Is one floor better than another? When the students go online to pick rooms, are they able to see the full floor plan with locations of laundry rooms, etc? He had a chance to stay in Ridgecrest West, so he saw that some spots are a lot more convenient, but UA Early College does the room assignment for you, so he never had a chance to see how room selection works.
I am not familiar with the Blount dorm however prior to room selection there will be detailed maps available online that will show elevators, kitchens, open lounges, and all available rooms. My DD printed those maps out and she kept them beside her computer when she was choosing in the event her first choices were taken. She X out the filled and partially filled suites since she was going in with 4 others and she had the earliest selection time. She pulled in the girl with the last time of their group and the other 2 took their chances that the rest of suite would still be open. If it hadn’t worked out, they were trying to be next door or at least close so when she chose, she looked for a suite with empty suites on either side and across the hallway to increase the chances that they would be close to each other. It all worked out since a few of them had really early selection spots. There is time before room selection to figure out those details, but once the timed selection slot opens up, rooms go quickly. We were amazed at how quickly things started filling up. It is good to have some ideas and then some back ups if your child is looking for something specific.
Of course, much may have changed over the past few years. The year my DD chose, there was a big change in the number of students you could pull in and it caused a lot of issues and stress since the word didn’t get out to everyone until after many roommate groups were selected.
The above info is correct and it seems that this year will follow the same process. A student with an earlier time slot will be able to pull in only one roommate. It is definitely a good idea to print out the floor plans once they are posted on the housing portal which will be just before room selection. The process goes quickly and it is easier to refer to a paper copy than to refer to a webpage.
@Roo17 - How can I get in touch with you to ask about Bloomsburg? I’m new to this site.