A friend of mine was accepted to CPP for Fall 2016 ( civil eng ). Last week she learned she did NOT get housing and is on a waiting list. She is in the top 250. Needless to say she and her family are very worried. She lives 7 hours north of Pomona and living off campus was not in the plan …
Anyone have any experience or advice on this?
Update: my friend has decided NOT to attend CSU Pomona … Her parents will not allow her to live off campus in Pomona… So she is headed to the SRJC and will transfer to a UC
Her parents sound awful, best of luck to her.
Her parents are not awful. They were very worried about having only 4 weeks to find her a place in a city 7 hours away in a city that is not known to them. The unfortunate situation is that CSUs accept students knowing all will NOT get housing and only give you 4 weeks to find something. THAT is pretty unfair. My guess is IF they had known in JUNE, they could have spent more time trying to find a SAFE off campus housing option.
Do other CSU’s do this – not letting people know about housing until August? Does that mean prospective students may have to weigh acceptance without knowing about housing?
Good question.
From my experience, the CSU’s that I have dealt with will notify you around June (after May 1 SIR) if you are placed on the waitlist for housing to give you time to possibly make other arrangements and housing assignments are usually processed in July.
Did the friend get in off the waitlist or was she accepted during the normal decision period? Did they submit the housing application on time? Did they receive any email indicating that housing was an issue prior to August?
On the CSU application, there is a question I believe that asks if you plan to do on-campus housing. Also the earlier you submit your housing application, the better. Once you make a decision to attend, you should submit for housing. Also most CSU’s will give housing priority to students far outside their service area since it is a requirement. There may be more to the story.
From the CPP Housing Website::
Future Students- Room assignments are processed on a first-come, first-served, space available basis and space availability. Depending on the community requested, contracts are prioritized based on the date and time that the contract was submitted online. For immediate openings, the Housing Office will contact you by phone or email to confirm interest and availability. Confirmations of assignments are sent to your Cal Poly Pomona email address.
Here is what I know… She applied for housing about 2 weeks after they started accepting requests … She was notified late July she was #250 on the waitlist. Her father called CPP and was told, frankly, that they should find another housing situation. ThAT gave them 4 weeks to find something.
Lesson learned, get you request in Right away. It still is very unfair that this happened
If housing fills up this fast, they should state on the Website that you should apply immediately or you may be out of luck. I do know that most campuses are short on housing and trying to keep up with the demand by building but unfortunately that takes time and money. I wish your friend good luck and I am sure she will do well.