<p>I am trying to make sense of the housing process. Can you be assigned to a suite if you apply as an individual, or do you have to apply as a member of a group large enough to occupy all beds in the suite? If the latter, it seems that those without a significant number of friends won't be able to apply for a suite.</p>
<p>SoCalDad2 - For what it is worth – Almost all sophomores this year are in double rooms. </p>
<p>Students should be able to tell you more how the process works, but it seemed to me that you needed to be in a group to get a suite. It’s several months away from the selection process. I know last year at this time I was concerned that my son wouldn’t have a group for housing. In due time, the friend group came together.</p>
<p>Technically you can be placed in a suite if you apply as an individual, but it’s rare and unlikely – priority is of course given to those who apply as groups. Your ballot receives “points” based on the number of people on the application and their seniority, and those points affect where you land in the housing lottery. Individuals pretty much only get put into suites when there’s some odd circumstance, though some of the three person suites do get filled by three people who applied separately. </p>
<p>The point of a suite it to live with close friends; applying as an individual kind of defeats the purpose.</p>
<p>As Go9ers suggested, it’s also extremely rare for a sophomore to live in a suite.</p>
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<p>Doesn’t seem like a good way to meet new people outside your own group.</p>
<p>There are much better ways to meet a few new people than signing up to live with them for an entire year ;).</p>
<p>SoCalDad: one way to go is to apply for a house of ten individual rooms and two baths in the Mayfield Project. Our son lived in a Mayfield sophomore year. It is rather involved and requires coming up with a service or research theme, getting a faculty sponsor, and presenting to a panel who decide how to allocate the Mayfield houses. Our son used his head of house on the Commons as advisor (bless her), and bonded with a few students in Stambaugh House to make this proposal. One person backed out at the last minute and there was a bit of a scramble but this is an option for people who are not buddied up for a double. They have to haul their laundry to the basement of one of the bigger dorms. His housemates included students who were Chinese natives, Jewish, Polish immigrants’ children, Pakistani American and couple of Waspy students from Ohio, Virginia, Florida …who were not of recent immigrant status like our son-- whose great grandparents arrived in 1924. Their interests and majors were divergent–three Marching Band Members. Anyway, a hardy group of sophomores from very different beginnings…They just had a general sense they could get along and several of them are still good friends. This made for a good transition for students who were non Greek although one member of the house was Greek. Not for everyone and does require a lot of initiative and a couple of meetings so that everyone is on the same page on the Project proposal. Keep that in mind. Odds of acceptance in the Mayfields are not very certain…lots of proposals. His was the first coed Mayfield. Our son chose to live in the McGill project his final two years give or take his semester abroad. Private rooms, great location on campus, quirky role in campus history but in general a good place for him.</p>
<p>McGill is on Alumni Lawn. Is Alumni Lawn the location of most of the dorms without suites?</p>
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<p>Are a lot of the suites filled with members of the same frat or sorority?</p>
<p>That certainly is common, particularly amongst fraternities. </p>
<p>Branscomb and Blakemore are mostly doubles. Branscomb is in the Highland Quadrangle and Blakemore is west of the football stadium.</p>
<p>S is on Alumni Lawn in a double room. About half the rooms on his floor are singles.</p>
<p>There are a lot options for living arrangements. Although the number of options is strongly associated with your year in school.</p>
<p>Housing begins on a sort of rolling basis after the first of the year–if your student is interested in one of the “special” housing options they apply first–this includes the Mayfield and McGill options that Faline mentions, I think the new college halls where Kissam used to be, McIntyre and Vandy/Barnard–they have themes or projects which you have to embrace in order to live in those dorms. The points that Pancaked mentions are based on class year (not first come, first served like at some colleges) so realistically the seniors as individuals or a groups are most likely to get into the suites/apts, leaving the sophomores to get doubles in either Branscomb Quad (not all the way out in Highlands Quad like Go9ers said but across the street from some of the fraternity and sorority houses) or Blakemore (as Go9ers said, west of the stadium but somewhat convenient for those who like the rec center) or in the single sex dorms on Alumni Lawn like Tolman and Cole. Of the 4 Towers, #1, 3 & 4 are suites or mostly suites (6 person with mix of single and double rooms within the suits). Tower 2 is hall way style with doubles in the 4 corners and singles in between. Each dorm or quad has its advantages and disadvantages (location, age of room, “type” of people who tend to live in that dorm, etc.)<br>
Most of this will be explained online to your students but, in a nut shell, if they want to try to apply for one of the special options they will get first crack at that so that if they don’t get into one of those they can participate in the regular housing lottery in late February or March, if I recall the dates correctly. IMO, it is best as a sophomore to try to pair up with a friend and think about what options you want. Groups of sophomores can try to get on the same hall of doubles or in the same dorm at least to make it more fun. SoCalDad–Even if your child doesn’t have a wide circle of friends, there are probably one or two with whom he/she wouldn’t mind sharing a room; that is preferable to getting a randomly selected roommate assigned to your double-- have a discussion over winter break and plant the seed to have him/her start talking with friends and making plans so he/she is not the “odd man out” when housing lottery rolls around.
(I am an alum, married to an alum and have a senior at Vandy now, so between the 3 of us, we have sampled most of the housing options on campus, which will tell you how old some of the dorms are!)</p>
<p>Does anyone have any information about Warren and Moore?</p>
<p>@LHSCary Thanks for correcting me on the location of Branscomb. I always get those quads mixed up. This year Vandy / Barnard does not have a theme or project. S is living there. Sophomores are in the doubles and upperclass in the singles. Great suggestion on finding one person to live with. Last year rising sophomores could form groups of 2 or 4 resulting in 1 or 2 double rooms.</p>
<p>G09ersjrh–I see from the housing website (<a href=“Our Residence Halls | Living on Campus | Vanderbilt University”>http://www.vanderbilt.edu/living/residences.php</a>) that things have changed and Vandy/Barnard is not a LLC this year, I should have checked the website first, it is more up to date than I am 
I also misspelled the name of the international house, it is McTyeire not McIntyre (the name of an old VU football coach) like I said above. I don’t have any info on Warren and Moore other than they were difficult to get into for this first year, likely that will continue to be the case. </p>
<p>The population of Warren and Moore is 1/3 sophomores, juniors, and seniors. Pretty sure it has a few of every rooming option- 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6 people. Only place on campus with suites for 5. </p>
<p>Once you get into Warren and Moore, you have the option to remain there for the next housing cycle, of course with the opportunity to move into a different room/suite. I’m not entirely sure the logistics of this process, but essentially it means that the openings each year will primarily be for rising sophomores, with the rising juniors and rising seniors likely electing to remain there rather than move to another dorm. </p>
<p>It’s an incredible dorm and the apple of everyone’s eye on campus. In my experience, the doubles/singles are some of the larger doubles/singles on campus. The suites range in size form large to absolutely enormous. Every room in each suite is a single (as far as I know) which is also unique on campus – Towers suites are two singles and two doubles. The suites don’t have ovens but otherwise have all the amenities of any other suite on campus. There are suites that are two floors and have common rooms that are larger than an entire towers suites. You can imagine how jealous other students are when seeing this. Some even have two bathrooms + showers. Everything is of course new and in pristine condition. The dorm has a munchie mart as well as a kitchen that serves breakfast and dinner – both of which, naturally, are a notch above all the rest of the food on campus.</p>
<p>Though its location isn’t the greatest, these dorms are the most desirable dorm on campus now.</p>
<p>Pancaked - Thanks so much for the info. </p>