<p>My son has been accepted into UT for engineering and I'm trying to understand the housing. He has also been accepted into the Chancellor's Honors Program. I believe that both the Engineering Living Learning Community and Honors are housed in Morrill. Are certain floors of Morrill reserved for the engineering LLC students and the rest of the dorm is for honors students? Is it better to be in the engineering LLC or just to pick Morrill as an honors student and not live on the engineering LLC floors? Any opinions are appreciated!</p>
<p>They both are great learning communities. I stayed in Morrill a couple years ago on the Leadership floor. I had a blast in morrill, I believe it is the best dorm for getting to know people. It has lobbies on each floor for people to hang out on and having a cafeteria in your dorm was great especially for breakfast. Most of my friends lived on the engineer floors and they loved it. It is great to be on a floor with people taking the same classes and I know that the majority of the people who lived on the engineering floor my freshman year continued to room with the same guys. The head guy at Morrill is a great guy too. I believe if it’s the same as when I stayed their the Engineering floors are floors 4 and 5 and the Honors floors were 7 and 9 and possibly 11. If that matters to him at all.</p>
<p>We were wondering the same thing. Our son is eligible for both Honors and Engage learning communities at UTK. Does one have an advantage over the other? Does anyone have any additional information?</p>
<p>Really I think the biggest difference will be who lives on the floor. The activities that are through the learning communities are usually offered to all of the learning communities (i.e a white water rafting trip is offered to all learning communities instead of just certain ones). The engineer floor will be all engineers or half engineers and half architecture students. Honors will be a mix of students in the honors college. I would lean towards putting them on the engineer floor so that ways they’ll be taking most of the same courses as their floor mates which is extremely helpful for studying and for making friends. They’ll will also more than likely have an RA who’s an engineer major who can help them out.</p>
<p>Thanks! I was wondering if being with all engineering students might be advantageous, but I was worried about missing out on the extra curricular activities, so you answered my questions.</p>
<p>So, if you were to list the Engineering Living Learning Community (LLC) as your first choice, then the Honors LLC in Morrill as your second choice, do you have any suggestions for a good third choice? My son will be coming from out of state and won’t know anyone. He is a good student and loves to watch and play sports! Thanks!</p>
<p>Our backup housing options went in this order 1) Hess 2) Clement 3) North Carrick. Honestly, I don’t know anything about these; we just took advice from someone we knew and trusted.</p>
<p>HarpethParent: Did your son have to pick a roommate when he submitted his housing application? My son has not submitted his housing application to UT as he is hoping to find a roommate on the UT Facebook site for accepted students, but there aren’t too many students on the site yet. He thought that you had to list a requested roommate on your housing application, but maybe he has that wrong? If you submit your housing application now without a requested roommate, but then later find a roommate on the UT Facebook site, can you go back in and add that roommate request to your housing application?</p>
<p>When my son submitted the housing application, he did list roommates. However, we did log back on to make changes. If your son knows for a fact that he wants to be in the Honors or Engage learning community, then I would suggest going ahead and filling out the application because we waited until March 1 to sign up for Honors Orientation, and most slots were gone. That tells me that the Honors kids are already sending back paperwork, including housing agreements.</p>
<p>I’ve also had to email the housing department about personal concerns, and they were very helpful, so I would imagine that they would try to accommodate him if he does find a roommate in time and they can logistically make the match.</p>
<p>When the incoming Freshman students log in to see their housing assignment (NETID and password on UTK website) they will see their housing hall and room assignment. We just found out today our son is in Morrill Hall and in the ENGAGE Community. There was a message from the other 3 students assigned to that “suite” (2 double occupancy rooms joined by a semi-private bathroom). He did not “pick” a roomate during the housing selection process, and I am not sure that such an option existed. He merely knew he wanted to be in the ENGAGE community so that he was with like-minded students, in the same field (Engineering). I have read comments by others and while I am not the student, I believe being among other students in the same course of study, especially the first year, is a bonus when it comes to classes and study groups. If I were an engineering student, I would want to be among others who can assist with “navigating the waters”. As to any changes in room/roomate selection, there was a place on the page in his mailbox/room assignment that provided for a request to change…but at this point he doesn’t have any reason to request a change because he is in the ENGAGE community and has never met his roommates, and they have not met him.</p>
<p>jmomFL: When my son gets home this afternoon, I’ll have him check to see if his housing assignment has also been posted. He will be attending UT from out of state and also requested Morrill Hall in the ENGAGE LLC. He was accepted into the Honors program, but chose to room with fellow engineers (instead of the Honors LLC). He also went “pot luck” and did not specify a roommate (he doesn’t know anyone else attending UT from our city). Now I’m eager to know. :)</p>
<p>Hey everyone,</p>
<p>Sorry for my inactivity. I’ve been swamped with school work. So from my point of view I’ve lived in most dorms on campus because I’ve moved around due to bad roommates. First off, I really think your kids will love the engage program. If it’s anything like two years ago it’ll be a great experience. I know a lot of those guys still live together. </p>
<p>They’ll more than likely find out their roommates on August 1st. That’s how it’s been in the past. They’ve “accidentally” put the info (room number and hall, but NOT roommates) online before that date. The past two years they’ve been extremely strict on not letting you know specifically who your roommate is before August 1st.</p>
<p>HarpethParent-I lived in Hess for the first half of my first semester as a freshman then moved to Morrill. I ended up having not too great of an RA in hess and he didn’t have control over my floor which ended up being a lot of guys who couldn’t handle the adjustment to having no parental supervision. Two of my really good friends will be RA’s in Hess next year on the mens side and it really seems like this next year they have a great group of RA’s so that won’t be an issue. Some pluses for Hess: 1. The community feel-with community bathrooms and such it’s really hard to not make friends. You’ll pass by people every day and if you keep your door open during the first week I’m sure people will stop by. 2. The location is by far the best on campus. It’s no more than a 7-8 minute walk to any class/building. I would definitely suggest against living in Clement. It’s not the cleanest place and it’s sort of isolated from the other freshman dorms. From my perspective I’d rate the Freshman dorms as 1. Morrill (extremely biased) 2. Anywhere in Presidential Courtyard (Carricks, Humes, Reese) 3. Hess 4. Massey 5. Clement.</p>
<p>If any of you all have any questions feel free to ask! I love helping out new students/parents as I was extremely nervous and excited for my college experience (which is nearly over and has blown by so fast!)</p>