<p>Help would be greatly appreciated please!!!
I've been postponing applying for FSU housing because I was considering living off-campus and didn't want to be bound by the housing contract.
Recently I've been leaning towards living in a dorm due to the many persuasive arguments supporting the idea that dorm-life is an essential part of the college experience.
I was wondering what my chances are of getting into one of the four halls of my choice/roommate of choice, or of even getting on-campus housing at all if I apply within the next few days. I'm not sure how far on the priority list I would be and I'm wondering- Is it even worth it???
If any current FSU student is reading this and has already gone through the experience, advice would be GREATLY appreciated. It's important because I'd rather live off-campus than be bound to a disappointing dorm for the next year.</p>
<p>My guess at this point is you might get a double in one of the older dorms like Deviney, Smith, Dorman or Kellum if you have a high priority number. One good thing about these dorms is they are less expensive, located conveniently near the cafeterias and you don't have to clean the hall bathrooms like you would in a suite. I recommend Damp Rid and ant traps but really some students are perfectly happy with these living arrangements.</p>
<p>You can also get a similar experience to dorm life by living in a private dorm like Southgate or you could live in an apartment at Heritage Grove.</p>
<p>first of all, applying for housing doesn't bind you to have to live a dorm that you do not want. second, with the enrollment cut this year of 1,000, it should be a bit less tight getting into a dorm. The campus has approximately a 6,500 student capacity in their dorm system. </p>
<p>depending upon what your dorm selections are, you should have a good chance of getting one of them. But, you must apply asap. in the event you do not get one of your dorms of choice, there is an abundance of "off-campus" housing that wil still be available to you at that time (sometime in May-June dorm assignments come out).</p>
<p>Good luck, welcome to the Nole family and I hope you get your dorm selection. which dorms do you want?</p>
<p>Register for a housing number ASAP. If you choose not to pay online, you have 10 days to send a check. So it buys you time. Hurry and get that number while you decide. I think you have 10 days to mail check or go back online to pay, which means you can really wait until the last minute. And if you change your mind and request the deposit back before May 1, you get all but $50 back. Before July 1 you get all but $75 back.</p>
<p>Now that you are accepted, you can do the following:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Pay your admissions deposit at fsu</a> admissions | admission deposit<a href="must%20be%20done%20to%20confirm%20spot%20in%20freshmen%20class">/url</a></p></li>
<li><p>Register for Orientation at [url=<a href="http://www.orientation.fsu.edu%5Dfsu.edu">http://www.orientation.fsu.edu]fsu.edu</a> | orientation<a href="summer%20orientation%20dates%20are%20first%20come/first%20reserve">/url</a></p></li>
<li><p>Sign up for on-campus housing at [url=<a href="http://www.housing.fsu.edu%5DFlorida">http://www.housing.fsu.edu]Florida</a> State University Housing<a href="space/assignments%20are%20first%20come%20by%20priority%20number">/url</a></p></li>
<li><p>Go to [url=<a href="http://www.newnole.fsu.edu%5Dfsu.edu">http://www.newnole.fsu.edu]fsu.edu</a> | newnole and read the pre-orientation section to learn about completing your health/immunization information & online insurance waiver which need to be done before orientation</p></li>
<li><p>Sign up to possibly attend a preview at fsu</a> admissions | preview | accepted student preview</p></li>
</ol>
<p>hey! i'm a freshman student at florida state this year. last year, my sister applied to fsu before the first deadline and i applied for the later deadline. she found out she got accepted for the fall semester earlier than i did ( i made it into the summer semester.) i still was unsure of what school i wanted to go to, so I waited a while to do housing. so did my sister, because she was waiting to see if she should put me as a roommate choice or not. finally i decided to come to fsu (like in april) and we got all our housing done, but our priority number was low because we did it so late. we got placed in smith hall for the fall and spring semester. it's on the west side of campus, along with salley, kellum, mccollum, and another one. it's closer to one of the lunch rooms, the fresh food company, which is the smaller of the two. suwannee room is on the east side of campus, along with all the other dorms such as landis (honors), gilchrist (part of it is honors), bryan, cawthon (music living learning and WIMSE (woman in math engineering and science)), jennie-murphee, reynolds, devinney, and dorman. there are also two other dorm halls, the newest ones in the school, wildwood (the nursing living learning) and degraff.
If I were you, I would try to live on-campus for the first year. It definitely is an experience, it's easier to get to classes and to do on-campus activities. from that first year's experience, you can then determine if you want to live off campus after that (that's what i'm doing.) it's up to you, but it's better to apply now before your priority number gets too low so that you have a greater chance of getting placed in a better dorm. smith isn't that bad, the boys are usually placed on floors 0-4 and girls on floors 5-10. it is a community style bathroom hall, which means you have to get out of your room to do anything bathroom-related, but it's a nicer way to get to know people. in smith and in kellum the beds are built into the walls, so one side is a top bunk, the other side is a bottom bunk, then in the room next door the left side is a top bunk, other side a bottom bunk and so on. smith has an ac unit inside the room, which means you can put it at whatever temperature you want, while kellum has a whole floor unit (sometimes it's really cold or hot and you can't really do much about it. the hallways in smith are smaller, and first impressions aren't really the best (it felt like the titanic third class.) in kellum they are a little bigger. usually three showers and stalls to a bathroom. there's not much space for closet, it's sort of like a pantry/closet thing.
i also lived in cawthon for the summer in a single room, it was really nice having my own bedroom and more than enough place to store everything ( and actually a door to get to your closet.) Cawthon seems to have the best fridges out of all the dorms, they're slightly bigger and have more space to put things in. i shared a bathroom with one other girl, my suitemate, and it wasn't that bad (except for sometimes locking her out, some dorms have that capability lol) the hallways were exceptionally larger, but in dorms with a couple of floors the elevator take longer to open and go up and down then dorms with say, 9 floors. degraff is across the main street from the campus, there is a tunnel underneath that street where you can get quicker access to the dorm but i would always be careful at night.) salley and a few others are in the arrangement of an apartment, where you or another person share a room and then it leads to a living area. oh, most of the east side dorms you have to purchase a meal plan, for the west side you don't have to, it's optional, i would check on that too. it's nice to have a couple of meals, but that depends on whether you eat everyday and whether you want to eat at suwannee everyday, i know some people don't like to cause they get sick of it. but a couple hundred garnet bucks won't hurt if you don't have a meal plan, (garnet bucks is money that you put on a account that rolls over from the time you begin fsu to the time you end; flexbucks roll over from semesters within the same year. if you have money left over at the end of the year, you can't use it again for the next year) cause then you can go to the lunch rooms whenever you like with a group of friends.
I know this is a really long message, but i'm just trying to sort everything out for you, lol, try to give you a clearer perspective on fsu housing. overall, my suggestion would be to apply now so that you get a high priority number, list your preferences as the dorms on east side that are suite-style (if you prefer that because most of those dorms are way nicer than the others).
if anything does occur that you are placed in a dorm that's not really what you expected, then it'll be okay. it's not a permanent thing, a year will go by and you'll always have another option of on or off campus. i think your priority number stays the same if you re-apply for housing the next year, it's just that the incoming freshman get placed below you so you're up higher on the list. if you have any more questions or are confused about anything, just ask. this is me pretty much rambling about different dorms here. :)</p>
<p>damn...are the cliff notes of that post available?</p>
<p>jk</p>
<p>Housing just sent a letter that S did not get our signatures in on time, despite paying the deposit and filing the app, hence, he is back of the line.</p>
<p>He is probably going to Dartmouth anyway....so I guess the issue may be moot.</p>
<p>Like a couple of the other posts, I am a freshman student at Florida State, as well. I had a low priority number since I didn't apply for housing until February. The good news: I couldn't be happier with my experience! I am in Deviney Hall, which was NOT on my list of choices.. at all. Traditional community-style bathrooms was my worst nightmare. Visions of shower shoes and having to stumble down the hall in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom came to mind. I was beyond upset when I got my rooming assignment to find out that it was the dreaded community-style. In reality, it's not bad at all. </p>
<p>I have friends throughout the different halls and I can give you a run-down of pros and cons about each building with which I have experience:</p>
<p>East-Side:
Broward - Pros: Bigger rooms, clean, new, good location, right next to Suwannee. Cons: Not as social, required meal plan.
Cawthon- Pros: Bigger rooms, pretty social, good location [right next to the library and close to the Union and the Strip if you like going out :)]. Cons: Can get noisy because of the Music Living-Learning Community, haunted ..no joke, required meal plan.
DeGraff- Pros: Nice and new, social. Cons: Across Tennessee St. so it has to be accessed by an underground tunnel [although in actuality even though it's isolated because it's across the busy street, it's very close to the Union].
Deviney- Pros: I am biased... but social and VERY fun place to live, bathrooms almost always clean- cleaned daily except on weekends, never have to wait to take a shower or worry about your suitemates accidentally locking you out of the bathroom, awesome location. Cons: Old building, limited male/female visitation hours [although it's easy to get away with breaking this rule], rooms can be pretty darn small unless you get lucky and get an end room.
Dorman- Pros and Cons: Pretty much the same as Deviney's, maybe not quite as social.. depends on the floor. I would personally suggest Deviney over Dorman, but like I said, I'm biased.
Gilchrist- Pros and Cons: Same as Broward.
Landis- (Honors Residence Hall) Pros: Very nice, newly renovated, spacious, quiet (can be a pro or con depending on what you're looking for), great location. Cons: Not very social, meal plan required. </p>
<p>West-Side:
Kellum- Pros: Pretty social, has "character", if anything you can bond with other residents over the shared experience of living there. Cons: I would say Kellum probably has the most cons of all the halls. The beds are built into the walls.. kind of awkward, the rooms are small, limited male-female visitation hours, and the temperature control is poor. Location is not very central to campus.
Salley- Pros: Different and interesting set-up of the rooms (2 bedrooms that house 2 students with a common study area and bathroom.. kind of apartment-like), social (at least within suites), very close to Fresh Foods, has basketball tennis and beach volleyball courts out back. Cons: Older (although not as old as Smith, Kellum, Dorman or Deviney).
Smith- Pros: Probably the most social residence hall (it has been said that this is because everyone wants to spend as much time out of his or her room as possible), has "character". Cons: Tiny rooms- the smallest I have seen, same awkward built-in beds as Kellum, and limited male-female visitation hours.
Wildwood- Pros: Location (super close to the stadium, the Leach Center gym, Starbucks and the Student Life Cinema- four of my favorite places on campus :)), new, pretty big. Cons: Not much character, kind of reminds me of a hotel.. I guess that would be a pro for some, not super social for the most part. </p>
<p>Hope this helped! And remember, half the battle is attitude... I think it's more than possible to have a great experience no matter where you end up. I have met at least a few people from each hall that are happy with it. I wouldn't trade the first-year on-campus living experience for the world.. and I HIGHLY recommend it. :)</p>
<p>What is considered to be a good priority number?</p>
<p>1 to 1000 are excellent.</p>
<p>Thanks, parent2noles. It’s probably a much lower range for me because I’m a Spring transfer. My number is under 100, so hopefully there will be a space for me!</p>
<p>I personally don’t care to live on campus; there are many great places nearby and lower in cost.</p>
<p>This is a pretty old thread but good info.</p>
<p>how does housing work if you get accepted for summer? like when fall comes around do you still have the crappy number that you get stuck with if you apply late?</p>
<p>hey i know this is a bit after you posted but i just wanted clerification are you legally bound to live in the dorms if you apply</p>
<p>You are legally bound once you are assigned to a dorm. Quite possibly, after the deadline to cancel your housing agreement before you are assigned.</p>
<p>no. you are allowed to decline the room you are assigned. therefore, you are legally binded after you signed your agreement to the room and roomate</p>
<p>Actually, according to [this</a> post](<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/12740005-post4.html]this”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/12740005-post4.html) once you apply for housing, the only way to get out was to not be attending FSU. </p>
<p>I do know that when I applied in January for housing for next year as a returning student, the only option was to cancel your housing before assignment, although you would lose the deposit.</p>
<p>Anyway, the deadline to make your first payment was July 1 (or to contact FSU saying how you would pay). After that, I am pretty sure you couldn’t cancel anyway unless you weren’t attending FSU.</p>
<p>Even though it says that, I know that I was able to get out of a housing assignment. That is why they give you a form asking you to sign it and pick a payment. On that form it gives you the option. Also, when you are rooming, if you have an extreme circumstance (transfering, can not afford, ect.) you can get out of your dorm. </p>
<p>But that is just from my experience =]</p>
<p>Uhh, having sent that form off multiple times, I can tell you with 100% confidence that the option you are talking about states specifically that you want your housing canceled because you aren’t attending FSU.</p>