<p>So much of housing is luck of the draw. Assignments are often done by computers. My dorm is all singles, the biggest single on the floor is 122sqft the smallest is 97.</p>
<p>Unfortunately that's just how it is: one great room per floor and one crappy one. The rest are about the average of the two extremes.</p>
<p>There are so many space saving products on the market- you can get single large stackable plastic drawers that can be put three in a row under the bed. You can get a narrow 4 or 5 drawer plastic unit that can be put in a closet, or next to a bed/desk, or on top of another piece of furniture. Also consider stackable bins that hold books, cleaners, foodstuffs...
Then there's the vacuumable storage bags that can hold winter stuff in the summer/summer stuff in the winter...all the air squeezed out and put 2 or 3 bags in the top of a closet.
As long as the roommates are willing to share a little frig space, and let you use the micro (if they have one), you should be OK with 1/3 or the closet hanging space, and enough room to put the aforementioned drawers somewhere.
After you are done using these items (which won't cost more than $100 at the most...) you can take them with you to your first apartment or pass them on to siblings.</p>
<p>I had a triple freshman year and dreaded it, but once we moved in, it was ok. I am not a clothes horse and only one of the other girls was, so two of us shared a closet and "miss pretty" had her own. </p>
<p>That, of course, was back in the day when dorm rooms didn't have phones, and there was just one pay phone on our hall floor. Sharing that was WAY worse than sharing a room or a closet.</p>
<p>I would just be happy to be assigned to a room - and not to the lounge or something similar - it happens. Sounds to me like the OP's kiddos triple is a planed one (has 3 closets) - and not a forced one - so could be in for a little surprise when they get there - there are ways to make space in a room - one idea - see if housing can raise the single and put stuff under it - maybe all the beds are singles - not bunk - then bunk 2 of them - sure opens up alot of space.</p>
<p>I guess just having a place to call home is what counts - and it is only a temporary situation - for 14 weeks at a time. Things happen - rooms open up - kids don't come back, etc....... keep the faith and make the best of a not so great situation - and things will work out.</p>
<p>Back in the dark ages, I was one of the "extra" students who showed up to live in the dorms. I was in the former lounge, in a QUAD!! I still laugh at the thought of me living with three other girls in the same room. I was not into sharing anything! Surprisingly, I don't remember it being much of a problem. There was always someone to go to the cafeteria, to the games, to any social function. I would up really liking one of my roommates and being indifferent to the other two. There was surprisingly little drama in our room, certainly much less than in some of the doubles. It was almost like we <em>knew</em> that we had to work together to make it work or we would be pretty miserable.</p>
<p>You can give your daughter confidence that she will be able to take this small setback in stride. Hopefully this will be the biggest issue that she has to deal with this year. She will be fine. And she will definitely appreciate a double next year.</p>
<p>Thanks for all of the responses. I do think that my daughter will be fine if she approaches it with the right attitude. Unfortunately she is a bit of a drama queen - something that I have tried to work with her on over the years but not totally successfully. Fortunately she actually channeled it into the theatre program in high school ! The thing that is getting under her skin is the unfairness of it - and yes, I have told her many times on many occasions that life is not always fair. She is right, however, in that the Housing Office was not truthful when they said that the triples are bigger than doubles because they are not. I would think that they would configure the biggest rooms they have to be triples but that does not seem to be the case. It is an actual triple, not overflow or temporary and the contract is for the school full year. I think that this university's housing, including the assignment system, is not well liked and a huge number of students move off campus after freshmen year - some to fraternities and sororities, but very many to very overpriced off campus housing. The website says that they actually have dorm space still open for any upperclassmen who have not yet made housing decisions.</p>
<p>I only wish that son's school had housing for seniors (but they don't).</p>
<p>You really just need to wait and see how the room is arranged. Honestly, that makes all the difference. My son's room last year had a lot of square footage, but it was a weird shape with irregular walls and we had a heck of a time fitting the furniture in there. The beds ended up in an overlapping "L" shape and were jammed into corners! By comparison, the smaller square footage freshman dorm seemed to have a much better layout. So, be optimistic and just wait to see how it is before you make any judgements.</p>
<p>In the 70s, I found myself housed at the large state university in a formerly men's only dorm. My roomies were non-starters -- one a nightlong moaner, one a girl who mocked every suggestion I made from "Let's get a cup of coffee" to "Let's find the English building..." On either side of me were girls who seemed to have been born at the school. I was only 16 and thought I would die. BUT....we planted geraniums in the urinals; I met a lifelong friend (now a cloistered nun, probably because of the dorm) and moved the next year to the "hotel" dorm reserved for high-grades scholarship students... because I spent half my time in the library studying.
I've told my son, it's air conditioned, so think of it as camping, with air conditioning.</p>
<p>"She is right, however, in that the Housing Office was not truthful when they said that the triples are bigger than doubles because they are not."</p>
<p>Honestly, I wouldn't assume that you were lied to, but that you spoke to someone who didn't know what they were talking about and gave you the wrong answer. Maybe it was more sinister than that, but at this point, it's water under the bridge. She needs to look forward, not back, because looking back will only upset her. I don't know if this will make you feel any better, but at my daughter's school, UCSD, every double in the dorms for Muir College was configured as a triple last year. Every single one. It was crazy.</p>
<p>Look at it this way - at least the OP's daughters room is NOT a forced triple. That can be a pretty iffy situation - until the folks who actually live in it get all the logistics figured out. I am sure it will be quite adaquete once you get there and actually see the room. </p>
<p>The housing office may not really know the dimensions of every single room in the dorms - so you may not have the correct info as well. Fairness wise - you gal will not be the only resident living in that situation - everyone else has to as well. And as you say - not everything in life is fair - there will be bigger fish to fry as life moves forward for your gal - this is not the hardest challange that she will meet up with in college. </p>
<p>Just have to go with the attitude that it will all work out and make the best of it.</p>
<p>I agree with the posters who stated that housing is usually the luck of the draw. If she has the option to change rooms at the end of the term she could end up with a better sitation next term (students leave, go on study abroad, move into greek housing etc). In the big scheme of things, this is acutally a little thing. </p>
<p>If she is up set now, what is she going to do next term when as a sophomore she will be at the bottom of the housing food chain where freshmen are guaranteed housing and then the rank system prevails with seniors taking up all of the "prime real estate on campus."</p>
<p>Unless you D is the type of person who stays in her room all day, most of the time she will be in the room to shower, change clothes and sleep. This past spring my D was the 3rd person in a 2 room triple (she had recently returned to campus after being off and really had little choice as far as available housing). In addition she was a bit upset because she was a junior living with 2 sophomores who were friends and she did not know either person. Guess what? they worked it out and she made 2 new friends which under other conditions she would not have met. They 2 girls gave her the single room and took the double. She said that her room basically only had room for the desk and the bed an she could not turn around with out bumping into a wall. She had a light bulb moment and came to the realization that she is really not in her room much other than to sleep.</p>
<p>As far as calling the housing office, unless you are going to be making calls for the next 4 years, this is something you need to let your D work out for herself. Once she acutally moves in, meets the roomies, if they really click together, the space thing is going to become a non-issue.</p>