DIS Residential Community Sharing with Other DIS Students

Would you like to live with other DIS students in Copenhagen? The rooms are all relatively centrally located and come fully furnished. In DIS Residential Communities you will be living in a residential and urban areas regardless of whether you will be living in a complex with other DIS students or in a separate apartment. This is very common for Danish students, and very different from American dorm-style living. Apartments range in size from two-bedroom accommodation to smaller three-four storey buildings to a high rise building (by Danish standards) with up to 60 students living there.

What to Expect

The room sizes vary and most often two students share, but up to four people may share a room. Single rooms are limited in number. You will either share a kitchenette and a bathroom with your roommates or share a common kitchen and bathrooms with fellow DIS students living in the same building. Previous students have commented that they experienced a good social life connected to their academic environment.

Cultural Immersion Options

The DIS Residential Community option involves living solely with other study abroad students, so social integration with DIS students is easy, but broader cultural integration into Danish life can be more challenging. As a result, if you choose the DIS Residential Community option, you have to participate in two of the following activities: Visiting family, DIS Buddy Network, sports, volunteering, or Danish Language and Culture. This is to ensure a certain degree of cultural immersion.

From Experience

Unfortunately, former students rate DIS Residential Communities as the lowest in comparison to other housing options. This could be because students don’t fully understand the option before choosing it. Some students say they selected the DIS Residential Community option based on the commute, which is anything from 10 minutes to 40 minutes, and then halfway through the semester they realize that they would have been happier in another housing option regardless of the fact that it means a slightly longer commute.

The DIS Residential Community option is the right one if you:

• want to live with a roommate
• want to live with fellow DIS students and discover Copenhagen together
• are social, independent and self-reliant
• do not consider living with Danes to be a high priority while studying abroad
• want to cook and go grocery shopping for yourself.

DIS Residential Community Rules

Students considering the DIS Residential Community option should understand the rules and culture of this housing option. Please find the rules below:

• drinking alcohol is prohibited after 10pm on weekdays and after 11pm on weekends. Overnight guests are prohibited without express written consent of the Housing office
• drug use is illegal and strictly forbidden in the DIS Residential Community premises, as in Denmark
• smoking is prohibited in the DIS Residential Community buildings. When smoking outside, please do so at least 10 meters from entrances
• music and loud entertainment must not disturb the other residents, and all loud noise is prohibited after 10pm on weekdays and after 11pm on weekends. When playing music, always close your window
• two mandatory monthly meetings take place between Social & Residential Advisors and students.

Students in violation of these rules may face disciplinary action from the DIS Housing Office or your home university, whom we may contact as necessary regarding your behavior. Serious offenses can lead to expulsion. Please, be smart, be safe, and be considerate!

Frequently Asked Questions

• What is the living arrangement like?
• I have heard that food is expensive in Denmark, how will I cope?
• How will I meet the Danes if not via my housing?

What is the living arrangement like?

You will either share a kitchenette/kitchen and a bathroom with a roommate or with several roommates living in a building with many other DIS students, or you will share an apartment, which is not located within a building with other DIS students. These separately located apartments all have a common area, a kitchen and bathroom that you will share with one to three other DIS students.

I have heard that food is expensive in Denmark, how will I cope?

Food is expensive in Denmark, in particular if you have any food restrictions. To help offset your food costs, DIS offer Residential Community students a partial food stipend. This amount is intended to go towards your food costs, but will not cover them completely. You can ask us at the Student Services office for advice on grocery shopping in cheap supermarkets, or look in the Student handbook.

How will I meet the Danes if not through my housing?

DIS offers some courses together with Danish students and we also arrange special events, where we invite Danes. In the bigger DIS Residential Community options, DIS has employed young Danes to serve as Social & Residential Advisors for DIS students. They will help you with the practicalities of life in Denmark, and will also arrange a couple of social events for DIS students each semester. More about DIS Social & Residential Advisors.

If meeting Danes is important to you, perhaps a different Housing Option is for you. Otherwise you can interact with Danes through cultural immersion options, mentioned below.

If you are in a DIS Residential Community, you get priority if you sign up for a Danish Visiting Family. The Visiting Family program is flexible, and it is up to you and your family to decide the frequency of visits as well as the activities. Usually a visiting relationship starts with a nice dinner at the family´s house. You can sign up for the program in the online registration form after you have been accepted to DIS. There is also the DIS Buddy Network, sports, volunterring options and other ways to meet Danish people!