Guests of the opposite sex may be received only in the ground floor lounge and the garden areas of the building. Intimate behavior between the sexes in the lounges, gardens, and other public areas is not tolerated. An important advantage of residence hall living includes the opportunity of becoming acquainted with other students. The location of the dormitory is close to a shopping district that includes take-out food stores and a supermarket. Some have said that they did not have enough personal privacy in the Residence, but others have not perceived this as a problem.
Some foreign students share furnished flats in Cairo that they rent themselves.
The advantages they see in living in an independently-rented flat include the feeling of being on one's own. Some international students move into flats seeking what they expect will be a freer lifestyle in this regard, only to find a foreigner is visible in Egypt wherever he or she goes. Behavior that is not acceptable in polite Egyptian society is quickly noticed whether it occurs on AUC premises or in apartment buildings around Cairo. There are some advantages to living off-campus, such as the opportunity to become more involved in the wider Egyptian scene and doing your own cooking, to the extent that you neglect your studies while you try to get the plumbing fixed, clear up a misunderstanding with your landlord, shop for groceries, and or do household chores. Some landlords speak English, so one does not necessarily need to know Arabic to rent a flat - but it helps.