University of Texas, Austin (UT)

Living in a coop is the best opportunity to get to know a lot of nice, local people as well as international students; it feels like a really nice community; you can always meet people if you choose to, or stay on your own; it is comparatively cheap and food is included; you have to work (all the services, like cooking, cleaning etc., are provided by the members i.e. inhabitants), but I cooked and it was fun!

Food was included in my coop (housing), and I could always eat there.

Choose topics that REALLY interest you - look at the syllabus, go through the reading requirements and figure out which courses suit you best. I have made very good experiences that way, my teachers and classes were great - I never had that much fun studying before.

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My personal packing experiences: I took WAY TO MANY books with me (you really find stuff to read at once, if you like reading! - if you ever have the time, anyway.. :-)); but I didn't take bedsheets or towels, which I could have used well. In general, don't take to much (I came with one suitcase and it was enough) and think of the warmth - you really only need one warm jacket and something for the occasional thunderstorms with rain (if you should ever choose to go out during one of these extraordinary phenomenons..), the rest of the time you will wear light clothing.

Austin is a very liberal city, with a lot of students and fun people, who do their best to "keep Austin weird" (as it says on many t-shirts!). In addition, the courses I took were of very high quality and really interesting. If that sounds appealing to you, then go for it!