<p>Hi, We were dismayed to find our child's dorm is actually a "temporary" (4 yrs old) building due to accepting too many students this semester. The building isn't listed on the school's site nor was it shown during the tours. It looks like a trailer and was actually told they are getting two more and the delay was due to Katrina. They are in two person rooms with three people. Our son has a bed with some drawers and a desk. No closet. Trying to keep my chin up!!! Anyone else experience this? Also, anyone have any idea how they choose who gets what? Thanks for any encouragement!</p>
<p>First of all, I am so sorry for you & your son. How disappointing. It really can put a damper on the excitement of going away to school. </p>
<p>A young man I know was put in a 2 person room with 3 people a couple years ago, and the school reimbursed him a certain amount of money every week for his inconvenience. I don't know if your school will do that, but it certainly seems unfair to pay top dollar for inferior digs. It wouldn't hurt to ask.</p>
<p>Housing is done different ways at different schools. Some do it blindly with the total pool, others do it according to preferences, others use the date housing apps were turned in, etc. It's hard to say why your son was so unlucky. IMO, being in such a place should lead to first choice on a room next year!!</p>
<p>Meant to add ...</p>
<p>My question for you is about your son specifically. I have seen some of your other posts. If you believe the overcrowding might make things too overwhelming for him, you might need to contact the school. Even if there is no way to change things now, they need to be aware if this is a problem. I know I am jumping to conclusions that it might be an issue for him ... I don't mean to assume anything ... I just wanted to say that if it is, you should talk to housing.</p>
<p>You might even look up the housing codes for the state where your S is going to school. That doesn't seem legal to me.</p>
<p>I sent two PMs to you.</p>
<p>Back in the dark ages when I was in school, they used the floor lounges for "temporary" housing, and perhaps 10 or more would be in there with no real privacy etc. It took months, but eventually all got rooms somewhere else on campus. The rooms opened up when people didn't show up, and other people left and so forth.</p>
<p>I never thought it was too good for those who were in the temporary housing, although some of the placements were better than the standard freshman rooms. I would contact housing authorities and see what you can do regarding waitlist for other accomodations.</p>
<p>
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Back in the dark ages when I was in school, they used the floor lounges for "temporary" housing, and perhaps 10 or more would be in there with no real privacy etc.
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At the U of Texas in Austin, this is called "supplemental" housing. Kids live in these rooms til real dorm rooms open up, sometimes spending all of fall semester in these lounges. The rooms are bigger and I don't think they crowd kids in too tight, so the kids report they are roomy and get to know more people right away, that it is quite survivable. And you get a discount.</p>
<p>I think it has become expected that some students won't even have rooms when fall term starts. (note to self- get all ducks in a row really early this fall for next year)
I don't know when they got their housing apps in, but I know kids who have had to sleep in the common room of the dorms, my nephew at Boulder, stayed with a professor until he could find something.
Dorm rooms also used to be configured for two are now squeezing three or more in, & rooms that look more like a closet are being used.
I find this happens more often with large public schools, as every year they have more students attending, but not any more dorms</p>
<p>Which always makes me wonder why the schools can not cap the accepted students to match the number of beds. I am so tired of hearing how a university over accepted or more student said yes to the acceptance than they anticipated. The only reply the university has is, "Oh well, we will just stick the extra kids in a spare closet; I am sure they won't mind!"</p>
<p>My kids never had a problem with housing but I think that is more due to the small size of their schools. It is bad enough that they make double rooms triples and quad, but when they just stick kids in places that they wouldn't sleep themselves, that is when something needs to be done. I don't remember the school, but one year students had to be housed in a nearby Holiday Inn. At least they has a bed and bathroom, but as a new freshman, most students want to be on campus.</p>
<p>
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Which always makes me wonder why the schools can not cap the accepted students to match the number of beds.
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</p>
<p>Because many of those students will choose other colleges. Often it's difficult for a school to estimate exactly what their yield will be, so they have to offer spots to more students than they can actually house. Some years it works out well, and other times, when many more students choose to attend than the school had estimated, you wind up with crowded conditions.</p>
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<blockquote> <p>I find this happens more often with large public schools>></p> </blockquote>
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<p>It doesn't only happen at large publics (I know emerald...you didn't say it did). Freshman classes at DD's small private university are usually in the 1200 student range. The year she was a freshman, their yield was unusually high and they had 150 or so extra freshman...and therefore 150 doubles were turned into triples. The students got a rebate on their housing costs. By the end of the first term ALL of them had been offered spots in double rooms (returning students who didn't return, freshmen who didn't come, students who found off campus housing at the last minute). DD reported that MOST of the students stayed in their triples with their new roommates and friends. In fact, DD was one student who had no roommate for a long while...no one wanted to leave their triple.</p>
<p>Interesting, thumper. Maybe the kids are better at handling the crowded conditions than we would be. Of course, back in the olde days, my mother said that she and her siblings would have to sleep 3 to a BED!</p>
<p>At</a> Cornell Medical, Stay Away a Year And Get One Free - New York Times</p>
<p>"Cornell sent acceptances to 249 applicants, a number that in past years has yielded the 101 to 104 students it has room for. But this year, 119 said yes to Cornell, and officials began worrying about students fighting over microscopes, cadavers or laboratory tables to put them on. </p>
<p>So Gordon F. Fairclough Jr., the chairman of the admissions committee, sent the 119 students a letter offering a year tuition-free, worth $24,000, to the first 15 who defer their enrollment until September 1997."</p>
<p>Back in the dark ages (ok, the mid-70's) my university had 50 or 60 freshmen (fortunately all men) living in the old gym for several weeks on cots until dorm rooms settled out and a few dozen flunked/drunked out. The extra girls were housed in a motel near campus - many didn't want to move even when a dorm room became available.
This doesn't make it much easier to take now. The "stay away and get one free" should be a model. NOt tuition but room certainly. Especially when you are paying huge amouts to a private school.<br>
The U where my older D is starting grad school is reported to be over-enrolled by more than 500 freshmen. Whoops, hope her house-sharing plans work out!</p>