My son has learned that there are 4 dates on which incoming freshman can choose their dorm room. His date is the 3rd of the 4. He is asking his HS classmate and probable roommate which date he has, understanding that if his is earlier, all the better. However, if they are stuck with day 3 - what are the chances they will get a 4 person suite in one of the Ridgecrests? He said he will log in at the earliest available opportunity on that date.
Also, I am not quite following how they would be assigned 2 other roommates. They may decide to pull one other from their school and then just get a random 4th.
Thanks!
I am only chiming in since no one else has replied yet (my son is a sophomore, so it now might be different than two years ago.) If your son has day number 3, I am guessing he would NOT be able to get a suite with 4 open rooms. However, it sounds like your son might only need a room with two open rooms and that would be much easier to get. He might not be able to get it in Ridgecrest, but other dorms (like Riverside etc.) don’t fill up as fast as they are not honors BUT they are just as nice. If, by chance, your son’s roommate has day #1, he probably can get a suite with 4 open rooms if he is flexible on the floor etc. (he would then “pull in” your son and any other roommate pre-arranged.) The open room(s) would be taken by anyone who is logging on and chooses the same suite and open room (must be the same sex of course.)
My oldest UA son (who just graduated) was pulled in by a another student and had two random roommates. They all got along well, although 3 of them became very good friends. He had a 4 year housing scholarship so went random with 2 people his sophomore year, 2 people his junior year and 2 people his senior year and lucked out each time. He made friends with all his roommates, and it went very well for him.
My sophomore son “found” 3 people to room as a freshman and it was okay. He became friendly with them, but really didn’t hang out too much. He decided to room with one if them is sophomore year and the two other rooms were taken by freshman (again, okay but no good friendships developed.) This coming year, the chance that freshmen will room with upper classmen is much lower as not many of them were able to recontract, and those who did are being placed together.
Unless your son’s roommate has an earlier date OR they really want to room with the 3rd person, I would tell them just to try to find a suite with two rooms open so they could end up together (unless of course that 3rd person has an earlier date and could pull them in.)
Thanks for the response. My son actually has the first slot on Day 3, his roommate didn’t sign up in time to get a slot. He’ll figure it out.
I did not even catch the fact that they had assigned dates and times. Look’s like my son is on day 3 as well.
I went back and looked at the history of posts on the parents FB page from last year. Everyone on Day 1 got their suites in Ridgecrest. Some on Day 2 did. But that was when there were 4 roommates already; not a pair. If you want to maximize your chances, go in as a two rather than a four. Most parties of two got Ridgecrest suites on Day 3. However, you’ll have to be flexible–it could be you are jumping into a unassigned 4 person suite (same sex), it could be that you are joining two others already assigned to a suite (same sex) or in just a few cases, jumping into a two person suite (there are very few of these and are relatively undesirable due to location, configuration and lack of more roommates.) You will be able to see the available suites in the housing site a few days before the room assignments begin. You’ll be able to see how many suites are already occupied, how many are filled with one person (usually an RA), etc.
My advice would be as the parent to join the 2020 FB Parent Page and get some friends whose children have earlier assignments. After their rooms are secured, and they are done with housing, they can actually go back into the site and let you know what suites are still available. (you can’t see it until its your registration period, but those who have completed the registration can) You could ask them to check at the end of Day 2, asking for RCS,RCW and RCE and then you can manage expectations and decide on strategy for selecting.
You’ll also have to have the discussion with your child about whether its worth it to split up a pair and go singles if that is all that is available in order to get into Ridgecrest or whether they’d rather go somewhere else.