Post by Ramses Trigo, GIC Peer Mentor 2021
Hello new anteater!! Congratulations on getting into UC Irvine! I guess that now that you have been accepted, you might be a little bit overwhelmed with a couple of things on how to prepare before coming down to Irvine. Course, advisors, new friends, and housing are some of the stuffs that you need to thing about before coming here so I’ll try to alleviate some of your doubts regarding housing with this article by providing you with information about on-campus housing and a couple of tips that might help you choose the best fit for you.
Most people think the opposite but looking for housing is easy nowadays with websites like Facebook, Craigslist and the housing portals owned by UCI. The hard part comes when selecting the best option for you, this will mostly depend on your graduate program (PhD or Masters), your marital status and your preferences (roommates, pets, etc.) Let start with the graduate program conditions, as a PhD student, you get an automatic housing guarantee for on-campus housing as long as you apply on time through the housing website that I will show you below while on the other hand, Master’s 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. When you get into the previous link, you can use a tool inside the portal so see which is the best fit for you according to your conditions like your graduate level, marital status, etc. The precise link for this tool is the following: https://housing.uci.edu/housingOptions/Where_Can_I_Live.html. Once you click there, you will see a couple of options and then a submit button like the one shown in the picture below. Once you put the answers that best suits you, you can click the submit button and a list of housing options will display. You can click any of those and you will be redirected to the corresponding website of each housing community where you’ll be able to see all the floor plans and rates offered by them.
![](https://sites.uci.edu/graduateinterconnect/files/2021/07/Where-can-I-live.png)
A pro-tip for the previous selection is to choose any of the 3 situations withing the Graduate Student options (inside the red square). This is because all housing communities have different target groups which means that some housing communities are mostly populated by undergraduates, some others by single graduate students, others by married students and so on. This fact makes the experience of living in each community different as the objective is to fit together people with the same status to have good harmony between them and trying to make you as comfortable as possible within your apartment.
The next thing you should know about Graduate Housing in UC Irvine, is which communities exist within on-campus housing. Up to this day, we have 7 housing communities which are the following:
- Vista del Campo Norte
- Puerta del Sol
- Vista del Campo
- Campus Village
- Palo Verde
- Verano Place
- Plaza Verde
![](https://sites.uci.edu/graduateinterconnect/files/2021/07/Campus-Housing-Map-1024x623.png)
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 rise but still I consider that 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 site: https://housing.uci.edu/rates/2021-22-Rates.html
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 which are still considered close because they are in bike distance, or you can always take UCI’s bus to get to campus. Some other advantages of On-Campus housing are the close by supermarkets (Target, Trader Joe’s and Albertsons), banks (Chase and Wells Fargo), gas stations (Shell) and a couple of regular and fast-food restaurants (Jack in the Box, In n Out, Starbucks, The Habit, etc.). Also, even though not all communities have amenities like private gyms, pools, etc., as a UCI student, you have free access to the Anteater Recreation Center (ARC) which has gyms, pools, open and close air courts, etc. for our use any time we want and also offers a series of other free and paid activities where you can register and attend during the quarter.
Now that you know a little bit of the on-campus housing communities, we can talk about the important part of this which is how to apply for housing. In order to apply, 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 previously provided website (https://housing.uci.edu/rates/2021-22-Rates.html) and look for the floorplan and rate that best fits for you.
- Submit the Housing Application. It will ask about your preferences for roommates 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. If there is anything not covered in the application, you can also write that down in the comments section right before submitting it.
- 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 will sign a one year lease and pay the corresponding security deposit ($150 USD for most apartments).
Finally, you will need to remember that leases are provided in a yearly basis so even though you have a housing guarantee, you are expected to sign a new lease in the same apartment (in case you didn’t request for a transfer or cancelation) every year of your guarantee. I hope this information helps you in looking for the best housing option for you. If you still have questions, you can always access the Student Housing website (https://housing.uci.edu/) which have more information about it or reach directly to the Student Housing office and ask them whatever question you may have. Good luck and once again, Welcome to UCI!!!