<p>Hi :) I'm currently a freshmen in ACC who's looking to transfer into UT Austin next year but I am having trouble deciding where to live. By the time I enter UT next fall I'll be 20 years old, I'm 19 now, and I don't want to live in dorms because everyone else will be a lot younger than I am. I was wondering if anyone knew or had any suggestions as to where most transfer students or sophomore students live downtown? I know about west campus but that's about it.</p>
<p>I don’t think many students live downtown as the costs are too high.</p>
<p>Students live north of campus, in housing on Riverside, in apartments off of Far West. There are shuttle buses to transport students to campus from these areas.</p>
<p>Both of my sons live in West Campus. One is a senior who started at UT as a freshman and lived on campus 2 years. The other is a CAP student who started at UT as a sophomore. They both like West Campus. It is convenient, but expensive. The costs can be reduced significantly if you share a bedroom in an apartment.</p>
<p>Most of the ones I know live in West Campus apartments. I personally live in a co-op and I love it. I pay $555 a month (pretty much the lowest you will find walking distance to campus) for a nicely sized double, five dinners a week (the other two days you can just cook for yourself in the kitchen), and it’s about a block or two away from campus.</p>
<p>A large number of students also live in apartments in Hyde Park. The cheapest options are going to be to the East (Riverside, Cameron RD area, off Airport, etc) or farther north, especially near 183. You can get to UT on many buses (all UT students currently get free fare with UT ID) and there are specific UT shuttles.</p>
<p>Are you looking for cheap or close? Hyde Park/ is probably my favorite area, but the walking distance on west campus is a huge deal.</p>
<p>Hey I live at Dobie Center right now and last semester one of my suitemates was a student at ACC from France. He was only here for a semester and was a Junior. Being a freshman at UT I was kind of surprised that I was sharing a living room with someone that different but it really didn’t matter. A lot of residents at Dobie don’t go to UT or are study abroad students. One thing I would say is that the food gets pretty boring after a while but all of my friends are bored with the food at their halls too, plus it’s an unlimited meals food plan. I like that it’s like right on campus on a hot spot, near the drag (Guadalupe St.) Also, they’re under new management this semester and they’re making a lot of cool new changes so I expect that next year it’ll be better. One way that I was able to find housing was by googling Freshman Support and going under their UT housing site–they’ve got videos on properties and more reviews. Good Luck!</p>
<p>I live in a co-op (specifically with ICC) and I love it. Rent is relatively cheap when compared to other options close to campus (I’m only about a two or three blocks away from campus), I don’t have to buy groceries, I get meals five days a week and on the days I don’t I can always cook something for myself if I am hungry, I always have somebody to hang out with since I live with 14 other people, it feels like a home, we have kick-ass parties (and I’m still doing good in school when it comes to grades), I have a lot of space (even more so because nobody signed for the other half of my double so I have a double room all to myself), and I’m near the social scene of west campus. Honestly I don’t see why anybody wouldn’t want to live in a co-op unless you just don’t like parties at all and don’t think you’d be able to manage yourself.</p>
<p>Collegehoues is pretty much the same but they are more like small communities (they have 100 people I believe) whereas ICC is smaller and feels more like a home. You have like three to four hours of work a week you have to do but it’s all stuff you would normally do on your own anyway so you barely even notice it.</p>
<p>Ditto on what jpgarcia6 stated. My son lives in an ICC co-op and finds it MUCH better than the dorms. He has a single and a group of students to hang out with. He is a couple of blocks from campus.</p>