gtg263r wrote:im coming from the other side of the country to go to school @ davis. ill be there for ASD, but i doub till really be able to check out housing the one real day im there though. in your opinion, whats the best way of going about it...? ideally i only want to split a 2br w/ 1 other person.
just hooking up w/ a random roomie on craigslist or similar online housing site?
when should i begin looking? ive been checking those sites recently, but it seems like its too soon. also, im looking to pay <=$500/month for rent. $400/month would be more ideal. is this realistic? i dont need anything fancy, just somewhere to study & rest my head
throw me some areas to live/apartment complex's to check out. i was actually kind of interested in the whole co-op living stuff, but i fear i wont have enough time to keep up w/ the duties/responsibilities involved w/ that
Honesly, I would say that the best way to meet roomates is by trying to meet some of your fellow 1Ls on TLS and living with them, if you are able to do that. The reason I say this is because most of the craigslist et al listings are for living with undergrads which is bad because, in addition to the reasons you would find at any school, the law school is on semesters and undergrad is on quarters. This means that when you're studying for finals 12 hours a day, they'll still be playing beer pong in the garage. The advantages of living with fellow law students is thus significant.
Paying $500 a month for a room in a 2 brd house is pushing on the lower limit of what is realistic in Davis. Apartments generally run 750-900 a month, rooms in a 2 brd 500-650, and rooms in a 3 brd+ 450-600. Depending on how much of a commute you're used to however, you can live in West Sac, Dixon, or Woodland and pay much lower rent for what would only be a 10-15 min commute. This option does take away from some of the appeal of living in Davis and experiencing the culture, so I might advise against it unless money is a significant concern.
If you want advice on specific places, I'd be more than happy to give you that, but for now I'm just going to link you to the The Davis Rental Housing Guide so you can browse yourself.
As for Co-op living, in a word, no. Not conducive to doing well in Law School at all.
tmo wrote:Yes, I'm fairly lameThanks guys.
Splitt3r, we talk about all the important stuff: grills, latest Peet's coffee offerings, toddler bullies... sometimes law school too! I take it you have lived there? What's tasty? What's fun? What is more the graduate scene vs. the undergrad scene?
Depends what food you're in the mood for. Pluto's is amazing for salads, Burgers and Brew is a great kind of upper-scale hamburger place that opened recently, Sushi Nobu in East Davis has an amazing all you can eat sushi buffet, Thai2k is really good Thai food, and Guadalajara's is really good authentic Mexican food.
There really isn't too much to do in Davis, so you kind of have to make your own fun. They have a bowling alley/arcade/pool hall at the student union, which is fun to just hang out with your friends and play games. There's a paintball place on the outskirts of town. There's a lot of clubs at the law school that I know take up a lot of students time and that they enjoy, but I'm not sure if that really counts as "fun."
There's a few good bars downtown but nothing to write home about, and there's no real nightclubs in Davis to speak of. Most law students at Davis will mostly hit up the bars downtown or go to house parties thrown by fellow law students. The undergrad scene is very much about the giant frat parties and the beer pong tournaments, while the graduate scene is more laid back and is (slightly) more mature in their partying.
There is also the option of going to Sac (20 min drive) or SF (1hr 15min drive w/o traffic, but that almost never is the case) to go clubbing down there. Both have really good clubs to offer, with SF having a distinct edge but also having the disadvantage of being much farther and having to convince someone to be DD (in that taking a cab back is impractical.)
By the way, it sounds like law school is the ONLY one on semesters? Can we confirm this? 
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