<p>Housing Assignments are up on VIP for anyone who wants to see what Dorm they got and their roommate. My S was lucky though, he found a roommate on his own but we requested it kind of late in the game so we were told they may not be able to accomodate the request. They came through and he got his roommate of choice!</p>
<p>Great! So glad that worked out for your son. Bills for the fall semester should soon be up on VIP also.</p>
<p>This is probably a silly question about the bills, but I’m gonna ask anyway. Since the financial aid checks haven’t arrived yet, how will I know how much I have to pay out of pocket?</p>
<p>So my D did not get any of her housing choices and would like to request a change. Is her only option to go through UCHOOSE and hope that somebody wants to swap with her?? This is a little unnerving to say the least given that move-in day is 1 month away and she is coming from NH and knows virtually nobody at the school. We would like to get this resolved ASAP so we can move forward.</p>
<p>I don’t think that is her only choice. I would contact the housing office directly. They have posted that there are vacancies. They were very helpful when I spoke with them. Can’t hurt to give it a shot.</p>
<p>NHParent, I found this for you on the VIP housing assignment section. </p>
<p>Room change requests will be handled on a first come, first serve basis. For more information regarding room changes or to fill out a room change form, please visit [University</a> Housing Room Change Process](<a href=“Housing - Housing | University of South Carolina”>Housing - Housing | University of South Carolina)</p>
<p>NH parent,
Good luck. My son also did not get any of his top choices, but we were kind of forced to list 5 choices - good or bad when applying. I contacted housing via email with no response. So we are trying to think positive and hope that his roommate is at least compatible. Please post if you have better luck. I agree…it is unnerving.</p>
<p>MeKimber,
On VIP, you can go under the financial tab, and it will show financial aid awards for 2009-2010.
Also, under that same tab,in the next couple of days when the bills are finalized, you can look under “Show me Schedule and bill” That will show a printable bill. Down at the bottom, on the left hand side of the printable bill it shows cost for your tuition, room, board,technology fee,post office box, etc along with any optional fees you have chosen. On the right hand side of that bill, it shows your financial aid awards.
The very bottom of that bill will list your balance due and the date.</p>
<p>I do remember that under the financial aid tab, you have to go through some links to actually apply the financial aid to the bill. If your financial aid isn’t showing for some reason, give the fin. aid office a call. They have counselors on phone duty and are always helpful.
There will be some “random” fees that you will see on the bill, depending on your student’s classes and major. My son is an engineering student, and fall 08 semester there was a $75 lab fee, and $300 engineering fee. There is also a $20 PO box fee, a $76 network fee, and a $50 residence hall activity fee. If you get a garage space as opposed to a parking sticker, that was a separate fee that did not appear on the bill.
Here is a link to the fee schedule for Fall 09/10:
[USC</a> Fee Schedule - Bursar’s Office](<a href=“Bursar's Office - Bursar's Office | University of South Carolina”>Bursar's Office - Bursar's Office | University of South Carolina)</p>
<p>be aware: you will not get a bill in the mail!! It’s all done online. Don’t forget to print out your receipt when you do the transaction online to apply your aid to your bill.</p>
<p>you actually don’t get financial aid checks in your hand either.Any aid is applied to your childs bill first. if there is any overage, you can get a physical check or have the amount direct deposited into their bank account.</p>
<p>Thank you MeKimber and Cotelizard. </p>
<p>We did contact Housing directly and they did offer my D a private room in a couple of dorms. Unfortunately, as an incoming freshman who doesn’t know anybody, this was the last thing she needed! The housing room change process link instructs you to go to UCHOOSE and select option #4. Here you are asked to enter 3 new preferences for rooms/dorms. Although it looked promising, currently the only choices available in the list were for private rooms. I am assuming that in the next couple of days, as more students opt for room changes, the list will provide more options.</p>
<p>In the meantime I am encouraging my D to contact her potential roommate and make a connection. I personally think that the right roommate is far more important than the dorm. (Just for the record though…my D did not get any of her original 5 dorm requests.)</p>
<p>nhParent, if she hasn’t already thought of it, she might want to look her new roommate up on Facebook. Also, if you type into the search bar on Facebook…University of South Carolina 2013 you will get a group set up for class of 2013 kids. There is a section on roommates (this is how my S found his roommate and he too is from CT) as well as other topics. It gives the kids a way to interact even before getting to campus and in a far more candid way than on VIP UChoose.</p>
<p>The Facebook link is wonderful - (USC - Class of 2013). My son goes to that all the time. I agree with you NHparent about the roommate. I know that after initially finding out about my son’s dorm (see thread called McBryde) I was mortified…I went searching for info on the internet and found a very undesirable blog about the dorm. I just cried. But…now I feel like if his roommate is okay…then he’ll probably be okay and he’ll meet other guys on his dorm floor, in class, the gym, etc. But yes, you want to at least be friends with your roomie. The more positive I am, the better. Best of luck!</p>
<p>nhParent,
I hope things work out well with a great roommate for your D. I have never figured out the dorm assignment lottery process! Son is a Junior, and he and his 3 roommates all signed up together early (been rooming together since freshman year) and got their 3rd choice dorm!
I think I stressed about it a lot more than my son did… As long as they’re with some friends, college kids seem to take things in stride! To be honest, I don’t think they spend a lot of time in their rooms anyway…seems like they’re always involved in something on campus somewhere.</p>
<p>Greenville makes a very good point. I’ve had some pretty serious roommate issues (in retrospect hilarious stories), but it really didn’t matter. Any time we started to get into it, I’d just go somewhere else- a friend’s apartment, the library, Strom, the Horseshoe, Russell House. A lot of times a group of friends will have one central hang out location, usually someone’s room. If everyone else’s rooms are awful it doesn’t matter because they’re never there, and if the central location is awful, it doesn’t matter because for college students, it’s the people who matter. There’s no need to stress out. If your child is really unhappy with his or her dorm, then sure, try to get a change, but chances are, they’re more excited to see who they’re going to be living with than what circumstances they’ll be living under. An icky dorm room won’t make for a terrible college experience. Sometimes it can even make it more interesting.</p>
<p>Ugh. Things just got worse. My D just logged into VIP to get her roommates name/email and housing had already changed her dorm! They moved her to the 8th floor of Bates House. Although I applaud housing for honoring my phone request to move her I have to wonder why in the world they would move her to yet another dorm not even on her top 5 list. My D is so discouraged. Is she the only one out there that didn’t get a dorm on her top 5 list? Is she stuck with this now?</p>
<p>nhParent: My D got a less than desirable roommate freshman year. We asked for a room change first in hopes of getting a different roommate. They just changed the roommate to the new room as well. Then I had a chat with someone in housing and explained why it wasn’t going to work. They offered a private room at Patterson, and we decided that it might actually be better for D. She is a very serious student, and the private room allowed her to be able to study in her room whenever she needed too. She knew she was going to rush, so she made a lot of friends right away. Most people she knew didn’t even hang out with their roommate. She had two huge closets to herself. It was a nice transition for her since she had always had her own room and bathroom. </p>
<p>I would try to have her not sweat the small stuff. If she is so upset about this now, it may impact her attitude when she gets to school. Most of the dorms are equally yucky…</p>
<p>nhparent:
I am sorry about the newest dilemma. And it’s hard to stay upbeat when you are worried yourself for your own child. I will say, when I went to college I had a roommate who only lasted about a month. I had the room to myself the rest of the semester. I had met my floor mates and we ended up all being good friends. So not having a roommate might work out ok. Just suggest that she introduce herself around. It’s actually kind of nice having a room to yourself. No conflicts. And your only a couple feet away to someone next door. Who knows…she might meet someone who wants to get away from their roommate. I’ll say a prayer for you!! :)</p>
<p>I heard of people calling and strongly refusing to stay in bates only for them to magically find an opening in columbia hall</p>
<p>nhparent:
I hope you get things worked out for your daughter. It seemed unusual for a student to not get one of the top 5 dorms, but it occurred to me why that might have happened. Did you say in an earlier post that your daughter had originally been wait-listed and was notified in May that she got in for fall --that may have had some effect on the dorm situation, if she had to sign up later than some of the other students. Keep us posted on how things work out.</p>
<p>kmcord & Cotelizard - My D was assigned a roommate in Bates as well, sorry if I gave you the impression she wasn’t.</p>
<p>greenville - Yes, you are correct in that D was waitlisted so she applied for housing after the deadline. I’m sure this is why she initially did not get in her top 5 and we are OK with that. It was the switch that housing made after I contacted them this week that has me confused. Why bother switching somebody at all if you can’t meet their demands?</p>
<p>JRWriter - I have heard the same but for some reason when I call I get nowhere! LOL. My only concern about Bates is that appears to be slighly isolated from campus. Is safety a concern? I am on the fence right now about simply accepting the assignment or playing hardball.</p>
<p>Thanks for all of your support. My D is completely embarassed that I’m even posting here! ;-)</p>