just curious.. how come you don't wanna dorm?

elmwood, downtown berkeley, north berkeley, and rockridge are the neighborhoods you should be looking at. best of luck

Im renting a room but im about 45 mins from berkeley....

Not really looking for a room-mate but it will help. =)

I have a room, not a walk-in closet but you got your own bathroom and all the amenities, internet, cable, 2 car garage, etc. The thing is, its about 45 mins away from your school.

Anyway, thought I should just blurt it out.

niM

hahaha when did you graduate?

You could live in the oak trees like some of the other tree hugging freaks in Berkeley.

class of '03

Tree hugging FREAK!!!

not from berkeley you fool!

Just around the Merritt bakery is good. Just don't stray more than 3-4 blocks from the lake around there. It gets scary quick.

i go to cal... you can find a studio in berkeley for around $1000, but 800 you'd be very very lucky.

anyway, definitely check out craigslist. theres also a service called cal rentals, it's like $25 and they give you rental listings. the further from berkeley, the lower the rent, but i wouldnt advocate going too far away, as theres a point where convenience is worth more than the money you save. to give you an idea, i have a 1-bedroom for $1100 right near campus. best bet... find someone to live with, and split a 1-bedroom. one person takes the living room, one takes the bedroom, u spend $600 a month on rent. good deal.

thanks for all the info everyone..
I'll check the craiglist and other websites for more info..

I went to Cal too. Graduated...1.5 years ago. I still go up almost every weekend to visit my gf. Maybe I'll see you around.

I'd personally recommend trying to stay within walking distance of the campus, if you can. I think, as a freshman, if you live further away, like Oakland, you're gonna be really disconnected from the rest of the student body. If you try to go and hang out with friends at the local eateries, it's going to be a pain in the *** to find parking around the normal hang-out areas, and it will still take you a good amount of time just to drive to Berkeley.

I think one of my favorite parts of college was to be able to walk out my door, walk 2 min., and meet up with my friend to eat or just hang out. If you live close to campus, where most freshmen are, it's so easy to meet up with people since most freshmen do live close to campus, in dorms. They don't have cars to be able to drive to your place or meet up with you in Emeryville or Oakland, so it would become less "fluid" in how you can hang out.

I hope I'm not sounding all preachy or whatever. I just thought I'd throw out my 2 cents because I know some friends who did live driving distance away from campus their freshman year and wish they had lived closer to be more part of the "freshman experience". Just don't wanna see you with the same regret.

DOMO

^thanks for your 2 cents man..
I'm looking at these places that are few blocks away from campus..

dam i hav a few friends that goes there everyone commutes bout 30 mins away.. it will be tough finding a place