<p>After your freshman year at Rice, what's the likelihood of being able to get campus housing as a sophomore? . . . as a junior? . . . as a senior (I understand seniors have second priority after freshmen)? Is additional housing under construction? If upperclassmen get closed out of campus housing, how far from campus can they find suitable housing?</p>
<p>Like most any dorm question at Rice, it really depends on the college. I know at Brown, the boot comes Junior here. However I know at some colleges sophmores are kicked off.</p>
<p>DD will be a sophomore, and she is planning to rent an apartment or duplex with some friends. None of them have cars, but there are quite a few places within a mile of campus, and many more within 4 miles. I was worried about this issue when DD accepted admittance at Rice, because I wanted her "safe" and I worried about... well, everything! (Hence, my screen name!). But there is quite a support network for finding a place to live (the off-campus housing guide just came out, there is an online listing, and of course, friends who live off-campus). Since the number of off-campus students remains about the same, students rent places that have been vacated by other Rice students. It works. As a benefit, it can be quite a bit cheaper to live off-campus, with more privacy and space. DD is looking forward to it, and I am no longer worried. Also, if a student REALLY wants to remain on campus all four years, it is definitely possible. Options include; being an officer in your college (they get housing), sharing a room or suites with a person/persons with better roomdraw number, getting on the waitlist for rooms (according to the Rice admin. I spoke to about this last year, there were only one or two people on the waitlist at my daughter's college.) It all works out in the end.</p>
<p>mods please remove the above post</p>
<p>Done - Thanks so much for the forum alert!</p>
<p>Appreciatively,
Moderator JEM</p>
<p>hmmm....seems as though at some very near point in time there wouldn't be enough message boards to accommodate this 'scheme'. Probably not a good idea for the op to try to pull one over on kids with the gray matter for Rice.</p>
<p>anxious - happy to hear that, one more spot for me!
At my college, sophomores have the lowest priority. Generally there are something like 17 all sophomore suites attempting to get on campus and about 15 get on. So that means about 8 students who wanted housing get kicked off. (These numbers are ESTIMATIONS!) </p>
<p>Housing near campus is plentiful, and generally cheaper than living on campus (if you wish - there is plenty of expensive housing too!). It is VERY helpful to have a car if you are off-campus, public transport in Houston is not so hot.</p>
<p>D is a soph. Soph year in her college is when many get booted off campus. She stayed- has a suite about the size of my desk with 3 other girls. I am exaggerating slightly, but it IS cramped. D is TOTALLY ready to move off campus for her junior year. She wants to live by herself- no roommates at all. She is going to start looking after spring break. Her bf is moving off, too, but will have roommates. It is interesting to me to see how all of a sudden kids are "ready". D was not very comfortable with the idea of living off campus as a soph, but now is counting the days. I am comfortable with the choice. She has a car and bf has a bike, so I think all will be fine.</p>
<p>MoWC - I believe your D is a voice major. My theorem of commuter student engagement is that the degree of a student's campus involvement is often in inverse-square proportion to the distance they live away from campus (those two miles away are only 1/4 as involved as those one mile away, etc.). But would it be accurate to assume that given the culture in which School of Music majors live, it's easier for them to commute to campus and still be as connected and engaged as the resident students?</p>
<p>bumpppp.........</p>
<p>Right now you are guaranteed three years of housing at Rice, and freshman year is automatically guaranteed. When you risk being forced off depends on your college. Here at Sid, for example, it used to be that sophmore year was variable. That meant that in the spring of freshman year all the freshman that were not guaranteed housing (you are automatically on if you are on Sid Council, a justice, or an EMT) go through "room jack." An equall number of girls and guys are given rooms on campus through a random lottery. My year, for example, we threw darts at balloons. The balloon you hit had a number in it. After every pair had a number there was one remaining balloon, and the number in that balloon was the top of the list. So it is completely random. However, getting kicked off as a freshman is hard, so Sid decided to change from jacking freshman to jacking sophmores. That meant that this year the freshman and sophmores BOTH went through room jack (we didn't want just one class to have to jack twice, and the juniors did not jack because everyone thought it would be unfair to kick them off for senior year). Again, what year you get kicked off varies from college to college, but if you get put in Sid, you won't have to worry about it until Sophmore year.</p>
<p>Hmmm, are you really guaranteed 3 years or is that just a defacto guarantee? I know at Lovett, we kick off rising sophomores (like me! :() last year, about 10 people who wanted to be on campus got kicked off. It looks to be slightly higher this year. Who is guaranteed spots varies by college too. At Lovett, EMTs are not guaranteed housing, but athletes are.</p>
<p>My son is a freshman in WRC. As he has explained the procedure to me, each person receives a point for each semester they have been at Rice. They then complete a form indicating their preference of room type (i.e. double, quad with own bathroom, 2 quads sharing a bathroom). When room jack occurs (which is tomorrow night for my son) the people with the most combined points choose from a deck of cards first, then down the line. I believe they keep enough rooms available for rising sophomores to be guaranteed a room. It's the rising juniors who stand the chance of having to move off campus. Seniors are pretty much guaranteed housing. One caveat for rising sophomores is if you choose a room type where there is limited availability. My son's current roommate is in this situation. He plans on rooming with 3 girls (yes, it took me a while to understand that they allowed that) in a quad with their own bathroom. Evidently, there are only 5 of these in WRC, so chances are that when their turn comes around none will be left. I'm sure there are more nuances to the system, but I believe that's the jest of it.</p>
<p>My s. just emailed me that he, and the vast majority of the rising sophs (as he put it) in his college got jacked. He called it a "bad year". He said only 5 rooms rolled over to tonight, but I don't know what that means. Can anyone explain??</p>
<p>Phew! Made it on! Got the last spot at my college. What a relief. Room draw is stressful!</p>
<p>Congrats Jen!!!!
My s. is still bummed, but c'est la vie. The apartment hunt begins with his friends... After beer bike.</p>
<p>Keep your fingers crossed for my son! Tonight's the night.</p>