The University of Texas is home to over 50,000 students, both undergraduate and graduate, as well as over 16,000 faculty and staff. This Big 12 school is one of the largest universities in the entire nation, and sits smack dab in the middle of Austin, Texas, a fun city that is well suited for college life.

The University of Texas has its own apartments on campus, but if you’re an incoming freshman longhorn, don’t count on being able to snag any of these. The UT, like many colleges and universities, has very specific rules on which students are allowed to live in the on campus and which aren’t.

There are three major apartment complexes that are actually on the University of Texas (Austin main campus), which are:

1. Brackenridge Apartments
2. Colorado Apartments
3. Gateway Apartments

The problem is that these apartments are specifically reserved for certain types of students. To get one of these on campus apartments, you have to be a married student, a single parent student, graduate students, or undergrads who have a minimum of 30 hours of course credits and are also in good academic standing with the school.

It’s not hard to see why students would prefer an apartment over a tiny cramped dorm room. All three of the apartment builds on the U of T campus offer all the following:

• 1, 2, or 3 bedroom apartments
• Family environment
• Excellent maintenance
• Playgrounds
• Laundry rooms
• Cable TV
• Easy access to the expressway
• 24-hour University Police patrol
• Parking
• Excellent public schools nearby
• Apartments are non-smoking
• No pets allowed

But if you don’t fit any of the requirements laid out by the school, then you’re out of luck and will need to look elsewhere. The good news is that there are many different apartment complexes in Austin, with many of them located very close to the University. To find an apartment relatively close to the University, you could be looking at a price range anywhere from $575 on the cheaper units to $1,300 or even more.

Even further away from the U, it’s hard to find cheaper apartments than that. Austin is a rapidly growing city that has a great job market and a lot of positive things going for it, so cheap housing just isn’t as available as it might be in other cities, but there are some decent deals on apartments if you’re willing to look for the right fit.

If you’re a true freshman going into the University of Texas and can’t really stand the idea of being crammed into a dorm room like one of a group of sardines, then looking around the city ahead of time for a University of Texas apartment could be the way to go.