Written by Ramses Trigo Torres
Hello fellow graduate student!! If you are reading this, it means you made it to a graduate program at UC Irvin. Congratulations! Now that you have been accepted, you might be asking yourself a hundred questions like “What courses should I take?”, “Which professor should I ask to be my graduate advisor?”, and most importantly “Where should I live?”. Well, I’m happy to tell you that I’ll give you a general review of where you can look for on-campus housing, depending on your personal requirements (single, married, family, etc.) and how to apply.
Before telling you where you can look at for on-campus housing, I must tell you that there is a huge difference in availability of housing depending on the graduate program you are enrolled in. Maybe you have heard of it before but PhD and Masters students have a different standing with the Housing Office from UC Irvine. As a PhD student, you are supposed to have guaranteed housing along with other programs from UCI but on the other hand, Masters students are not prioritized for housing eligibility. You can find more details about the guaranteed housing groups in the following link: https://housing.uci.edu/apply/Guarantees.html. Still, this does not mean that if you are a Masters student you should not give it a shot, maybe luck is on your side and you will get an offer!
Now we must talk about your eligibility to live in all the graduate housing communities. As I mentioned before, your eligibility will depend on your specific situation and the best way to know where you can live, is to check the following site: https://housing.uci.edu/housingOptions/Where_Can_I_Live.html. Here, you’ll be asked about your standing with the university and it will automatically give you a list of the communities you are eligible to live in.
As you can see in the previous picture, there are several options regarding your standing with the school, but you should just focus on the Graduate Student section inside the red square. Basically, it divides all graduate students into Single, Married/in a domestic partnership without children and Student with children. The reasoning behind this, is that all graduate housing communities and sections of them have their own type of population. This helps on getting a better lifestyle for everyone and making it as comfortable as possible for each student.
The next thing you should know about graduate housing in UC Irvine, are which options you do have. Up to this day, we have the following 7 housing communities:
- Vista del Campo Norte
- Puerta del Sol
- Vista del Campo
- Campus Village
- Palo Verde
- Verano Place
- Plaza Verde
As you can see in the map above, all these housing communities vary in size and in the amenities they have. Based on the amenities, apartment sizes, and some other factors, the prices per student vary. However, living on-campus is still the cheapest option, obviously only if you want to live near campus. Additional information can be found in the following flyer: https://housing.uci.edu/grad/2020-21_Grad_Flyer.pdf.
Another great advantage of living on-campus is the distance to campus since most of them are right across the street, expect for Plaza Verde and Vista del Campo communities. Also, all these complexes are near the supermarkets like Trader Joes, Target and Albertsons, banks like Wells Fargo ATMs and Chase, a couple of Starbucks and gas stations and other places like restaurants, entertainment facilities and the Anteater Recreation Center. These also includes a bundle of free for UCI students bus routes that run across campus and the housing complexes.
Finally, after knowing a little bit more about all these complexes, it is necessary for you to know how to apply for housing. For doing that, you’ll need to visit the following site to file a housing application: https://housing.uci.edu/apply/How_To_Apply.html#newgrads. For this, you will need to do 4 steps:
- Submit your Statement of Intent to Register (SIR) to UC Irvine.
- Explore the housing options by visiting the website mentioned earlier. You can access the website and look at the flyer to get a general idea of which housing complex you would like to apply for.
- Submit the Housing Application. It will ask about certain preferences and personal information and based on that, the housing office will look for the best match for you so it is very important for you to be honest and clear on the information you provide. Also, you must pay for a $20 USD fee for the application to go through the system.
- Complete the Housing Lease. This last step is when you receive and accept your housing offer. Housing office will email you an offer with your prospective(s) roommate information so you can contact him/her and talk about compatibility and if everything goes right, you’ll sign a lease and pay the corresponding security deposit ($150 USD for most apartments).
Hopefully, this information will help you find the best housing option. If you still have questions, you can access the Student Housing website (https://housing.uci.edu/) which has more information about it or reach out directly to the Student Housing office. Good luck and Welcome to UCI!!!