<p>oldfort, we just did something similar regarding a TV. We have an extra TV in our house. My son’s roommate apparently never watches TV, so even though my son did not ask if he’d split the cost for one, I don’t think he’ll go for it. My son knows that he never watches because it says so on his FB.</p>
<p>On move in day, we cannot squeeze in a TV with all of the other things! We have too much already! I gave my son the choice of having HIM pay for shipping the TV to the school now, or waiting for a month until parent weekend (we can easily bring it then). BTW, we pay for Netflix, so he could watch movies through Netflix on his laptop. Frankly, my son is not a big TV watcher either, and I don’t see where he’ll have time for the first few weeks to even watch anything anyway. Well, apparently the TV is not important enough for him to spring for the shipping (he did not even ask how much that would cost). He is currently working so he has the money to pay for it. I guess whether it costs $50 or $10 (he has no idea) he is unwilling to open his wallet for the TV!</p>
<p>My son overnighted with kids who had been in a forced triple at American who chose to remain tripled. They liked the money saving and I guess being guys they didn’t need the extra storage space. My son seeing them, said he’d be happy to be in a triple too.</p>
<p>If you have to be in forced triple see if you can get a couple architects as roommates. They are never home.</p>
<p>Son went into a triple with two guys he barely knew for the cost savings cause as a architect he was only ever in the room to sleep and change clothes.</p>
<p>I lived in a double last year and found socializing in the dorms to be pretty difficult because of it. There wasn’t room in our dorm for both my roommate and I to have company at the same time and even though we agreed we’d give the other a heads up when we knew ahead of time that people were coming over, she never did-- even when she invited friends from out of town to sleep over. And her friends always left messes and were rude to my friends. Our room was the hot spot because I brought a television and everyone always wanted to come watch glee or whatever. I opted for a single next year. I don’t think a single is any more isolating than a double at the end of a hallway where nobody walks by, which was my situation last year and it was certainly not the end of the world, and there are advantages to having control over your own space when it comes to socializing.</p>
<p>I would honestly sooner commute from home than live in a triple with two other girls. A group of girls all getting along is too hit and miss for me. I opted for a double my first year thinking that I would be missing out on “the college experience” if I didn’t have a roommate, and now I seriously laugh at myself. I was over that sentiment by October.</p>
<p>I say single also. Being in a single doesn’t mean you wont socialilze, it just means you miss the “hit or miss” roommate situation. Doors can be open and you can shut it which I’m sure she’ll love at some point I had a single sophomore year when a roommate left and loved it, I had more room to socialize and didn’t have to worry about who was sleeping, studying or in a bad mood.
My sister is getting a single this Fall and only for a few minutes was disappointed, it really can be a win-win. If I could have given up my first year roommate, I would have.</p>
<p>If the money is a problem, let the school know. I’m sure someone in a triple will opt for the single. My son was assigned to a triple his freshman year which irritated the heck out of me for the same reason that OP is not pleased. His school is a small LAC that usually did not have this problem His freshman year, they had unprecedented yield. So the larger doubles had to be converted to triples. The good news was that enough changes occurred so that his room was back to a double by the time he got there.</p>
<p>Neither of my other sons got decent room assignments. Apparently there are not that many “good” rooms for freshmen. The upperclassmen clinch their assignments first and the leftovers go to the frosh. Yeah, after all that PR and come on, the freshmen are last priority in rooms so that any flux in enrollment, means they take the consequences. Overenrollment means the freshmen are the ones stuck in barracks, hotels, tripled, etc. I think the only ones who got the true freshmen dorms as they wanted them at their schools were those who were accepted ED or athletic recruits who were accepted early. </p>
<p>My one son got a quad one year when he did not fill out his room app. I was furious at him. He didn’t want to live there, and moved off campus to a cheap room in a house. Didn’t bother to tell me so he still had the quad which I paid for up front. Well, things fell apart at his house, so he ended up back on campus, and the quad turned out to be a double because no one stayed in two of those beds. They took one look at the assignment and went off campus. So he had a huge double, really a almost a single the way the room was laid out.</p>
<p>S3 had a single last year, and did not like it. He felt it was too isolated and his happy at the prospect of an on campus apt this year with 3 other guys, each with his own bedroom.</p>
<p>D is in a double at a college summer program now-- she’s shy and had prayed for a double, for the social aspects. Her roommate is wonderful and they get along beautifully. Still, she says that knowing what she knows now, a single would have been preferable. They’re all back and forth between the rooms, and in the (tiny) lounge, the cafeteria, the laundry room, the bathroom… there’s no end to the social possibilities and it’s very nice to be able to close that door and have a minute’s peace.</p>
<p>I also vote for the single. The other option: cramped space, dealing with two roommates…sounds like a disaster waiting to happen. </p>
<p>One summer, my son went to a summer academy, like Johns Hopkins, and was really looking forward to having a roommate. Turned out, his roomie cracked and ended up leaving, which meant my son lost a roommate. It was his best experience ever. He had the luxury of hanging out in a dorm and having a ball, but when he needed to recharge, he could just close the door.</p>
<p>I was assigned an (un)forced triple and I’m really anxious about the situation, especially since the other two girls are friends.
It has 3 closets and a bathroom but I’m worried about the difficulty of living with two other people/having one room for three different schedules…I already have such a hard time sleeping at home!</p>
<p>The thing about the forced triple situation at S’s college that puzzled me was that the price differential was less than $500. But the cost for the single was less than $400 more than the double. But freshmen are not eligible for singles as a rule. Kind of crazy pricing, I think.
It puts a burden on the parents to ask for as much as $1800 more a year for a single when the student did not want it. That is a significant amount of money. I’m surprised they just stuck here in there without asking if you could pay for it.</p>
<p>I hate when they spring these “surprises” on families a month before school starts. Annoying for you to have to pay it, more anxiety for your D who had already adjusted her mind to having a roommate! </p>
<p>I will never understand why adults at a college think it’s a good idea to smash 3 students in a room - the adults probably wouldn’t last 3 nights in that situation!</p>
<p>Guess I’ll be the lone dissenter who would take the gamble (if my kid was willing) as I’ve known quite a few kids who got stuck with forced triples at the newly overcrowded schools and were de-tripled before Thanksgiving and some who even missed their tripled roommies! At almost every school some kids never show up at all, some can’t handle the transition and drop out within the first week or two…melt doesn’t really end at orientation and I’m not sure how that’s reflected in the retention rates!</p>
<p>My D was in a large double, with an attached single, last year and the 3 freshmen became so close that they requested and received a triple for this year (same large public univ as one of cpt’s sons). The girl in the single had not wanted it, and she was worried about being alone at first but was later glad that she could study til all hours without disturbing anyone. We had noticed that, buried on housing website, they suggested that female students submit their housing requests and (refundable) deposits in February if they had a preference - it seemed very early at the time, but we did it anyway (I think males were advised to submit by March). </p>
<p>Pandora, a normal triple would be larger than a forced triple and would also have 3 sets of furniture (bed/desk/dresser/nightstand/closet). Forced triples often end up with 2 complete sets and one extra bed.</p>
<p>the way for a school to avoid tripling is either to have admitted fewer students in the first place or to have withdrawn or deferred admission to admitted students if they were over enrolled.
i think most entering freshmen at a given school would rather be in a triple than have been rejected.</p>
<p>building new dorms is a long term project and not always feasible given land and monetary limitations. especially if tripling is caused by temporary blips in enrollment. </p>
<p>i think i recall one school a few years ago that found itself over enrolled that forced upperclassmen, who thought they had on campus housing, to move off campus to a hotel. is that more fair? i doubt the upper classmen affected thought so.</p>
<p>tripling may not be desirable – but the alternatives are probably worse – especially for the 1/3 of the tripled room who wouldn’t be there.</p>
<p>I think $1800 is a lot of money to have to pay that is not budgeted. It would have hurt us terribly if that happened to us last year as the school increase in tuition and overall costs really hit us hard, and was less than that. That would have put us over what we were willing to pay. I would have had to call the college and explain the situation and request a forced triple. Interesting that most of the folks on the board would just take the perk even at that cost.</p>
<p>Toledo, did they give you the option of a triple, or just send you a notice of the single and the bill? I agree ^^ with the post above, that we could not accept that big of an increase easily. </p>
<p>I’m all for the single. I would’ve loved to have a single - I didn’t get one until my very last semester on campus, and while I liked some of my previous roommates, the single was SO much nicer. A roommate is not necessary to make friends - the thing about a single is you can have whatever friends you want over, whenever and there’s no one to complain about it. </p>
<p>I never lived in a triple, but I really can’t imagine that ever being a better scenario than a single.</p>