<p>I hate to be THAT complaining parent. However, my student was assigned to South Campus and received an email stating that due to a larger number of students than expected in the incoming class they have added one additional student to a number of rooms that have historically served as large double rooms in South Campus residence hall. </p>
<p>Should we be concerned? I'm hoping someone who has experience with South Campus can offer reassurance that there will be plenty of closet and common space for 3 students.</p>
<p>Room and board is extremely expensive at UChicago. I'm feeling a bit cheated.</p>
<p>Rightly so. I am not sure what do they mean “LARGE double room”, but based on my DD lived there for two years, I could not see how they can squeeze three into my DD’s double room. There won’t be enough closets even if they can rearrange the beds and desks. Each floor, however, there are some large quarters that are consider “condos”, those are for three to share. There maybe some other configurations I am not aware of.</p>
<p>Seems to me that if they have 3 in a room meant for 2 they should divide the normal room rate (what they would charge 2 students to share the room) by 3 and not by 2. If you’re paying for 1/2 a room you should get 1/2 a room, not 1/3 of a room.</p>
<p>It has happened before, and will happen again, at Chicago and elsewhere. Search for “forced triple”.</p>
<p>This happened to my son six years ago in the late, unlamented Shoreland. Luckily, the third guy never showed up – part of summer melt. By a few weeks into the first quarter, I don’t think there were any triples left. That doesn’t mean there won’t be triples this year, though.</p>
<p>Think of it this way: It’s entirely possible that someone in a forced triple in South Campus has more personal space than he would have had last year if he had been assigned to a normal double in Pierce. Also, this year (and last), due to overadmission and the demise of Pierce, there are lots and lots (and lots) of first-years in sub-optimal space that was never intended to house them. It will eventually be part of the bonding culture of their class.</p>
<p>First years don’t have 100% control over their housing options (i.e. their stated preferences don’t guarantee them that type of room) so all first years pay the same rate whether they get housed in a single or a double, which is fair. </p>
<p>The issue this year is that housing has now fit more people into a room than the room was designed for, and AFAIK are still charging each resident the flat fee as if they were perfectly assigned to singles and doubles.</p>
<p>I’m being forced into a triple. I’m not happy at all considering I practically begged for a single. Nevertheless, I’ll take what I’m given. I should mention that I do believe I am paying less. I am being charged $4,551 for room and food, not 7 something grand.</p>
<p>hevydevy-sorry to disappoint but I believe that is the cost for 1 quarter. Room and board for 1st years is $13,653 which is exactly 3 times $4551. I think the housing information on my.uchicago says that it is for one quarter.</p>
<p>Oh, ok. Such is life. I do think it is unfair, but I’m not going to complain too hard. I’ll learn to live and a bunch of cool people that I’ve become friends with live in South, so yeah…</p>
<p>Talk with housing. I know some others who were in triples and somehow got into doubles. Not sure how that works, but I’d give it a shot. Also, there is the general waitlist which puts a good number of students into other residence halls that want to be in.</p>
<p>Sa0209 is right, you pay $13,653 a year and don’t save a penny. My daughter is placed into a triple too in South. I’m wondering what percentage of kids are forced into a triple. There are only two closets in the room, so two kids have to share a closet?</p>
<p>It’s like “You booked a deluxe room in a hotel. When you check in you are told the deluxe room is in remodel and you are moved to a regular room. However, you still have to pay the deluxe rate”. Now what do you feel?</p>
<p>Don’t get me wrong, I’m upset. I think the administration screwed up but I also understand that this is outside of my control and complaining won’t do anything. UChicago admissions people couldn’t predict their yield. Hell, trust me, I am super upset, not about the price but about the room. Yes, the fact that I have to pay more is unfair, but I am far more *<strong><em>ed about the fact that I actually have roommates. In the end, no amount of *</em></strong>*ing will do anything.</p>
<p>Also, I plan on being put on the waitlist. If a single opens up and it is in a good place, I’ll take it. If it doesn’t, I’m sure I will have made friends with my roommates/house mates/residence mates. I’d like to be in a single, but only if I can score one in BJ.</p>
<p>It’s rather strange they chose South for tripling people up. In general, older dorms seem better suited for adjustments. They probably weren’t designed as dorms in the first place, and tend to have more quirks. Some of them can be quite large (I’m guessing most of those have been taken by returning students already, but first-year rooms in Stoney, Blackstone, I-House, New Grad, etc. should still have more space than South). This is probably why JHS’s son was originally going to be given an extra roommate in the Shoreland, which started out as a hotel and was only just put out of commission. </p>
<p>The rooms can vary in South (the singles range from “small” to “medium” to “large,” small being hardly larger than a walk-in closet, and large being almost twice that size), but the design is still extremely formulaic. It’s much harder to mask a double as a triple in South—where every room has perfect rectangular lines and the exact same furniture—than, say, in I-House—where some of the rooms are literally up in a tower. My sister had a single room in an older dorm one year at Penn. For a dorm room, it was enormous. The next year they made it into a double, and I could see two people living there quite comfortably. I had a “large” single last year in South and one of the (slightly) larger handicap doubles my first year, and I can’t picture how an extra person could possibly fit into either.</p>
<p>Housing and dining are already so overpriced that if I were you, I would launch a complaint. It sounds like they’re pretty desperate. From what I understand, they already sent offers to every returning student in the house system to let them walk away from their housing contract without paying the usual $50 or $100 fee. When they didn’t get enough takers, they should have added some kind of incentive until enough people came on board, or offered discounted spots in grad housing.</p>
<p>After taking a moment to lament the Shoreland, some thoughts:</p>
<p>Once upon a time Unalove’s SO, Unalovely, attended a perfectly decent institution on the banks of the Charles River. </p>
<p>Unalovely lived in what I consider to be squalor: cramped quarters in a dorm that had major structural problems. And that’s what I thought THEN-- as a college student-- I can only imagine what a parent would think of it.</p>
<p>I’d be lying if I didn’t say one of my favorite pasttimes is making fun of Unalovely’s college living arrangements, the pricetag, the prestige of the school-- if only the New York Times knew how these children were living!-- to which Unalovely comes to a staunch defense when it comes to everything to do with that forsaken dorm and dorm room.</p>
<p>In other words, kids- get ready to live and love a place that your spouses will tease you about for the rest of your life. Parents- I know it’s tough now, and I know that this is probably one of the few “knowns” about your child’s college experience at this point, but set a reminder on your calendar to worry about this more around Thanksgiving. And if it’s still a problem then, then raise a stink.</p>
<p>Forced triples happen at a lot of colleges – they don’t have much choice when they make a mistake on their yield estimates. They can’t just create housing space out of thin air. I would do a couple of things:
Call housing and ask about the charges for the room. See if they have or will reduce the rate due to the forced triple situation.
Ask if there is a waiting list or priority list to get out of the forced triple situation. Stuff happens… students don’t show up in the fall, drop out part way through the semester for academic or health or family reasons, etc. And at the semester break, sometimes students going abroad free up spots as well. Your student may not be able to be choosy if they are offered a space elsewhere on campus (in a different dorm). But if the forced triple is unbearable, then see if you can get your kid on the list if one exists – don’t wait til Thanksgiving to make the call. Your kid may end up left in the double when one of the three moves out as another possibility. My nephew was in a forced triple at another college last year, but a couple months into the semester they offered one of his roommates a spot in another dorm and he took it.</p>
<p>Unalove: I think you may have made a very perceptive comment. My son got his room assignment, which is #4 out his 3 choices, but he is just terribly upbeat and excited about the whole thing. So, I am taking a cue from him and I am going to be upbeat and excited, too! As I thought about it, his 4th choice will still be warm, quiet, safe and really pretty close to the center of campus. Ultimately, what will make it great is his fellow house members, which I’m expecting to be an eclectic mix and pretty great overall. </p>
<p>I do think its fair that there is some financial relief for the the 3 persons assigned to a normal 2.</p>
<p>And I still think the administration has mishandled the Hollowed Grounds issue, based on the information available. I think it was a solution in search of a problem, with lots of negative unintended consequences.</p>
<p>unlove makes a great point. My freshman dorm, lightly renovated and partially re-named in the ensuing 33 years, is practically a by-word at my alma mater for horrendous living conditions. I thought it was wonderful, the best dorm imaginable. Well, maybe not the best dorm imaginable, but even at the time I minimized its flaws (tiny, tiny two-person bedrooms, about 70 sq. ft., lots of early-morning street noise) and concentrated on its good points.</p>
<p>yelnats95, sorry to hear your student was assigned into a triple room - which is a little bit weird. Hope before the time your student moves in something will happen so that no one will be in a triple room. Like many other people have said the college is having a serious housing problem due to unexpected high yield therefore we are in such a chaos. My D did not get her first 3 choices either.</p>
<p>By the same time I think it will be fair to negotiate with the college to get some discount as long as the current condition maintains.</p>
<p>This is probably where most of the students said they wanted to live. (Have you ever seen anyone post here that they were requesting IHouse, or Blackstone?) People are going to be unhappy about a triple–at least give them the dorm they want. And its known as a social dorm–what could require more good social skills than three people sharing two closets?</p>