<p>i was accepted into University Honors, but i have a friend whos also going to UMD but didnt get into honors and were looking to room together.. are there any disadvantages of rooming outside of the honors housing residence? and is honors housing at UMD better than an average freshman dorm?</p>
<p>Assuming you mean regular honors and not honors humanities, Gemstone, etc. you will most likely be living in Denton (even more likely if you call to request this placement - a very limited number of honors freshmen live on dorms on the mall, which are nice but not very social). Denton is basically identical in location/amenities to all North Campus dorms. In fact, the majority of non-honors freshmen will live in one of its two neighboring identical buildings, Elkridge or Easton. However, there are some advantages. 1. It tends to be cleaner and less loud during the week (trust me, it was still wild enough to be a shock, esp. on weekends, but I heard absolute horror stories about the non-honors dorms, especially Easton). 2. You will be more likely to live with people in your classes (since you should be taking an honors seminar or two, an honors 100) and therefore form friendships with them. </p>
<p>However, there are some non honors students who live in Denton. Therefore, your friend could request to room with you, and you could possibly both be placed in Denton. You should call Res Life asap to ask if requesting to room with your friend will lower your chances of honors housing. It may not.</p>
<p>Finally, I would recommend not rooming with your friend. My roommate became one of my best college friends. Yours could, too. And your friend’s roommate could become one of his best friends. Then, you could guys could have twice the social circle. In any case you will most likely be living nearby, just over in the next building, so you will both be close without having to be on top of each other.</p>
<p>So are the honors freshmen who will live on the mall selected randomly? And how would one go about requesting Denton? I suppose i’d probably be assigned to Denton anyway, but i don’t really like the idea of being separated from the other honors freshmen.</p>
<p>I suggest that you follow umcp11’s advice, esp. since you are in the honors program.</p>
<p>Even if your friend can get into Denton, the reality is you will make friends with other people in the program and that is when hurt feelings play a factor. Your friend will not be in the program, you will be in classes with others on the floor they won’t, you will walk down the hall to get help in a class and spend hours there, they won’t have that opportunity and start to believe that they got the short end of the stick as they sit in the room waiting to go to dinner with you since you said you’d be back in 15 minutes, but got wrapped up hanging with other people and ordering Ratsies.</p>
<p>I think many students want to go this route for comfort and security…college is frightening since for the first time ever you are alone by yourself, having a friend creates the safety net. </p>
<p>My suggestion is to make the decision after the honors orientation this summer. I am not a betting woman, but I bet after that weekend you will regret rooming with your friend regardless of the dorm. She will go to a different orientation since she is not honors. The reason for the regret is you will bond during that weekend. If you get the Mall, while everybody else in the group gets Denton, you will feel like the odd man out. She will feel the same if she knows she is living in Denton, but everybody she hangs with that weekend gets Easton. Reality will set in then and there that both of you are on a different path.</p>
<p>My other big reason that my mind is screaming DON’T DO IT is frommy own experience. Dorming is the fastest way to end a friendship. In HS you go home to your family, you don’t live with the friend. Our DD has a best friend that asks her every weekend to sleep over, DD does about 1x a month. WHY? Because her friends room is a pig sty according to DD (makes me laugh b/c I think her room is a pig sty) and DD can’t stand it. Imagine living in a 10X12 room with 2 beds, 2 desks, 2 dressers and the two of you are the odd couple (Oscar and Felix), it is easy to say something to a doormmate, hard to do with a good friend. Anger/Resentment builds and the friendship is over! Another scenario, one of you meets someone and you spend the time together in the room, the other person feels uncomfortable saying Hey, could you guys watch tv and hang somewhere else so I can study, or even change in my room instead of going down the hall to the bathroom to do it! When it is a roommate that you have no history with, you will have no problem saying it! </p>
<p>Finally, the beauty of you two not dorming together is you can vent to each other about your roomies or others, since you won’t be in the same circles and that is a great relief. If you room together, who will you beeaach at about how your roommate knows that you have a 8 am class, but talked to a friend until 3 on her cell in the room, do you think you can say it to her as your roommate without hurting your friendship?</p>
<p>timos, I don’t know about honors, but I can tell you for Scholars if you sent in the deposit prior to the deadline date you will reside in that dorm. UMD typically puts non-scholars into Centreville when they have openings to fill the room, but Scholars who request dorms by cur-off date automatically get Centreville, I would assume that is true for Honors also regarding Denton. Esp. since Honors, Gemstone and Scholars move in earlier than gen. admits, also for Scholars they have colloquiums every week and they are held in the dorm, this is why they have dedicated dorms so it is easy for students to attend…no excuse not to attend the seminar/colloquiums if you live a couple of floors up!</p>
<p>thanks a lot for the response i def will take that into consideration, ill probably wait until the honors orientation and then see if i meet anyone there etc.</p>
<p>but if i send in my housing right now, theres this Mutual Roommate Request section, if i leave that blank now can i still request a roommate later on? does anyone know the deadline for when you can request a roommate?</p>
<p>pima…more cut and paste for me today - thanks!!</p>
<p>DD flew to MD last night, by herself, arrived and is attending all the info sessions, etc. today. She called me just before lunch and is ready to sign on the dotted line TODAY! Doesn’t want to wait to come home, and they said if she goes into Admissions before it closes today she can do it right there. Honestly, I can’t remember the last time I heard her sooooo excited - and she hadn’t gone to the Honors Humanities session yet (she is in it as I am typing this!)</p>
<p>I agree with everything that pima said above. DD met a guy on FB a few weeks back in Honors Eng. and they have been communicating a lot. This morning she met him (and his parents), they really hit it off and she went out to lunch with them. She has also been communicating with a girl who may be her roommate (they’ve discussed it but want to meet first.) So, there are some examples of why not to room with a good friend - too many new people out there to meet. </p>
<p>Now I’m just sitting by the phone waiting for DD to tell me about HH and what she thought of the program. She was thrilled this morning when she went to her ‘major meeting’, which for now is Linguistics, but could change. She was the ONLY student with the professor for an entire hour and she got so much info about the program, career possibilities, etc. The prof actually did a mini lesson for her from one of her classes. Now I understand why she wants to go there and not Berkeley! Can’t wait to hear from her in the next hour - I think I’m as excited as she is from 3000 miles away. FYI - she wanted to go alone and stay in the dorm with her friend. I’ll go with her to orientation in the summer. :)</p>
<p>When we toured U. Maryland for my son’s interview for the Banneker Key scholarship, we saw Anne Arundel hall which is an honor’s dorm. It is BEAUTIFUL. Anne Arundel is a remodelled classic red brick building, nice and light inside, rooms had high ceilings plus there was a small lounge on the floor. I heard that kids who get this dorm stay there so there might not be many openings. If you can get a space in Anne Arundel hall, as far as I was concerned, you have it made. My son, on the other hand, decided that Maryland was not the right fit, despite getting a fantastic scholarship.</p>
<p>how do they decide which honors students stay at anne arundel and which stay at denton?? or do you have to register earlier or somethin like that to get into anne arundel ?</p>
<p>mdcissp - ooops, after answering your note I realized that your son is not going to MD. Where did he choose?</p>
<p>how are the rooms/facilities in general in denton?</p>
<p>im going to UMD, in the honors program, i attended the edge program and stayed with a fellow banneker key recipient. she stayed in la plata, but her friend showed me denton. it isnt air conditioned. the rooms are the average umd size (anne arundel and queen annes are palaces, they are not the standard dorm) but nice enoufgh. it’s pretty clean and i dont have any major complaints. just dont expect a big room.</p>
<p>I would definitely call MD. housing ASAP if you are accepted and try to get Anne Arundel hall.</p>
<p>dorms are done by a point system…thus, getting Anne Arundel as a freshman is not an esay feat!</p>
<p>How do you earn points?</p>
<p>D returned from UMD last night and committed while she was there last Friday. Being in HH, she is ‘supposed’ to live in Wicomico, but now says she wants to live in Denton - bigger, more kids, more fun, etc. Any opinions on that one? I’m wondering about the location - positives and negatives of each, etc.</p>
<p>wilmico vs denton
when i visited umd for edge, overinght program and openhouse my host HH, BK japanese major moved out of wilmico after her 1st semester because it was hell. she hated her roomate(which is ramdom bad luck) but they \didnt have good water pressure or temperature and basically other that that just the ppl. denton, where i’ll probably be (BK, honors -non Gem or HH) has a newly refurbished lobby which is very nice. no AC but I asked some girls adn they had no complaints about the bathroom situation. they all reccomended having at least 2 fans. sin between the two id say denton might be better. hpowever my hosrt had a lot of personal issues with wilmico. i think either is probably finebecause it’ll be what ever she makes it you know? and she can always moveout loike my host did</p>
<p>You earn points on how many UMD credits you have. The higher amount the better lottery number you receive. SInce your child is a freshman they will have no points at all, thus they get the left overs.</p>
<p>D is going in with 16 - 20 AP college credits. Those kind of credits? Thanks pima!</p>
<p>NOPE! UMD credits! DS went with the same amount, his number is higher b/c he is dorming with a current soph who can request roommates and DS took 18 credits ea semester (36 for the yr)! From what DS has told me living in dorms also gives you pts. thus, take DS, has 36 credits and lived in the dorms for a full yr, he gets a higher number than another freshman that has 30 credits or lived in the dorms only for spring. (I have a head cold, so I migh not be making sense…sorry!)</p>
<p>This would be why freshman go to the bottom of the pile, they have absolutely no points. HH, Gemstone and Scholars at least have guaranteed housing, whereas the gen admits don’t.</p>
<p>All I can say for sure is DS has his lottery number and choices in for next yr for dorms.</p>
<p>i know this was touched on a little before but would you not recommend rooming with a non honors roommate ??|</p>
<p>bullet i know you gave that example of us being in different classes and me goin to someone elses dorm to study but wouldnt that be the case for all students whether they were honors or not ? just curious</p>
<p>Its pima.</p>
<p>The difference for Honors, Gemstone, and Scholars, they are dormed together, thus, in the worst case scenario you just ride the elevator to a classmates room . You live in Easton everybody has different courses so you are going to other dorms.</p>
<p>Also there are weekly seminars that are mandated and you will get a credit for the seminar, it really stinks to have to walk/shuttle in the rain or snow b/c you opted to dorm somewhere else. The seminars are held at night, which makes it even more of a Pain in the A$$ if you have to walk somewhere and nobody else is going. In the honors dorms you are riding the elevator with friends or they are showing up at your door.</p>