Housing at Sciences Po and UC Berkeley By Lindsey Parnas

One of the first things that I know I thought about when getting into the Dual Degree was “how do I get housing on the other side of the world and then how do I transition and get housing in Berkeley”. However, housing in France and Berkeley can be fairly easy to find, affordable and lead to some life-long friendships (Also as a caveat, I can only speak to my personal experience of housing in Menton, as well as my personal experience in Berkeley.)

During your two years in France, you have access to student residences, which in Menton range from €205-385 per month, or you can live in apartments. My first year in Menton, I lived in Villa Jasmin, which is an all-female student residence with about thirty girls. You all live together, cook together (there is no dining plan), and you live through your ups and downs together. You have the opportunity to choose between a single, double, or triple as well. Some of the perks of living in student housing are that it is cheaper, it is very close to campus, and you get a fairly automatic group of friends all living through the experience together. However, at least in Menton, there is more supervision and less independence. I personally was extremely happy I lived there my first year because that was where I met some of my best friends, and it eased the transition into “adulting”. In my second year, I lived in an apartment, which requires more scouting for available apartments or posting in the Facebook group. By living in a student residence your first year, you can escape that and then look for apartments once you have connections and have visited more apartments. Apartments are often a bit more expensive (~€350-650), but you can also choose your own roommates. Also, because Menton is a small town, most apartments are within a twenty-minute walk from campus.

Additionally, during your two years at Sciences Po (this goes for all campuses), you apply online to receive the CAF (http://www.caf.fr/), where the French government provides a monthly subsidy of housing allowance for a portion of your rent. Many receive up to a third of their rent back from CAF, which is a great way to supplement your income while in France.

At UC Berkeley, we have guaranteed housing at the International House or the student cooperatives. At I-House, you can live among undergraduate and graduate international students from over 70 countries with included housing and social events, e.g. international coffee hour. However, International House is more constantly, with room and board (food) totaling about $8,700 per semester, and the rooms can be small. I lived in International House my first semester, and I have since lived in the Berkeley Student Co-Ops. The Berkeley Student Co-Ops are a typical Berkeley experience, where you can live in houses ranging from 17 residents to 140 residents. There are houses for whatever your personality introversion/extroversion level, with person of color housing, queer housing, all female housing, vegan housing, etc. You then get rent, board, and social events for $3723 per semester, and in exchange for cheaper rent, you do “workshifts” (some types of chores of cleaning, cooking, gardening, etc.O) for the house. Additionally, you can take on leadership positions, and you can run for positions, such as House President or Maintenance Manager, usually after your first semester. Both of these housing options provide a great opportunity to more easily socially transition into the Berkeley student community through like-minded groups of friends and related social events.

Although housing can be initially stressful, student residence, co-ops, and International House all serve as immediate social groups which make transitions to new schools easier.