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<p>Is there a big difference between the different rooms in the suite? I thought they were all basically the same.</p>
<p>lisa6191. I think it depends on the dorm. From what I’ve seen on the floor plans on the website. In some dorms all four rooms are the same size, but in others the two outside rooms, the ones at the ends are a little bigger. You may also have a student that wants to be further away from the noise of the common area even if the rooms are all the same size.</p>
<p>I believe you can find housing floor plans in the housing area of the UA site. In our case, RCW, different rooms were desirable for different things: proximity to common area, window view, actual floor space (I think one room is <em>slightly</em> larger). What we found was that all the girls wanted C or D. And so they decided to do it by chance. My daughter ended up with what they believed would be the least desirable room, A, but it has been just fine. However, she does get first pick for next year (assuming she is able to re-contract). </p>
<p>One thing we noticed was the floor plan showed a door to close off the bedrooms from the living area, but in reality there is no door. Just a hallway. A door would be nice, especially when someone has friends in the common area and you want to shower, but it all works out. I’m not sure if Housing has corrected that on the floor plan or not. Not a deal killer. They have liked RCW and 3 out of 4 want to stay there for next year. The fourth girl wants to move to RCS because she ended up having most of her friends there and spending a lot of time there.</p>
<p>Presidential and Ridgecrest SOUTH have different floor plans to the other suite-style dorms (Ridgecrest West/East; Lakeside; Riverside). But the room sizes are virtually identical everywhere. Give or take. The shower stalls, on the other hand, are quite different between the two floorplans.</p>
<p>Txdad13: Don’t be worried, Honors Housing suites are more like apartment living than old fashioned dorm style living. Suite doors are not left ajar so kids can wander the halls and go in and out of any suite. Students don’t hang out in the hallways. You go to your suite and close your "apartment " door, then you can be even more private by closing your bedroom door. You can have friends in of course, but each roommate should be considerate of the other roommates. That is what roommate contracts are for.</p>
<p>One reminder, all students should lock their individual bedroom doors and the suite door when leaving the suite. They should get into this habit from day one on. You wouldn’t want to be the one that forgets this safety measure. If there are students in the suite that you don’t know, lock your bedroom door. It is easy for items to take a walk. This does not happen often, hardly ever to my knowledge, but of course it is better to err on the side of caution.</p>
<p>Some suites have doors that self lock (the outer apartment door, not the bedroom door), so don’t forget your key when leaving. A hook by the front door is a good place to hang your front door key.</p>
<p>Asked my son if he knew his suite neighbors when was home for Christmas, and he said no, but he might recognize them. Of course he isn’t very outgoing, so others might have done a better job making friends with their hallmates. Consequently I don’t think it makes any difference if there are girls next to boys at all. Love the suites, but think the kids are missing out a little bit from being in a more traditional dorm setting. Of course my son doesn’t, so I guess that is what counts!</p>
<p>Honors Housing suites arrangements definitely provide a more private dorm experience than how it used to be. Dorms like Tutwiler Hall provide a more traditional dorm experience with shared bedrooms and shared bathroom facilities.</p>
<p>Ha, ha! My son says his dorm is ‘completely empty’, as in unoccupied. Honestly, he thinks there are many spare rooms that are sitting empty because he hardly ever sees anyone. (I seriously doubt this.) Their suite is even near a rear door with people coming and going all the time, right…and he still thinks it is very quiet. Their RA lives next door, and I do not even think he knows if it is a woman or a man yet. Sad, in some ways. Where are the plastic-lined hallways with the slip-n-slides?!</p>
<p>My S says the same things. He rarely sees anyone in the hallways and they don’t know their neighbors in the other suites. </p>
<p>Last year the RA put some activities together during the Fall semester. i.e. watching TV together in the common area, baking cookies, decorating for Christmas etc. so they met some of the other students in the dorm. They even had their own facebook page for their dorm floor. </p>
<p>This year, however, the new RA has not done that. Consequently, no one seems to know each other and there is not that sense of community. Pod living at its best.</p>
<p>aeromom and seccat, my S must live near your sons because my S says the same thing. His dorm is so quiet, and he lives at the end of the hallway leading to a frequently used exit door! He hasn’t met many people who live there. He enjoys visiting other dorms because he says doors are open, people invite you to join in whatever is going on, etc… One time, while at another dorm, they played dodgeball in the darkened hallway! Oh well…maybe it is good to live in the quiet dorm and visit other dorms for fun.</p>
<p>Anyhow, in my S’s dorm, THERE IS A DOOR between the common living area and the hallway that leads to the bedrooms. Also, in his dorm (RS-E) room D is much nicer than the others. My S has room A, though, and he has no complaints.</p>
<p>I am torn by all of this. My daughter is a sophomore at another school and lives in a traditional dorm style and its great socially. Everybody on the floor knows everybody. Doors are always open and the students mingle all of the time. When i visited UA and ridegecrest I thought the suites very nice but I thought about the social aspect. My daughter always has multiple people to go dinner with. I could definitely see the lack of interaction with the suites in RS. Unless you are extremely outgoing there’s a chance you will never meet everyone on your floor. Also I’m not sold on the fact of upperclassman in the same dorm. the freshman experience is unique and to have a community of freshman only trying to survive the first year makes for a special bonding opportunity that gets lost with mixing upperclassman. Are there any honors housing in traditional dorms?</p>
<p>My daughter lived in a traditional freshman dorm last semester with two students crammed in a tiny room and a community bathroom and hated it.</p>
<p>I did go okay in that environment as a freshman/sophomore, but I much preferred the suite style dorm I was in as a junior/senior. I didn’t have that much interaction with others on the floor, but I had my suite mates and other friends.</p>
<p>Honors Housing will be in the Ridgecrest buildings next year, so they are all suites. Some RA’s are better than others at arranging activities and post activities on the community bulletin boards. Many honor students prefer their dorms quiet for study and sleep. There are so many group activities on campus that I wouldn’t worry about the social aspect of college.</p>
<p>I agree upperclassmen prefer suite style as they have made thier friends already and don’t necessarily need to meet more people. But freshman need to meet people and find thier social groups and its very hard to do that in the suite style arrangment. Traditional dorms are quiet enough for students as most schools have quiet hours at 11 and most students study outside of the dorms. I can easily see a shy kid being very lonely in those suites. I’m pretty sure my son will be fine but it makes the transiton a little more difficult IMHO</p>
<p>If a student is quiet, shy or not outgoing and will be living in the honors suites, I would highly recommend doing OA or AA. It’s a fabulous opportunity to meet people and to be in the dorm early when there are fewer people and the people who are there are exploring a bit outside of their suites.</p>
<p>Although my S’s dorm is quiet, he stays super busy socially. He has been fortunate to have a great friend group - A mixture of people he met during AA, people he has met through church, and all three of his roommates. He doesn’t really need to have friends in his dorm. I strongly recommend participation in AA, though… Not only did he make close friends right away, he was able to get used to the campus and the surrounding area before everyone else arrived.</p>
<p>NJPeeps - I understand what you are saying. When I first heard it was co-ed by floor I wasn’t too happy about it. I would prefer my DS was on a all male floor. However seems like that’s not a problem. I told DS if he is in a suite he is going to have to get out and make an effort to meet people. Either type of dorm has advantages and disadvantages.
Crammed in together could be awful if your roommate is a pig.</p>
<p>TXNewCollegeMom, did you get an answer to your question about those rooms ending in 45? I’ve seen other comments to avoid these rooms, but I don’t see an answer. Thanks!</p>
<p>momoftriplets, no, I have not heard. Still curious how that will happen so that we can avoid one of those rooms. Those 45 rooms are smaller than a broom closet. I swear my kitchen pantry is the same size. I can not imagine 2 people living in that small of a space, yikes! Only 1 desk and the beds are bunk style. Talk about cramped.</p>
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<p>FWIW, my son lived in Ridgecrest West (honors, suite-style dorm) for two years and had no trouble meeting folks there. He played in countless impromptu sand volleyball games behind the dorm where anyone was welcome to play. He also hung out in the suites of friends he made at OA and thereby made friends of friends of friends.</p>
<p>If you want to be social, be social. Don’t blame the architecture.</p>