On the first day of orientation weekend you will have the opportunity to meet all the students and select a roommate. There you will have the opportunity to discuss your preferences for housing accomodations and we will try our best to put you in the right place. This system of housing has proved to work very well and results in a very high percentage of students who are pleased with their housing assignment. Since IES students come from all over America plus occasionally from outside the U.S. and from a great variety of colleges and universities as well as different backgrounds and interests, we recommend that you try to find roommates from another college or area just to expand your own educational experiences. I you are a German major or are really interested in improving or learning German you should also try to find rommates with the same purpose.
Many older people have big apartments and make rooms available to students in their homes.
Student housing is at a premium in Vienna. Most resident landlords will at the start consider you to be a boarder. Whether you remain one or eventually manage to integrate yourself into another life-style will depend upon your interest, initiative, adaptability, and acceptance of Austrian habits and attitudes to life in general. Rooms are kept at a lower temperature in the winter than in the U.S. Austrians are very concerned with saving energy through conservation of electricity, gas, and hot water, and you will be expected to cooperate. Friends meet in Viennese coffee houses or wine cellars.