Housing Advice for 2023 Ags

Colleges and Universities A-Z Texas A&M University
1

Howdy, I’m a 2022 ag who went through the whole housing process last year and I just wanted to give some advice based off my experience with it. If the housing process changes keep in mind this may all become inaccurate, and it is all based on my experience with it.

  1. Apply for housing ASAP- I applied before my AIS even updated to say I was admitted (I was an auto admit and was accepted during the first wave) and I still wasn’t in the first time slot for housing. Some groups will get to pick housing before you no matter how early you apply (athletes, upperclassmen, etc.) so keep that in mind; freshmen aren’t the only ones trying to get good dorms.

  2. Understand the housing process- When filling out the housing application, it asks you to pick out a certain number of preferences in case they have to pick a dorm for you. That list, at least for me, meant nothing. I picked out my own dorm so it’s really only if for some reason you receive a room but don’t pick one. Again, I picked out my own room, as I assume y’all will; the school does not assign you a room. The exception to that is the LLCs and such. I wasn’t a part of any community and did not choose to live in the engineering community so I can’t give advice for that, but I do think in some cases rooms/roommates were decided for you.

  3. Roommates- I didn’t have one going into it. I did message a few girls and thought about rooming with one, but I ended up going potluck. If you don’t have one, definitely utilize the roommate finder and don’t be afraid to reach out to people. Worse case scenario, they don’t reply or say they already have a roommate (yes, people who already have claimed a roommate will still be listed on your finder page). A&M is full of friendly people so don’t be afraid to try! Also, don’t forget to ask questions like where they plan on staying- you aren’t matched by dorm preferences. So far, potluck has gone well for me, I haven’t met my roommate but I think we’ll get along, so don’t be too worried if thats the path you end up going down.

  4. Dorms- I think they’re priced based off popularity now, so the higher the pricetag the harder it’ll probably be to get in. Keep this in mind, do dorm tours, and keep your options open. Hullabaloo and northside mods (what seem to be fairly popular from the conversations I’ve had) filled up relatively quickly during the housing process. Hullabaloo filled within the first few time slots, some northside mods filled up faster or around the same time, and a few others lasted for a few more time slots. Just be aware that they do fill fast.

  5. Dorm vs Roommate- Since I didn’t have a roommate, I didn’t have to worry about finding an empty room; I just jumped into a room with one opening and claimed the spot. Some people who had roommates however had to pick between their dream dorm and their dream roommate. If you want a roommate with you in a dorm like Hullabaloo, one of y’all will need to have one of the first few time slots. Popular dorms tend to fill with individuals with no roommate that pick an empty room, leaving only one bed open. A lot of people complain about this and think that singles should pair up, but it is what it is. In this situation, you may have to decide either dropping your roommate to get into the dorm you want or choosing a less popular dorm to be with your roommate. This is something I think should seriously be considered; if you don’t think you have a chance at getting the dorm want and the roommate you want, you may want to decide ahead of time which your are willing to give up. Not going into it with a roommate made the process easy for me, and going potluck should be considered if you really want a dorm like Hullabaloo.

  6. Tips for actually picking the room-
    -Have a list of dorms you want in order of preference with you in case the one you want is filled
    -Read the columns and rows. One will tell you have many beds there are total, one will tell you how many are left open
    -If someone is already in the room, you can click and see their profile before deciding to stay in that room. You can also see the gender listed so you know to go back if theirs doesn’t match yours and avoid wasting time.
    -You can switch rooms after you’ve already picked one. I picked the first room I could at first to garantee I got the dorm I want, then I went back and sifted through the rooms to see if there were any open rooms on a lower floor or if I matched better with another person and ended up switching to a lower floor.

That’s about all I can think of now, I’ll add more if I can think about it and I’m willing to try and answer any questions any future ags may have about housing!
Thanks and gig’em!

2

Thank you for this information. My daughter will be an auto admit, and submitted her application on July 2. She is stating that she cannot apply for housing yet in AIS, I guess I could have her look more closely. She is looking for a single room(note, she will accept a suitemate, like Hullabaloo, but really wants her own room). Do you have any advice on dorms? Her interests right now are a Ramp, Balcony, and then Hullabaloo.

3

@sweeney1996 For me, housing did not open until September, so I would suggest checking around then. I think the single rooms filled up pretty quickly, though if she wants one of the less popular dorms (like the ramp and balcony style halls) she may have a better chance of getting one. A suitemate would also be a good option, then she only has to share her bathroom with one other girl and keeping her mind open to that would give her more options when it comes time to pick her dorm. Worst case scenario, she gets a double room and has a roommate, saving some money. As far as different halls go,

-Hullabaloo is most popular, and thus the hardest to get into. Costs more than the other dorms. Has double and single rooms, and double and single suites. Has a lot of amenities in it, like a post office, a Starbucks, and a convenience store. The singles rooms here are the most expensive rooms on campus.

-Commons are all suites, I think most are doubles but some are singles. Has become popular now due to the renovated commons lobby, which has a lot of the amenities that Hullabaloo has. I hear the walls are thin there. They’re adding/have added a food court in the lobby.

-Modular halls are priced about the same as commons, probably just as if not more popular than the commons especially for non-engineering majors (the engineering village is in the commons). Have the biggest rooms I believe, the rooms have 4 closets so 2 for each person in the room which is a plus. I don’t think there are any designated single rooms in the modular halls.

-Balcony halls are all suite-style; however, they do have some designated single rooms. Also, it looks like there’s an LLP only in Keathley, and the balcony halls aren’t super popular so she might have a good chance of getting a single in one of those dorms. Balcony rooms are bigger than ramp rooms, but they’re still pretty small. This isn’t helped by the fact that you can’t loft your beds because of the cabinets on the walls (I guess unless you put your bed in the middle of the room?). There aren’t really hallways or anything, so when she opens her door she will be immediately outside.

-Corridor halls do have community bathrooms, however as far as single rooms go I think Davis-Gary might be a really good bet. I think that’s the dorm with the highest number of single rooms.

-Ramp halls are the oldest on campus and the cheapest. I don’t think I have really heard anything too great about them but they might be better now due to the renovations. However, there are suite-style bathrooms, so she won’t have to go down the hall like she would in a corridor dorm. They have A/C units in the windows, I don’t think any other dorm has that. They do have a pretty central location on campus compared to most dorms, so she’ll be closer to it all.

I could be wrong about some things and anyone should feel free to correct me, but this is all correct to my knowledge. I would definitely suggest going down to A&M and taking a tour around the dorms. It’ll be the only way to get a real grasp on the size of the rooms and may be able to ask someone there about the best dorms to help guarantee to get a single room. And if she ends up in a double, like I said, there’s a chance you’ll be saving money, and she only has to sleep and shower there.

4

@anxious_stdnt. Good info. We have visited TAMU, and taken the form tours, she viewed each style I asked about, in the Northside, and really wants to be on the northside. Checked a lot on here, and googled, but not finding lots of pros/cons of the ones she is interested. Thank you for your insight.

5

@sweeney1996 I went to r/aggies on reddit to ask a lot of my questions and search up dorms. You or you daughter might want to do that, try searching for the dorms shes looking at and seeing if anyone else has already asked questions about them or even making an account to post a question of your own. I liked that just because there were a lot of former and current students answering my posts so they could give advice based off of their time living in the dorm or what they heard from friends who lives there, but the environment and community on reddit is different from the community on here so be aware of that if you decide to look into it.

6

@anxious_stdnt gave some great advice! My son is an incoming Freshman, and he had applied at both UT and A&M, and since he was an auto-admit and was leaning towards UT at the time, he did not put in his housing app at A&M right away. Then he did not get accepted to his desired major at UT and decided to go with A&M after all. By that time it was pretty late in the game and he ended up toward the end of the list of timeslots to choose his housing, and it was pretty slim pickings by then. So that is one place you definitely don’t want to delay is applying for housing!

There is a great group on Facebook that has a wealth of information about all things TAMU College Station related. It is called “Aggie Moms & Dads of Current Or New Texas A&M Students -College Station-Q&A” It is a private group, and in order to keep spammers out, the Admin has it set where you have to answer some questions before you will be approved to join, so make sure you answer the questions on the Facebook form when you ask to join.

7

@sparkmom, will do on joining, when she gets the official word. She is an auto admit with a class ranking in the top 10% and also hit the marks for academic admit, so, she is pretty sure. She applied 7/2. But, don’t want to jinx anything. Been 2 weeks yesterday.

8

@sweeney1996 @Sparkmom The Aggie parent page is for parents of current students and incoming students only. Parents of perspective students cannot join.

@sweeney1996 Your daughter will not be able to apply for housing before she is accepted. The past two admissions cycles, decisions for auto and academic admits were not released until September 20th and 21st.

She won’t actually be able to select her dorm until next May. The three preferences she lists are only in case she fails to select her own room during her window. She needs to make a list of preferences using all of the dorms and the room locations in the dorms (most have a floorplan map). So when it comes time to select next May, she will have known options instead of trying to figure out options during her window and rooms are being snapped up as she’s figuring it out.

9

@anxious_stdnt Can I ask where you will be living this year? Wondering about off campus housing and if you have any insight. We looked at Cambridge during the recent Aggieland Preview Day as we had nieces who lived there during their Freshman year (They went to Blinn first) who loved it.

Anyone else have any insight in to the off campus options? I have read many reviews and am hearing how some of the newer ones close to campus (i.e. Traditions and Rise) have been trashed either by students or not maintained well.

10

@seniormom2000 I live here in Aggieland and can help you with off campus housing questions for the most part. The Rise is very dorm feel in my opinion and super pricey. The Stacks are close to campus and feels more like apartments. Park West is starting it’s second year here and is on University Systems property but not technically on campus housing. They have decent rates and great amenities. I know nothing about Traditions except location is behind Northgate. We literally have so many off campus great housing options. AND everything is on the bus route!!!

11

Yes that is the one this that we kept hearing over and over again. How great the buses are and Make sure wherever you live that it is on a bus route! Thanks!

12

@seniormom2000 Be aware that if you apply for housing and then later decide to live some place else, you must cancel the housing contract by May 1. This takes an action of actually cancelling it, and not just ignoring picking a dprm during selection time. Every year, there are many parents who are presented with a bill for the semester from ResLife because their student applied for housing and then decided to live off campus.
Northpoint Crossing is a block from campus and where my son lived this past year. One can walk or ride the shuttle from the complex. It was the most affordable one that is on University. When we visited them all, back in Nov. 2016, the complexes looked fine. At least for NPC, the rooms are redone after move out for the new move ins.

If you go with a complex over dorm, many places don’t allow for move in until mid Howdy week, so unless your freshman has some place else to stay, they will miss the first half of Howdy week. When we moved the boys into NPC, the move in date allowed was 4 days before school began. Also know that they are 12 month leases, so if your student comes home for the summer, you will be paying the months he isn’t there. Most leases end July 31. Some want you out on that day and other will give you a few days. If your student goes to summer school second session, they will need to move out before summer school finals. Most apartments are individual leases (you rent by the bedroom) and most houses (but not all) are joint lease and usually payable by one check for the whole rent.

13

@seniormom2000 I’ll be living in Hullabaloo this year. I didnt look into any off campus housing, but I know a lot of people that are staying at Park West. Ive also heard Callaway Villas and Reveille Ranch a few times in my conversations with other ags.

14

How do you evaluate the dorms if you have not done a dorm tour? Also, what happens if you reserve a dorm room, and then decide to go to a different school?

15

@jazzymomof7. The Tamu housing website has great info for evaluating size, shape and layout of each dorm room. For each dorm type(modular, balcony, ramp, etc), there is a pdf that you can pull up, on the site, it will give you the complete dimensions of each room, and the furniture dimensions. While my daughter did do dorm tours, she has found this info helpful, with narrowing down her choices.

16

@anxious_stdnt and/or anyone else: For the modular style dorms like Mosher, Lechner, and McFadden (Engineering/Honors), what are your thoughts on picking a room location? Are the corner rooms at the end of the hall colder in the winter because of being on the end? Quieter? Upper floors vs lower floors—pros/cons?

17

@TXRunningMom I think ground floors can see more foot traffic based off where the washing machines are and those closest to the doors of the building may be woken up or annoyed/interrupted when people forget their ID or keys and knock on their windows to be let in.

I think Hullabaloo is the only dorm with an elevator, so moving in/out could be a pain if youre on the highest floor of the dorms (however its not like moving is an often occurrence, though the stairs might be irritating for a student at the end of a long day or after a tiring football game).

I’ve heard certain rooms (such as even or odd, north or south, etc.) in some dorms are bigger than others but I haven’t been around the dorms enough to know if its true.

I think all of the dorms are relatively quiet, though the walls are thin in the Commons dorms (like Mosher) so sound might travel further. McFadden and Lechner are especially quiet from what I hear, but it’s not like any dorm is known for being loud (correct me if I’m wrong, this is just my understanding).

I don’t really know anything on corner specific rooms, and you would have to know the layout of room numbers to know which rooms to pick anyhow since the student is just given a list of room numbers and not a map of the rooms when picking their housing.

18

@TXRunningMom If your Aggie is in the Honors Program, he or she will live in the Honors dorm (McFadden/Lechner) and won’t be able to choose roommate, dorm, or floor. It will be assigned by the program. I am pretty sure that all of Lechner and the lower floors of McFadden are used for Honors. I think the upper floors of McFadden are not restricted to Honors. Engineering Honors are different and I’m not sure which dorm they are in.

19

My student is in Engineering Honors and was assigned to the 2nd floor of Mosher. Both room and roommate were assigned as mentioned above.

20

Hi Everyone! Hope y’all are having a great Summer! I thought I’d chime in on the Housing topic with the viewpoint of our daughter living in The Rise apartments last year.

This was for her Freshman year. We splurged a bit so that she could have a one bedroom private apartment. She didn’t know anyone with whom she wanted to room and really didn’t want to risk a “pot luck” roommate. We thought that it would be stressful enough just to make the transition to college life that we didn’t want to risk adding to the stress if she received a roommate with whom there were any issues. She had experienced “frenimes” and High Shcool girl drama and we wanted a much happier college experience for her.

The pros for selecting The Rise:
My daughter is a picky eater and wanted a full kitchen. She eventually found that there were places on campus that had food that she would eat, but having a full kitchen allowed her to eat what she wanted when she wanted and she had a full sized fridge all to herself. Having her own washer and dryer in her apartment was also very convenient, she didn’t have to schlep clothes down to a laundry room. My daughter also appreciated having the ability to decorate solely to her own taste.

The Rise is located on University Drive, just at the edge of TAMU campus and that made it very convenient for her to walk to any location on campus. The Rise is also close enough to walk to the nightlife areas of Northgate, but not where it was in a loud location. There is a CVS on the ground floor that is open 7am-midnight and that made it very convenient for her to get what she needed as she didn’t have a car for the first semester.

I worried at first that my daughter would hibernate alone in her apartment. At home, she only socializes with a few people and spends a lot of time in her room. And she has always had her own room, only sharing with her sister on family vacations. But her apartment at The Rise became THE meeting place for all of her friends either before or after they would all go out to have fun in the Northgate nightlife.

My daughter joined a sorority and several of her sorority sisters would stay with her when they were having issues with their roommates (cooking odors, personality differences, extra friends of their roommates, etc), so she also gained the experience of having “part-time” roommates of her choosing.

The cons of The Rise :
She didn’t receive the unit floor plan that she wanted and ended up with a unit where the bathroom is accessed through the bedroom, which made her closet significantly smaller. The model units shown are for the multiple occupancy and so you don’t really get an idea of what an actual one bedroom unit will look like. Her unit had no towel storage in the bathroom so we had to purchase an “over the commode” unit.

There are not enough parking spots in The Rise garage. When she signed the lease in early Spring '17, they were already out of available spots. At the time, we didn’t know if she would have a car available in the Fall or not. She was put on a wait list, but a spot was still not available when she finally had a car in the Spring semester. They offered a parking pass for a garage a few blocks away, but she didn’t want to walk back from that garage in the dark. She usually parked in a nearby commercial lot. Once when she parked in a “future Rise resident” spot on a Thursday night because of bad weather & late at night, her car was towed. There should be at least one parking spot reserved per apartment.

All of the building hot water boilers failed and had to be replaced which left residents without reliable hot water for about a week and the office would not make an adjustment to the rent. That was stressful as it occurred when she had required sorority events and wanted to look her best.

But overall, living her Freshman year in a one bedroom apartment at The Rise was a positive experience. When we were cleaning out her apartment at the end of her lease, she said that she had a wonderful year there and had great memories of fun times in her first apartment. She was so happy to be living the Aggie life in Aggieland! I am so happy that she was happy there.

I hear that the brand new apartment building next door to The Rise will be leasing for next year and that their leases are cheaper than The Rise. Not sure if that is accurate or not. But it would have all of the location benefits as the Rise and easy access to the CVS.

Good luck to everyone, may you all have a happy Aggie life!