<p>I would hardly call orientation indicative of Hereford as a whole. During Orientation you spend one night there, you can’t decorate and many people are not going to foster their year-long (or college-long) friendships in one or two days. There is so much more that takes place during Fall orientation and the first few weeks of classes (activity fair, dorm activities, the social aspect of UVA Football games) that your daughter/son/disgruntled dorm’er should focus on that instead.</p>
<p>there’s a bus that pulls up right in the Hereford complex every once in a while, so it’s not that isolated from the main Grounds, and you won’t always have to walk</p>
<p>Kamaro: your attitude is only going to make things worse for your D. You, as a parent, should put on a happy face and try to encourage your D to look forward to college and the lack of a slob, alcoholic, weirdo, whacko, etc type person as a roommate. Instead, you’re laying out the worst for her, telling her she shouldn’t have put up with this “crap” from a “state school”. Grow up and be an adult. A fourth year in college should not have to tell you this.
EVERYONE on here is telling you that this is NOT the end of the world. Everyone in Hereford is in a single (ok, maybe a handful of doubles, but still) and will WANT to mingle. Your D won’t be strapped into one person, having to please them and hang out with them. Instead, she’ll have a ton of other people, in the same situation as her, wanting to break out of their shell. UVa spent a year redesigning the bus routes so that she has two, or more, VERY convenient bus routes. And for those times she doesn’t want to take the bus, she will be some of the lucky few who LOSE the freshman 15. She’ll make tons of friends in her classes and end up sleeping on an air mattress or two in Old or New Dorms. Friends will want to come to her place for the privacy. I know you don’t want to hear this, but a potential boyfriend and her might find some quiet time alone. And I’m 110% positive that all of the floor’s doors will be wide open and everyone will be in the hallways having fun and enjoying each other’s company.
So, PUT A SMILE ON. FOR YOUR OWN DAUGHTER’S SAKE. Make her excited, try to find some goodness in it, and if she still hates it, put in a room change request. Right now, it’ll be hard to move. During the first week or two, things will open up (people occasionally just don’t show up on Day 1…and eventually, never)
This is your D’s college experience. It’s supposed to be one of a lifetime. DO NOT make her go into it with such negative feelings, or you will severely regret it, I promise you. If my mother did this to me, I would have moved out. Swear to the cosmic powers. You need to support her and love her in the last full days you have with her. Get it together, for everyone’s sake. And if you hate UVA that much, either tell your poor D that she just can’t come and go to CC for a year, or shush up and try to see the beauty and exceptional educational and social experience UVa has to offer to your D.</p>
<p>PS- putting Maddoff and UVa in the same sentence is cruel. That man was an economic terrorist. UVa simply doesn’t have enough “perfect” housing for everyone.</p>
<p>Chill guys. A roommate is a roommate. I know some people make great besties with their roommate, but there are hordes of other people in your hall who will be like, 3 metres away. Okay, you’re sharing a room … does that provide significantly more intimacy between friends that a mere hallmate relationship wouldn’t afford? </p>
<p>OH NOES MY POTENTIAL COLLEGE BESTIES WON’T BE SLEEPING NEXT TO ME THEY’LL BE ACROSS THE HALLWAY INSTEAD</p>
<p>re: hurtford/huntford, etc. Does anyone still pronounce it “hear-ford” like me? I picked up the appropriate pronunciation of Newcomb pretty quickly, tho…</p>
<p>i say it hair-uh-ford</p>
<p>I forgot about the “hair-ford” pronunciation. Oops. Yeah that’s pretty common too, though I think housekeeping calls it “hurr-ford” more often.</p>
<p>(But I didn’t know there was a variant with 3 syllables?)</p>
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<p>Yup. They’re the only single rooms. The top floors are slanted but the rest are not. If your room number starts with a 3, you have the third floor. There is a window. The bed is lofted with a desk underneath. I’m not sure of the exact height, but I’m going to guesstimate 5 feet. There is a ladder so you’ll be fine. The girl who lived in the single on my floor was just like anyone else on our hall. She loved having the stairwell room because she could have her privacy if she wanted and if she wanted to hang out, she would walk literally 3 steps and be in our hall.</p>
<p>And you definitely don’t have it the worst. A lot of people end up loving their singles in McCormick. There are less than 30 of them, so you’re one of the lucky 30. You have privacy and great location. :)</p>
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<p>Correct me if I’m wrong, but your daughter has yet to START her first year. How can you already decide that about her first year experience? 
Your college experience (1st, 2nd, 3rd year whatever) is what you make of it.</p>
<p>Kamaro, seriously, get off your high horse. Georgia Tech and Virginia Tech are great schools, but a huge number of students declined their acceptance at VTech to come here. One of my best friends goes to Georgia Tech; he was rejected at UVa. I know at least 5 students who rejected Harvard to come here, 6 rejected Columbia, 8 rejected Yale, etc. I rejected Hopkins, and I’m sure more CCers here can tell you of schools they turned down to come to UVa. (If my memory serves me correctly, powder turned down a full ride at UNC Chapl Hill to come here.) Your daughter may be smart, but there are a hell of a lot of kids here who are on par, if not smarter. Turning down 5 schools is nothing. And she’s in Hereford, so she’s not even Rodman or Echols; they live in Alderman. If she was stellar at her high school, there’s a good chance she’ll be “average” at UVa. It’s just the nature of the student body; everyone shined at their high school. Everyone achieved, was a leader, had great stats, etc.</p>
<p>Haha, I remember a friend who had a stairwell room. She was pretty satisfied about it, but she’d always apologise whenever she welcomed people into her room because the lack of open space always meant it was really messy! But I do agree it’s a great mix of privacy and sociality.</p>
<p>Anybody know anything about Hancock? Just curious. Our daughter would have been happy anywhere . . .</p>
<p>Hancock is standard old dorms, close to grounds and classes.</p>
<p>Frankly Shoebox, I dont need–nor did I ask for–advice on how to deal with my D on this. I was venting for myself. My D was upset, then furious. My only reaction to her was yeah, this is hosed, so what are you going to do about it. I kept out of it. So, heres an update that should thrill you. My D over the weekend decided HERSELF to push back and start making calls to try and remedy the situation (and yes, without any prompting, though I tend to think you wont believe that). She has always been taught if you dont like something, try to fix it, push back. She has seen her parents do this numerous times in her life (a recent event involved fighting the Medicare system and State of NJ for a grandparent). Theres no way Im going to try and put lipstick on a pig for her, shes made her decision. More power to her. At least is she ends up there, she can tell herself she tried. So, Im looking forward to seeing her start pressing buttons. THAT, is something we should encourage of all students. And BTW, I believe that is one thing UVA probably encourages its students to do as well.</p>
<p>As for Herdeford itself, my use of the term HURTford comes from students who actually lived there. My D has two friends that went to UVA who were stuck there for a year and both hated it; one of them coined the name. SO, if you have a problem with how the dorm is portrayed and worry about her making a judgment based on one night, I suggest you talk with students who didnt enjoy their experience there (BTW, Im also sure some loved it) and passed it on. If the place is so great, then students would be dying to get in–but for some reason that just doesnt seem to be the case. </p>
<p>As for DB123, I think your saddle is riding a bit high on your own steed bud. Think you need to tell the whole story on WHY many students turn down ivy league and other privates to come to UVA. My D is instate. To her and many of her friends, UVA was a high safety school. Many of them made it into Hopkins, Princeton, Cornell, etc. but when the financial aid package came from those schools, only then did they have a change in heart. They were forced to chose UVA because of prices around 50K (were in an upper middle class area) that made the decision for them. That is a fact. And BTW, I’m sure there are kids in Maryland and elsewhere who were faced with the same decisions. As for GaTech and Vatech, in the engineering department (her major)–look at the holy rankings according to USNEWS and World Report, which many on these boards apparently hold as gospel (I, for one, thing theyre bunk). They outrank UVA there–especially GaTECH. But again, money was an issue (close to 35k year for GaTech as an OOS). </p>
<p>And BTW, I have no problem with my daughter being average. Theres nothing wrong with that at all. There are plenty of average kids at UVA, VaTech, GaTech, Maryland, Rutgers and the other state schools out there. If she is average, fine, but I would hope that she’ll continue to fight for her rights (especially since she/we are paying 20+K a year). And finally, I dont hate UVA–its a great state school, nothing more, nothing less. Nice campus, students, weather, etc.</p>
<p>Kamaro1, are you for real? Your posts are nothing short of embarrassing. It’s one thing to encourage your kids to fight for what’s right - like medicare for a grandparent - but I don’t think a dorm room that was randomly assigned to her qualifies. That’s encouraging a kid to be a prima dona. </p>
<p>I’ve had kids go to small private schools and large public ones. In both cases dorm assigments were random and the kids didn’t always get what they wanted - but they didn’t storm the president’s office in protest. Keep thing in perspective, man!</p>
<p>It continues to amaze me the sense of entitlement that exists anymore. I see it not only in the academic/collegial setting but also in terms of human/public service programs. </p>
<p>What is a dorm other than a place to sleep? Go to class and participate in activities and she’ll get through the year more quickly and with less “misery.”</p>
<p>The only reason people dislike hereford is that it’s the farthest away. If it were switched with Brown College then no one would like Brown College and everyone would want to live in hereford. It’s not even as far away as many apartments.
I hope everyone is able to have a good year.
Runk is also notorious for being a better than average dining hall.</p>
<p>… when you get there early.</p>
<p>this isn’t Burger King, you can’t always have it your way…</p>
<p>for an upperclassman, can you still swap room assignment (different rooms, but same building)?</p>
<p>If you want to swap with someone you can do that but you might have to wait to “officially” swap until a few weeks after school, though emailing housing might work in your favor.
Room request changes (you don’t have someone to “swap” with) I’m not sure about (Brown usually takes care of this internally - RAs and such - and then notifies housing, when things like roommate issues and empty rooms come up).</p>
<p>Hahaha - my situation is totally the opposite. I applied for Hereford’s residential college really hoping for a single but got placed in a double. Oh well, life’s life :)</p>