<p>daughter at calpoly and hates the dorms after 1st trimester.
how does one get out of the dorm contract?
we agree she should move out</p>
<p>Have you contacted the housing office? Perhaps they would love to have someone take over your next semester. I'd say look around or post some interest signs.</p>
<p>but they seem to want her to go through a batterey of interviews and she is unhappy enough as it is</p>
<p>Are you meaning interviews to get out of it? I suspect they want her to walk the walk and talk the talk to get away.....you know, tell them why she is so miserable. This avoids multitudes escaping the contract.</p>
<p>if she is unhappy, it might be that the "interviews" will be valuable.</p>
<p>well i think that is what she is afraid of, that they will try to "help" when we have made the decision and want to get our unused fees back
she doesn't want to have to discuss personal issues with more
people, its really depression.</p>
<p>Ok if I am hearing you correctly...she is leaving the dorm because she is diagnosed w/ depression? In that case you can make a medical appeal, you should have some back up for this. I agree that if your daughter is in a depression and having medical trouble your process and approach may be different. Is she withdrawing from school at the same time? Is she diagnosed and getting treatment or are you using the term "depression" in the common vernacular?</p>
<p>
[quote]
**she doesn't want to have to discuss personal issues with more
people, its really depression.
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**</p>
<p>I think once you sign a contract you are obligated to stay for at least the first sem or whatever has been paid for- some schools even require frosh to live on campus- but it doesn't sound like this is one of those schools
She has to live someplace - what are her other options?</p>
<p>no she is staying in the school, and is doing fine with grades, but moving out of the dorm, we are dealing with the therapist after she comes home for Christmas
who will agree i'm sure, but basically we would like to get the money back...
i guess im whining :)
and want to avoid all this, but i understand they can't make it too easy.</p>
<p>I don't think you will be able to get the money back</p>
<p>If she is depressed- she should see someone at their health clinic ASAP
has she spoken to her RA/HA ( dorm advisor?)</p>
<p>
[quote]
-Can I stay for one quarter only?</p>
<p>Students starting in the Fall Quarter sign a Student Housing License Agreement that is financially binding for the full academic year (three quarters, September through June). Students starting Winter Quarter sign a two-quarter " License Agreement" and Spring and Summer are each separate one-quarter "License Agreements". For new incoming Winter Quarter students there are limited spaces available, and for Spring Quarter students, there are generally enough spaces available.</p>
<p>A student may be released from the Student Housing License Agreement if they are withdrawing from the University (a 30-day notice is required).
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</p>
<p>I also want to add- that dealing with depression- being a first year student- is plenty to deal with for a young adult- then finding and living off campus on top of that?
I think finding a place on campus where she doesn't have to worry about meals/utilities etc and has the support of the college- is preferable to living off campus for most first years</p>
<p>I'd say if she is staying in school you will have a harder time. I have no idea about your particular school and what the housing situation is but it sounds as if you also haven't spoken w/ them. I know kids who have gotten out of contracts and bought condos......kids who got out of contracts because they were leaving a school and kids who walked on a contract because they didn't want to face the hassle. It is really more of your desire and ability to meet the criteria or give the school a reason for them to meet your criteria. As to depression and using a medical excuse.......sounds like you haven't don't have that option ripe yet.</p>
<p>the "limited number of spaces for winter and generally enough spaces for spring indicate they open up as the year goes on", and cal poly doesnt even have enough room for all incoming freshmen as it is. so she'll keep her room as an option with the basics, should they decide not to refund the money...
Each child is different. Our oldest spent two years in the dorms, our next one year...I'm pretty well aware of dorm behavior and really have put a lot of thought into this.
I guess i was looking for someone who knew of someone who was successful at geting a refund... more the logistics...</p>
<p>Sort of a logistics aspect: if your daughter's argument is that her depression is keeping her from remaining in a dorm on campus, then she is going to have provide some reasonable proof that living off campus will somehow provide things that living on campus doesn't, with regard to depression, and that is a very, very tough argument, because schools see living off campus as much, much more isolating - even for students who end up living at home, because they become so isolated from campus life.</p>
<p>As well, if the school is strict about not releasing students for housing contracts, and most are, the other concern is, if she petitions that she is so depressed that she can no longer live on campus, what is there to stop the school (and many do) from removing her entirely from campus until the depression is under control again? </p>
<p>I can understand that your daughter doesn't want to talk to anyone - she just wants to pack up and go - but part of that may be because she doesn't know that there may be better options for her on campus, and they want to work with her to find them, or there is concern that she needs more support than she is getting, and these meetings are a way of supplying it.</p>
<p>Well if this was a private school that required freshman live on campus, I would think this might be a bigger issue. Rather its a state school with a shortage of rooms for freshman and students being accepted for winter quarter and again in the spring.
I can't imagine that they would remove her from school as he grades are fine. She has more support off campus than on - an older brother and friends.
so anyway thanks for the interest but i think removing her from school wouldnt be an issue.
We will just keep both the room and an off campus apartment for her if they don't want to refund the money.</p>
<p>froshgrlmom, it has nothing to do with being a private or public school, or whether or not freshmen are required to live on campus - the issue is the signed housing contract, and the school's policy on letting students break those contracts to move off campus. They may have no need for her space/room for winter quarter new students - if they do, they might release her, but if they don't, they likely won't, because they need the revenue. </p>
<p>If this is a medical need, your daughter may be required to provide documentation of this need, as well as a therapist's recommendation of need and provision of treatment plan. The problem is, where is the line between being depressed enough to get out of a contract, without being so depressed that allowing you to continue at school doesn't pose a risk management problem for the school? Typically, this is why students with depression and other mental illness diagnoses also have to provide proof of an ongoing treatment plan while at school.</p>
<p>I'm sure that is the case in clinical depression.
As I said, if need be j. will keep her room.
We are only asking to be released from the contract if possible, and of course only if the room could be filled.
However I can't see any reason for them to be collecting twice the fees...
I think you've read a bit more into this...
anyway thanks for your input...</p>
<p>Your attorney would be a good person to consult- probably has more experience about breaking contracts than others on the board.
In rental contracts- I think there are stipulations that you can sublease the space to another party- but in dorm contracts there usually isn't.
I agree that it would be nice if the university would admit that they could probably rent out the space ( although I am assuming that the other students have a living arrangement by now) but I am more concerned that- there apparently none of the on campus arrangements would suit.
I feel strongly that freshmen should live on campus- I have known other freshmen who have had to have room adjustments- but not to off campus- there always has been another alternative.</p>
<p>THis is a good lesson for other families & students reading the boards
Contracts are not meant to be broken. Whether it is ED and committing to attend or something that is even more irreversible.
Don't sign it- without reading the fine print :)</p>
<p>Has she thought about switching roommates, or towers or dorms, or...</p>
<p>The interview will try to pinpoint why she wants to leave... roommate troubles, too noisy to study, food dislikes, and they will try to fix each one. is she really ready to take on the problems of transportation to school -SLO bus runs early and late, and personal car parking is a zoo. Then there is meals, cooking and dishes and getting to the grocery store. If she is going to depend on her brother for this, how does he feel about it? He has his own life at school too. Unless they were best buds before, this could be a mistake. I shared a car with my sister at Poly and it was hell, different class schedules, different friends, lots of stuff. At first you swear you can work it out, but then!</p>
<p>I'd say you have a lot to talk about over break. PS how were you lucky enough to find off campus housing at this time of year? Please don't tell me Mustang or Stenner or another student off campus housing situation. They are just as crazy as the dorms and noone is there to rein the idiots in except for the police! At least the Residence Halls are kept to a dull roar...</p>
<p>somebody actually was asking about this on my daughters school LJ and they were successful</p>
<p>
[quote]
Housing contracts
Have any of you guys has successfully petitioned to be released from your housing contract? And if so what were the conditions (assuming of course you don't mind sharing)?</p>
<p>*I got the second to last room in the housing lottery for the following year. I then made plans to move off campus with a friend, but forgot to release my housing contract until after the deadline, so I had to petition. I put together a bunch of glorified paragraphs about how much I was going to hate living in a quiet cat dorm in a tiny room, and they happily let me out.</p>
<p>Also, the waitlist to get on campus was huge that year, so they probably didn't read my letter at all.*
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</p>