@CamandCam Last year, the link to request an early move-in was available through the Howdy portal mid-July. The fee was $50 for one day early.
I found the link in my notes as I am reorganizing them, to HOWDY WEEK! It will give you an idea of what the kids can do. It’s most informal stuff. Convocation is a must as is the Class Photo on Kyle Field. Other than that, it’s for the kids to explore and get acquainted. My son’s Fish Camp leader had stuff each day for them to get together. Pond Hopping was a highlight.
This was fall 2018 https://studentlife.tamu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Howdy-Week-Schedule-18-for-web2.pdf?_ga=2.128865484.1996219574.1539621132-1092861901.1533479041
@CamandCam It depends on where you are living. What @chercheur says is correct for early move in at the dorms. If you are living at White Creek apartments on campus then you can move in a week early for no charge and they also let you stay over the winter break there as well for no charge.
Thanks! @chercheur and @pbleigh
@chercheur @pbleigh and any others,
- If approved for an LLC, is a room assigned directly to the student (that is, the student doesn’t choose)?
- Can an LLC student link up with a non-LLC student?
- Are you required to sign up for roommate finder in order to link up with another student (my son already knows who he wants to room with, so is roommate finder required)?
Thanks!
It is my understanding that the Freshman Convocation program has been canceled. There was no big announcement or anything, but it just stopped happening about 2 years ago. I investigated and couldn’t really figure out why. It seemed well attended when my oldest was a freshman. If anyone knows more about it, I would like to know.
@CamandCam my son linked up with his 3 roomies when that feature opened. It didn’t open til like April. But things and processes change all the time so it could be earlier this year.
As for white creek, they move in the Wednesday before everyone else. And yes they stay over Christmas break which is really nice. My son came home for the important stuff but didn’t have to move back home for the month like other dorms did. And their move out date is a tad later than everyone else as welll.
@CamandCam Everything changes but my understanding is that for most LLC’s they have a block of rooms reserved for their people in a particular building. LLC members have to room with other LLC members. Most assign who rooms with who but some of the larger ones do not work that way. In the larger ones they will get a window to self select a room but only within the block of rooms assigned to that LLC. I have no idea how roommate finder works, sorry, but I believe its intent is to find a roommate if you do not have one.
Mine was in the engineering honors LLC and could only room with other eng. honors LLC kids. The room was assigned (Mosher), and since we didn’t have a roommate, we did pot luck and got assigned a terrific roommate. As a matter of fact, the other 2 suitemates (they share a bathroom with the 2 kids next to them who are considered suitemates) were great kids as well. The university did a super job of matching them up. I would tell those parents whose kids don’t have a roommate to not worry. Reslife really does read the profiles!
There is a way to be matched if you already have a friend to room with, but I don’t know the procedure.
Thanks for the replies @AggieMomhelp @pbleigh @chercheur . I’m still unclear on something. In order to link up with his friend, do both of them have to sign up for Roommate finder?
I thought of a couple more questions:
Is Mosher reserved solely for LLC students?
Any suggestions on order of preference for the four commons dorms. Mosher was renovated most recently, so i assume it’s the most desirable of the four. How would you rank the other three?
Similar question- are Lechner & McFadden reserved solely for University Honors kids? We are working on a dorm list and wondering if we should add or leave them off. We took the dorm tour last summer and went in one of them, and I remember the guy saying “this is one of the honors dorms…”
@agtrio23 I emailed a similar question to Tamu a few months ago.essentially the honors programs and LLCs only take the rooms they need, so there’s always the possibility rooms will be available to others
What is the likelihood of a single room, in any location? Hens teeth?
To all, right now what y’all are doing is just putting down preferences. So if for whatever reason your student “forgets” to sign up during their time slot, tamu will try to find them a spot in what they chose. So in other words… Do not worry about what you put down now. It literally means nothing.
When they get their time slot and then the time comes they will scurry around the site to see what is open and available. They will select the room they want in the dorm they want. Going in as a single is lucky because there are open rooms. But when you have say two people, finding a room with two beds can be hard.
@CamandCam It would seem after reading the email my current tamu student son just got that you do in fact need to use the roommate finder, excerpt of email below:
If you have paired with roommates/suitemates in the system and neither of you have chosen a room yet:
The student with the earliest time slot will be able to assign both students if they requested and accepted each other through the roommate finder feature of the application.
You can still select roommates at this time and make any changes to your roommate preference.
If you want to be roommates/suitemates with an incoming student:
You must select an available room at this time to avoid being cancelled out of housing.
When your desired roommate/suitemate is able to access room selection (later in the semester), you will want to communicate with them about selecting an open room/apartment based on availability.
You will then ‘Room Swap’ into that assignment with them, or you can choose to remain in your previously chosen space.
Great info @pbleigh ! Thanks. So, current students are selecting dorms now? it’s not time for Incoming students yet, is it? Incoming students select around May sometime, correct?
@camandcam yes current students are getting their windows now, my son’s is in a couple days, but he is squatting so won’t even use it. I believe incoming students start in April for the LLC’s and then May for everyone else unless something changes this year.
My son said for freshman the housing portal mentioned that the roommate selection and housing selection by priority starts Feb first or second week - this was the message he has been seeing for the past few months. But yesterday the portal changed its message to move the room selection to the last week of February. We are going on a dorm tour on Monday and shall update any info we find.
Freshman housing won’t be til April at the earliest. My son is a fish now and his selection for staying put on campus goes through feb 27th.