Out of the nest

November 4, 2007 4:24 PM

I want to move to Austin, TX for the spring semester. Help me decide where to live

I currently go to school in Dallas and after this semesters over I'm moving to Austin to attend school at ACC. I'm 19 and will be 20 in January. I do have acquaintances down in Austin but would prefer to not use them. I'm saving up money now so I could probably manage a few months without a job in Austin.

Where is the best place to live?
What is most affordable without sacrificing living conditions?

I have a little experience with bills, and I'm actually pretty tight with my money. I wouldn't think money would be an issue for me.
I'd also like to have a decent social life, and since I'm moving out of my parents life I want to dive straight in.

Thanks!

posted by alexplainlater to Home & Garden (6 answers total)

As you well know, with Austin's horrible highway infrastructure, the closer to campus (and to sixth street!) the better.
Gotta love Austin. One of my favorite cities.
posted by Gerard Sorme at 5:09 PM on November 4, 2007

You probably want to live around the University. Stay out of West Campus, look in the Hyde Park area or North Campus. Near campus you sacrifice cost and quality to be within walking distance to UT. There's a lot of student-living apartments away from campus, around the Arboretum and the Far West area. I live off Cameron Road, but I wouldn't recommend that area for people new to Austin. I suggest looking at Facebook and Craigslist for subleases, since there's always people who graduate in the winter who need to move out. Good luck.
posted by lychee at 6:20 PM on November 4, 2007

It really depends on whether you have a car or not. If you don't, you're obviously limited to walking distance from bus stops (not the awesomest way to commute in Austin).

If you do have a car, your options are much more open since everything in the city seems to be exactly 10 minutes away no matter where you're going or where you're coming from.
posted by yehaskel at 9:46 PM on November 4, 2007

Which ACC campus are your classes going to be in? More than one? I went to ACC for a couple of years and had to bus it to two different campuses that were very far away from each other. They're all pretty spread out, in fact, and Pinnacle in particular is way out there. And yeah, do you have a car? Buses will run to all the campuses, but trust me when I say that it can be pretty painful to rely on them exclusively.
posted by picea at 7:23 AM on November 5, 2007

You are going to have to spend some time in Austin driving around the campus(es) and looking at apartments nearby. I'd recommend checking any apartment complex on a review site like this or this.

Check Craigslist, a lot of listings will say "near ACC."
posted by mattbucher at 7:57 AM on November 5, 2007

UT /= ACC - figure out which campuses before making any sort of decision. They're in wildly different parts of town.
posted by restless_nomad at 11:43 AM on November 5, 2007