Housing 2008/09

<p>By March 2006 my S was deciding between four top colleges (Ivy included) and one of the reason for him to enroll at Wash U, besides the very nice merit scholarship, was the housing. Last year he couldn't get a place to live until end of July since he had a low lottery number and all the places were taken, this year he still had a lower number that he should have and they told him that won't be a place on campus for him. I very disappointed with this process, there is no such thing as guaranteed housing. Is anybody else having housing problems besides juniors? I know that the junior class will be overcrowded, but Wash U is still accepting transfers making it worse.</p>

<p>That is surprising! I had no idea. I was just admitted to WashU through the January Program. When I go to WashU full time in January they told me I will be given a junior dorm since many of the juniors study abroad second semester. It seems silly to do this if there are juniors who need dorms!</p>

<p>There are less than 3,000 on campus dorms, somebody has to be left out and they are always juniors and some sophomores. The new village is for the high donors (mostly are seniors).</p>

<p>
[quote]
The new village is for the high donors (mostly are seniors).

[/quote]

what do you mean by "high donors"??</p>

<p>The housing lottery isn't over yet... There was the Rescollege round already, and now it's the north side round. The normal South 40 round hasn't even started yet, so I'm not sure how anyone could be denied housing. Has he applied for anything in the north side round (that ends friday?) either on campus or at Greenway (off campus apartments where many juniors and seniors live, close by).</p>

<p>Back in my day, a "high donor" was a drug addict giving blood for money. Hopefully they don't have their own dorm area. :-)</p>

<p>^ that's a good one ;)!</p>

<p>Is there guaranteed housing at WashU? I assumed there was...</p>

<p>Housing lottery numbers are also averaged out among everyone in a suite, so one person with a bad number won't doom a suite.</p>

<p>The web site implies that all first years will live on campus. See:<a href="http://admissions.wustl.edu/admissions/ua.nsf/3rd%20Level%20Pages_Campus%20Life_campuslife_reshouses.htm?OpenPage&charset=iso-8859-1%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://admissions.wustl.edu/admissions/ua.nsf/3rd%20Level%20Pages_Campus%20Life_campuslife_reshouses.htm?OpenPage&charset=iso-8859-1&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>"As a new student, you’ll live in one of our residential colleges."</p>

<p>"After Your First-Year: On- or Off-Campus Living"</p>

<p>I certainly believe housing is guaranteed for freshmen. That said, the class two years ago was much larger than intended due to a high acceptance rate, so perhaps that class has struggled with housing. If so it is, I am sure, frustrating, but not the norm.</p>

<p>South Forty will have some buildings going down this and next summer, that would be messing with housing, but freshman are guaranteed to be at SF. The university wants upperclassmen off campus, unless they are in frats or bloc housing.</p>

<p>After talking to Res Life awhile back, they stated that all WashU students are guaranteed housing, it just might not be on-campus housing. On-campus housing for upperclassmen seems to be confined to what Res Life calls "North Side" housing. This consists of The Village - <a href="http://village.wustl.edu/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://village.wustl.edu/&lt;/a>, the University Apartments - <a href="http://uapts.myreslife.wustl.edu/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://uapts.myreslife.wustl.edu/&lt;/a>, and the Loop Lofts - <a href="http://reslife.wustl.edu/looplofts/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://reslife.wustl.edu/looplofts/&lt;/a>. Of all of these locations, only The Village and one of the University Apartment buildings (Millbrook) is actually located ON campus. Of the other listed in the "University Apartments", University Drive apartment building sound as though it is right across the street from Millbrook and the other two (Rosedale and Greenway) are further away. Of course the Loop Lofts are located in the Loop.</p>

<p>This is an interesting article from the student newpaper that outlines construction plans at WashU, including housing. The article states that by fire code, they are only allowed to have 3,000 students housed on the South 40 (mainly freshmen and sophomores). So, there are actually more than 3,000 students housed ON campus - the South 40 plus The Village and Millbrook apartments. <a href="http://media.www.studlife.com/media/storage/paper337/news/2008/03/19/News/Washington.University.Reveals.Plans.For.Future.Of.South.40-3274860.shtml%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://media.www.studlife.com/media/storage/paper337/news/2008/03/19/News/Washington.University.Reveals.Plans.For.Future.Of.South.40-3274860.shtml&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Having two undergraduate children at Wash U, I already had experience with lotteries and so on; last year we didn't know where our S would live until three weeks before the classes started (and he was changed twice and so the bill). I was told the the new Village is out of reach, and Millbrook and Village are already taken. The class of 2010 is too big, 1470 enrolled students plus 200 something transfers, at least the class of 2009 has a normal size but there is no room for every sophomore on the South Forty.</p>

<p>The village is already taken, but Millbrook is still open... There are 200 rooms open in Millbrook for this lottery round that closes Friday, in 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 person configurations. Greenway (which is REALLY close by, just a few blocks over the bridge from the engineering school) still has plenty of units in this lottery round too. Your son should at least TRY to get housing in the North Side/Off Campus round, because if he doesn't, he can try for the remaining spots in the South 40 round. Since the Village is already pretty much filled (which usually doesn't happen yet), there is more likely to be open rooms in the South 40 round.</p>

<p>Why didn't your son go through the ResCollege round, where he was guaranteed housing on the 40?</p>

<p>My daughter wants Millbrook and doesn't think she'll get it. She said her chances are low, and she and her roommates have average lottery numbers. They've tried to get in with multiple roomate configurations/numbers. No luck. Too many people wanting to be on campus, and not enough room. The seniors have priority, and we all know that the incoming junior class is one of the largest ever (perhaps the largest?)</p>

<p>If you don't get the on the north side during this round, there's always the South 40 round. Keep in mind there are less than 350 on campus apartment spots. I know plenty of current juniors who live in Millbrook, so it may just depend on the specific group size.</p>

<p>They're all overseas right now, which makes it tough for my daughter and potential future roommates. I hope they make it on campus, they all want to be there, but they don't sound optimistic.</p>

<p>I don't know if it's true, but there are rumors around that no many kids are going abroad next year, at least not as many as usual.</p>

<p>S and his friends likely to end up off campus next year as juniors---they can be closer to campus in an off campus apartment than they can in what they can get as university housing...</p>

<p>I feel juniors have no other choice but housing off campus. Any complain from those already lived off campus?</p>

<p>I know plenty of junior living on campus next year, it's pretty much luck of the draw in terms of lotto numbers. As for off campus options run by ResLife, they're great. Most are pretty close to campus, and I have friends who went off campus through the school sophomore year and have been doing it ever since.</p>