem.</p>
<p>I'm following this thread with interest - my dad lived in the Berkeley co-ops in the 1940s and I lived in them in them 77-81. Now my son has applied to Berkeley and if he gets in I wouldn't want him to live anywhere else. Yes, there are drugs etc. but the best thing about the co-ops is the personal freedom. If someone's habits or choices are a real problem for others (and not just an offense to their morals), there are systems for arbitration. I trust my kid to make good choices.</p>
<p>BTW, Glow27, I lived in Andres Castro Arms. At the time it was one of the nicest houses structurally, also in terms of cleanliness, and I was lucky to get in as a freshman. My daughter is involved in co-op politics at another university and recently visited Castro, and she reports that it's kind of "fratty" now (more traditional as opposed to alternative, your usual party-hearty college stuff). She didn't like it as she leans more to the vegan-forest defenders way of life - she loves Lothlorien house at UCB. That's her take; I haven't seen the place since about 1990.</p>
<p>You can find all the information you need at their website, <a href="http://www.usca.org%5B/url%5D">www.usca.org</a>, also the application in .pdf. It's very simple, just the basics and then check off what houses you're interested in. It's not like the Greek system, they don't choose you according to your interests or personality, and there's no interview. But you should familiarize yourself with the personalities of the different houses because each is unique. The easiest ones to get into are the large ones (more openings each year) - they are also usually the noisiest and dirtiest. You get a seniority point for each semester you live in the co-ops, so often the older students have accumulated enough points to move into smaller, quieter houses or the co-op apartments, making room for more freshmen. You can always try for the smaller houses if you prefer, and if there happens to be a big turnover this year you might get in. The more choices you check, the better your chances. Disabled students, students on UCB's foreign study program, and students who have lived this or other co-ops get priority, but otherwise it's first-come, first-served. Very democratic.</p>
<p>-How much do you pay per semester a cloyne (Fab)?
-Are visitors aloud to come over and sleep in your room?
-How difficult is it to get your own room as a trasfer student?</p>
<p>Just a couple of weeks ago I thought I'd tour some of the co-ops on Northside for fun. I visited Kingsley (or was it Kingston?), Kidd, Ridge, Euclid, and Cloyne. I heard bad rumors about Cloyne from a friend who lived there over the summer, and when I actually saw the inside, it was very bad. Right when I entered the front door, there was a strong smell of pot, the carpet was not vacuumed, there were plates of spaghetti sauce and avocado lying on the floor and windowsills of the hallway...</p>
<p>Needless to say, Cloyne gave me a horrible impression. Out of the others, though, if I lived in a co-op, I would probably choose Euclid. It has awesome location, and the environment seemed very nice too. Also, it is supposed to have the highest single-to-doubles ratio of the co-ops...our tour guide showed us the room of a freshman in a single (albeit it was right next to the front door), so I guess anyone can get a single there. Kidd was all right...it's really small (only about 14 or so people) and pretty clean. Ridge (that one next to Casa Zimbabwe) has a louder environment, but if you're the social type, you might like it. Kingsley was all right, but it was a bit dirty (though not nearly to the extent of Cloyne).</p>