I’m a rising sophomore at Vandy, and for the coming school year, sophomores cannot apply for single-room housing. If I don’t want to personally specify a roommate for a double, what are my options? Can I apply individually and be randomly placed with someone (kind of like Freshman year), or will I be ending up on the housing waitlist?
I am in the same position @VU2018 
I wrote to housing asking about singles for sophomores and they sent me this
Thanks for your email. Due to the lack of available single rooms upon completion of the upper-class student portion of the housing lottery, rising sophomores are not eligible to apply for single rooms. All rising sophomore students should plan to reside in a double room for the 2015-2016 academic year, and should begin the process of finding a roommate. After room selection when you select your double room, you will be permitted to sign up for the rising sophomore singles waitlist between April 6-10. Should single rooms become available of the summer months, you would be contacted.
I think VU2018 and Sophie1295 should get together and see if they’re compatible … Be nice if CC could bring two students together! If they are compatible, it beats the odds of going random. Maybe you already know each other in real life! 
Times sure have changed. I knew lots of sophomores in single housing when I was in school.
As I recall, there were a number of singles in Kissam back in the day, and those have been almost entirely replaced by larger rooms. Honestly I think that Vanderbilt admins, as they build new dorms, are intentionally offering fewer singles. I suppose single dorms kind of defeats the purpose of the communities they are trying to build in the “college halls” system or whatever it is.
@Pancaked Doesn’t Towers East have a bunch of singles? I want to say Vandy/Barnard did too. Plus there is also McGill, Tolman, Cole right? Granted I graduated in '09 so I am sure things have changed.
our son lived in a 10 single rooms plus one bath and one kitchen and den… Mayfield Lodge sophomore year. The Lodges are not equipped with laundry machines. Not sure what the deadline is for the Mayfield Lodge project proposals and presentations. Also McGill has a ton of singles. Son lived in McGill spring junior year and senior year. McGill has a great location on campus. The Mayfield Lodges require a project proposal per household and is competitive. Many more proposals than Lodges so the project (which must have a faculty sponsor) has to be substantive. Most Lodges are single sex but his was the first one to be coed which is now an option.
@dtotheustin09 Yes you’re correct, sometimes I forget how many dorms there are here. Towers East does have quite a few singles, not sure how many are in the other dorms.
I guess singles are just in very high demand from upperclassmen. That combined with the lack of singles in the the new dorms must be leaving sophomores with fewer options.
Here is the link (http://www.vanderbilt.edu/ResEd/main/living-learning-communities/) to the less than really helpful housing site with info on the LLC’s Mayfield and McTyeire which are entirely singles, BUT you have to apply specially to be in those, in the very near future or in the LLC McGill which has a mix of doubles and singles but most singles are probably claimed by returning juniors and seniors at McGill.
For non LLC options: Towers I and II are a mix of singles, doubles and in Tower I small suites on the upper floors. dtotheheustin is right that Tolman (all male) and Cole (all female) are mostly singles but Tolman has doubles. Vandy/Barnard, also on Alumni Lawn, Blakemore House and Morgan & Lewis in the Highlands Quad all have mixed floors of singles, doubles and triples but Morgan & Lewis are popular with juniors and seniors because of their kitchens so not likely for a rising sophomore to get into one of those.
I think that Pancaked is correct that the replacement of all those singles at the old Kissam Quad with the Warren & Moore College Halls that have fewer singles has decreased the campus-wide number of singles and increased demand. The single room wait list that Sophie1295 refers to will probably fill with rooms that come available in the Alumni Lawn area but don’t expect too many to open up over the summer.
My advice, as a parent, would be to casually ask around over the next few days, with your friends/hall mates/kids in class to see if any of them are in your same situation and would be interested in being your roommate–they don’t need to be your closest friend, just someone that would be tolerable to live with. Not certain but think that going into housing selection with a roommate would put you higher in the lottery than an unattached single looking for a space in a double, so that you two might have better chance of getting your first choice, say in Bransomb. Or one of the larger doubles on Alumni Lawn or Blakemore House.
Best of luck to you both VU2018 and Sophie1295!
Last year all the single rooms were filled by Juniors and Seniors. With the addition of College Halls, far fewer seniors were allowed to live off campus. In the end, the juniors and seniors took all the single rooms. I suspect that will be the same this year.
My son (rising sophomore) is attempting to like in the Mayfield house with nine other freshman next year. I wasn’t aware that they had to submit a “project proposal”. Do they have to have a theme or some other specification to make them eligible? Is it very competitive to get into the Mayfield Houses? Thank you.
Just reread Faline2’s post. It looks like they need a faculty sponsor. Not sure they are aware of this. I wonder if its too late.
Also, @Faline2 Was this a good experience for your son? The Mayfield living arrangement? Thank you.
Haha I remember twenty years ago getting a bad lottery number as a sophomore and having to live in Gillette Hall! Crappy room but had a great year there!
Nowadays, Gillette is a refurbished “Ingram Commons” dorm lol.
You can also date yourself by whether you can remember when there was a “Confederate Hall” on Peabody campus.
Anyway, when I was a student, upperclass students seemed to always want to live in the Towers, but I’m sure a lot has changed since then.
What about those new residential colleges? Warren and Moore? I guess they are doubles? Still, they sound cool.
http://www.vanderbilt.edu/ResEd/main/living-learning-communities/ Perhaps familykCT’s student and friends attended the Open House at Mayfield held Tuesday evening and they got the lowdown on 2104 and the Lodges. Over the years more and more Living and Learning options have appeared on campus but the Commons has brought in a new concept that Vandy hopes to bring to more and more of the student body. We are so fortunate that Vandy has the chance to overhaul some of the dorms! I admire the imagination on display and the chance to say good bye to aging buildings when money allows.
The Mayfield Lodges 2015-2016 application is now open! In order to submit your group’s application, have one member of your group log in to eRezlife, and create a profile. To access the application look under “Job Postings” and find the “Mayfield Lodges Group Applications 2015-2016″. Make sure that only one member of your group opens and submits an application through eRezlife. Applications are due by 4:30pm on February 6, 2015.
Our son lived there for sophomore year and he graduated in '13. He was very pleased/proud of their initiative and proposal which took a little coordination on the part of ten people going in ten directions daily —sort of like herding cats. Their Stambaugh Faculty in Residence advisor generously served as their proposal sponsor and most of them had been in Stambaugh and were friendly with each other but not necessarily. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel but you did have to have a legitimate theme --and some proposals went away empty handed. They did have faculty hosted events for the Lodge on the topic they selected to study and very few other Non Mayfield students attended to be honest. Some Lodges did volunteer work on one local project. Some Lodges were all the same in academic major or career path and took on something. Groups have studied things like hunger and homelessness and women as engineers. Son’s group had 3 leaders in the Marching Band, four students who also spoke a second language and were first gen American born, a few people on the opposite side of the fence re politics. I don’t think any Lodge experience was much like another. Son enjoyed being invited to Band parties and there were five girls in his house. He had no sisters growing up and I think he saw/heard a new take on things from the women daily. 
His single room was small but perfectly nice and afforded good privacy. Sharing a bath was a bit of a drag as was getting people to clean up but that is life among people who are not really that intimate. Not that many freshmen know themselves or others all that well by the beginning of sophomore year so everyone was in flux on their majors, boyfriends left behind at home, what to do each summer. He remains close to several of his Lodge mates two years out of Vandy. Have a back up plan. Perhaps with the demise of that horrid building of singles that used to be an Army barracks where son spent one summer semester…there is more of an interest in the singles in the Lodges. I dunno. They are a bit dated but perfectly nice. You have to walk to the dorm across from them to do laundry but you have a kitchen and a nice den.