<p>Hello,</p>
<p>Can someone please tell me what are the advantages and disadvantages one has over the other, and also recommend some good halls?</p>
<p>Also, can i apply to both private and University housing, or can i only apply to one?</p>
<p>my last question is, that if i do get into the private housing, can i still go into the university housing, for instance to visit a friend or something?</p>
<p>thanx</p>
<p>You can always visit people in University Housing, if you choose Certified Private Housing (CPH), and they can visit you too. The main differences between University Housing and CPH are that with a University Residence hall, you can dine in any residence hall dining facility, while in CPH, you can only dine in their facility. This isn’t a big deal, since they provide grab-and-go lunches for people who find it inconvenient to get back to the facility to eat lunch. You mainly double, and, in some cases, triple up in university dorms, and share larger bathroom facilities with half a dorm floor. At CPH the rooms are generally larger, and many opportunities exist to get a single room that either just shares a bathroom with one other person, or is configured like a 4 bedroom apartment with a shared bathroom among the 4 residents. Cleaning services are provided for both the bedrooms and common areas in CPH. Only the common areas are cleaned in University Housing. Lastly, you’ll pay anywhere from $100 - $300 more a month for the living arrangements and the facilities at CPH. About 1 in 4 entering freshman choose CPH over a University Residence Hall.</p>
<p>Those are the major differences to me. Chime in with others, if you think I missed something.</p>
<p>Just live in Newman Hall. Nuff said</p>
<p>As to some other Q’s. Though officially discouraged (but not prohibited and many do it), you can apply to both UIUC residence halls and to a private certified housing facility. Agreement between them is that if you choose residence halls, private certified must return your deposit and if you choose private certified, UIUC will return deposit. Choice must be made before September 1.</p>
<p>As to visits, a resident in a hall can bring in a guest but you cannot just walk into a hall on your own and go to any floor.</p>
<p>ok, thanx guys. that basically answered all my questions</p>
<p>I would recommend going to the UIUC residence halls. White the private certified are certainly nicer, you actually get the freshman experience going in the residence halls for at least a year. Not only that, but you aren’t going to get any surprises from the UIUC dorms.</p>
<p>Some of the private housing places will take complaints with a grain of salt or slap extra fees at the end of the year.</p>
<p>I’m not quite sure which aspects of “the Freshman Experience” you’re referring to that you wouldn’t also experience in PCH. I’m pretty sure that complaints are handled, if anything, better than they would be in the dorms, and I’ve never heard of additional fees that would be imposed unless you actually damaged something, and you’d have to pay for those damages in the dorms too.</p>
<p>You tend to be surrounded by more freshman in the university housing. Other students new to college as well. Also Illini Tower is - or at the very least was at the end of last year - under risk of losing certification due to complaints of students regarding them. That year they also slapped a “cleaning fee” to residents regardless of how the room looked. I had a friend who lived there that had issues with his room mate smoking marijuana in the room. Illini Tower refused to follow through with their policies, and also refused to move him to another room. He actually found someone willing to switch with him from another room to resolve the conflict, and Illini Tower refused to allow it.</p>
<p>I mean I haven’t lived in Private Certified Housing so everything I’ve heard about them has been second hand. It could be the case of content individuals not bringing it up.</p>