Living in a co-op is a unique and rewarding experience. You get a home-cooked vegetarian meal every night, an instant group of friends if you are new to the area, and the benefits of living in a house without having to do all of the housework. Most importantly, you have a full say in what happens in your living community.
The day-to-day rules vary between houses and you can get the specifics from each house's web page or from the house MC. All of our houses are vegetarian - which means that all house meals have to be vegetarian, not that you have to be, or that meat isn't allowed in the house. In all three, you do about two hours of household chores a week and everybody takes turns cooking the evening meal for your house. You can make any modifications you want to your room (which is always nice, although many residents have bemoaned the poor color sense of occupants before them). There are usually meetings every Sunday, sometime between 5:00 and 8:00 p.m. (varying by house), and an occasional work holiday whenever the house feels it's time for one.
At the weekly meetings, the house decides how to spend the food group money, whether to accept new members to the house, and any other issues that may arise. Everyone has an equal say in the meetings, and in such small groups, it isn't difficult to have your voice heard.
The idealogical side of co-op living may seem immaterial at first, but it is at the heart of our lifestyle. When you move in, you do not simply get a place to live; you join a community in which you have a very real stake. It is hard to think of any other place in the modern world where you could have as much influence on your surroundings as you do in the co-op - you can motion on everything from noise policy to whether that hideous plaster pig should be destroyed (hint: "Yes."). This is the democratic process in its purest form.
If you do not like paying for the privilege of an absentee landlord, if you are excited by the prospect of participating in direct democracy, or if you want an instant group of diverse and involved friends with whom you can build a strong community, then co-operative living is for you.