The Convent Co-Op

Cheap, Clean, Community-Minded…And Maybe A Little Blasphemous
The Convent Co-​Op is, well, what it sounds like. It’s an old nunnery building that now houses 25 graduate and reentry (read: age 25 or older) Berkeley students. In practice, this means mostly Ph. D and Law students, with a few adult undergraduates in the mix.
First: a word about the co-​op system. The Convent is a room and board house, which means residents eat common meals five nights a week (Sunday-​Thursday). Who prepares these glorious meals? The residents themselves, of course. Each resident is assigned to work 5 hours of workshift (household chores) each week. Workshifts range from cooking and cleaning the kitchen, to bathroom cleaning, to gardening, to computer maintenance.
Five hours per week sounds like a lot, but I’ve found it takes no more time than I would otherwise spend cooking and cleaning my own house. And as a bonus, we have hot nutritious meals five times a week — and I know I wouldn’t spend the time/​money to eat that well if I were just cooking for myself.
**Edit Note** In summer, the house does not serve food. Thus summer residents pay less rent and do less workshift than school year residents.
The convent building lends itself well to communal living. We have a large commercial kitchen, a spacious dining room, a quiet room for study, and two common rooms for socializing. One of my favorite places is the old Chapel, which now houses a large television and a Foosball table. We have parties once or twice a year in the chapel and it makes for a good dance floor.
Individual rooms are the old nun cells. They’re not big, (10 by 15, maybe) but we spend a lot of our time in the common rooms anyway. There’s also a confessional and an old sacristy, but those remain locked and there’s not much to see in them.
One of the nice things about living with 25 people is that we can split the cost of luxuries among all of us. We have a good cable package, fast internet, common printing, subscriptions to the NY Times and the Chronicle, good exercise equipment, lots of board games and books to share.
The thing I like best, though, is the camaraderie. Convent residents tend to play a lot of board games and cards. We also gather to watch television together a few times a week. We’re currently watching Lost and Survivor. (Yes, we still watch survivor.) Dinner conversations are never dull, since you’re always surrounded by smart, grounded people.
Pros:
*Reserved parking is available for $ 90 for a semester
*Residents cook really wonderful meals (since Convent residents are generally older than other co-​op residents, we tend to have better cooking skills.)
*The Convent is the cleanest co-​op, by far
*Only graduate and reentry students live here, so there is less teen angst filled drama
*If you like to study, this is a good co-​op for you
*The Convent has a dedicated bike room, and many residents bike a lot.
*The Convent has ample storage space.
*The Convent is about 10 minutes’ walk from BART
*The Convent is cheap — all utilities and all your food is included for less than $ 1000 per month.
Cons
*If you like to party to excess, you probably won’t fit in here
*The Convent is far from campus: 15 minutes’ walk. The 51 bus line is close and convenient, though.
*The rooms are relatively small and the furniture in your room is rather spartan.