Austin Forum: austin it is

does anyone know how the private student housing buildings are--dobie, university towers, castilian....?

I don't know any thing current on anything but Dobie. They supposedly upgraded the elevators. That would be important since you don't want to be late to class waiting for a elevator or having to walk up multiple flights because the elevators are so incredibly slow.

All of the private dorms you mentioned are very convenient to campus.

Try googling some of the longhorns fan sites and see if a recent grad will answer questions.

Howdy! All I can tell you about the private dorms around UT is what I learned delivering Gyros and pizza for Milto's 20+ years ago. Dobie and Castillian are both tall buildings, 20+ stories (although much of the height of the Castillian is attributable to its parking garage). They are both very convenient to UT. Castilian residents (and to a lesser extent Dobie) develop a cameraderie between them similar to UT dorms and fraternities, even floor by floor. I've never seen the view of downtown from Dobie, but I bet it is awesome -- the view of the campus is. Dobie is on top of a shopping center, "Dobie Mall", which is really just a food court with a convenience store, a movie theater specializing in art films, some military recruiters, and other shops catering to college students, but it's a nice convenience.

One other dorm to check out is the Goodall-Wooten, a private dorm at the corner of 21st and Guadalupe (catty-cornered from Dobie).

Someone mentioned University Towers -- I wonder if that's what we called Tri-Towers way back when. It's a little further from campus and doesn't have the same cache as any of the other dorms discussed so far.

You may also want to consider some of the apartments in the West Campus neighborhood. I imagine the price gap for rentals there is even more pronounced than when I was in grad school (and more of the beautiful old homes have been razed to be replaced by clapboard condos) but there are some good complexes that aren't adjacent to campus but within three blocks of it. Please note that the UT shuttle buses are much more efficient than Cap Metro buses in general; they run very frequently, including West Campus and Hyde Park.

wow great info! thanks! ttlms, what was it like inside the castilian?

I would say the Castilian is more "dorm-like" than Dobie. Its location may contribute to its personality, since it is closer to some more funky shops and restaurants. Last time I checked there was a Double Dave's there. Of course, Les Amis, a French coffee shop with notoriously bad service, has long gone and has been replaced with a McCoffee's (aka Starbucks). Castilian is a long oblong box facing either UT or West Campus. The rooms are, well, cozy -- it is a dorm -- but nice places when it's cold or rainy; you can look at the tower or down the Drag.

Check out these sites:

http://www.thecastilian.com/

www.dobiecenter.com

Would the Goodall-Wooten be a decent place? The location looks as good as the others but wondering about the interior.

thanks for the suggestion, austintostay; if anyone knows of a longhorn chat site, would love to talk to someone who can tell us more about the housing situation around ut. they are asking for a lot of money so we dont want to make a huge mistake. visiting the area would be best of course, but that would be extremely difficult for us right now plus i guess we need to decide pretty soon. college is such a pain.

Howdy, again! With regards to the "lot of money", yes it is, but the prices I've seen on those websites are competitive with the nicer UT dorms (depending on what you mean by nicer; personally, I'd rather live in Prather or in Blanton (girls) than Jester Center) or small apartments that don't feed you. West Campus is very high rent.

Sorry I can't help you with Longhorn chat sites. When I was in school we were still using kerosene lamps! :-(

I've been inside one dorm room in 25 years, so I can't be of much help. The room was in Dobie, and seemed nice enough, though small, but that's the state of most dorms, last I heard.

Me, I'd prefer going west, say to Castillion, than living in Dobie, if I had unlimited funds, that is. I like the neighborhood feel of West Campus and even north campus. Because Dobie sets on Guadalupe, which is a very busy street, it feels more like a city apartment than a home, but then if you're a city lover, you'll probably like it just fine.

And I think I'm making no sense as is the downfall of waking at 3 a.m. to work. Talk about college being a pain--try the self-employed life! Ahh, to go back to college--learning new things, meeting new people, changing majors at least twice, making no money. Well, maybe not the last part.

Let us know what you decide!