<p>I'm just trying to clarify a question about Rice and how housing assignments are made. Is it a random and permanent assignment? Is there no "group" housing (such as a floor of engineers or varsity soccer players or..)? Is there no "preference" housing (such as substance free or.. )? One thing that S has noticed at Rice is that every male dorm room he has been in has alcohol (regardless of the age of the occupants). </p>
<p>Thanks for any feedback.</p>
<p>Housing assignments are random unless the student is a legacy to one of the colleges, in which case he/she can choose to be placed (or not placed) in that college. Students will generally stay in their assigned residential college for all four years, but it is possible to transfer colleges. There is no “group” or “preference” housing, but I think you’ll find that most students view this as a positive thing. I hope your son will not let concern over the presence of alcohol keep him from applying to Rice; the O-Week coordinators work very hard to put together compatible sets of roommates, and if an incoming student has a particular concern regarding alcohol or sleep schedules or some other matter, the coordinators will do whatever they can to ensure that problems will not come up later.</p>
<p>@Dorian - thank you for the info. I wasn’t sure if there was an attempt to place roommates with compatible personalities or if it was just a draw of the hat. So let me rephrase the question… is a questionaire used to match roommates or does a person have to go out of their way to indicate some issue they have concern with?</p>
<p>Thanks.</p>
<p>All incoming students fill out a (fairly thorough) questionnaire. While the college assignments are random, roommate pairings are anything but.</p>
<p>Coming from a current student. A lot of the roommate pairings are atrocious. Don’t get me wrong, I love rice but I’m just warning you that a lot of roommate combos aren’t very compatible</p>
<p>I’m sorry that has been your experience, Blizza, although I think “atrocious” may be too strong of a word unless there’s been a precipitous decline in roommate-matching in the last two years. While it’s common to end up with pairings who are somewhat indifferent to each other, in my time at Rice I rarely ran into anyone who had any insurmountable problems with their assigned roommate. I think many of those less-than-ideal pairings are due to the surprising number of incoming students who don’t take the questionnaire very seriously. It’s very hard to match up roommates when you only have a few one-word answers to go on.</p>
<p>It’s not a big deal for me but just warning the op that his questionnaire might still leave him a roommate that makes him uncomfortable</p>
<p>Just talking from what I’ve seen/ what people complained about to me</p>
<p>Just talking from what I’ve seen/ what people complained about to me</p>
<p>You’re right: atrocious is probably a little strong</p>
<p>I’m a freshman at McMurtry College, and the O-Week coordinators here did an amazing job pairing roommates. They worked really hard to create a floor culture of compatible personalities. Of course, there are a few people who didn’t end up in the right place, but that is inevitable. Just to show how much the O-week coordinators care about the roommate process, I’ve talked to one of them many times about how they are working out. He always gets really excited to receive feedback.</p>
<p>As far of “floors of engineers” or the like, it can happen “accidentally.” There are quite a few engineers on my hall, and may who are not. There are hallways that are quieter, and perhaps closer to substance free. They try to group halls with compatible people as well, so it could turn out that they share a common interest. My college actually assigns hallways before roommates to the incoming freshman to create that hall culture.</p>
<p>As far as alcohol goes, I don’t drink but my roommate does. It hasn’t been a problem at all. (I indicated on my form that I would be okay with someone who does drink.) There are plenty of male dorm rooms without alcohol, and female dorms with alcohol. Theres a wide spectrum here and if you make it clear where you fall on the spectrum, hopefully there will be no issue. Also, roommates here are generally respecting of each other’s differences.</p>
<p>I hope that helps!</p>
<p>Freshman at Hanszen, and I, as well as most of my friends, love my roommate. Our O-Week Coordinators did a fantastic job of pairing roommates. While a lot of the people on my floor have become best friends with their roommates, keep in mind that this doesn’t have to happen; having a compatible roommate doesn’t mean that you have to hang out all the time.</p>
<p>You may find a lot of dorm rooms with alcohol. Even so, there would be no pressure for a student to partake in the consumption of alcohol should he/she choose to abstain. Rice’s community stands out in this regard, in that everyone is accepting of everyone else no matter what their habits are concerning substances such as drugs and alcohol. The use of such substances do not carry any real stigma here.</p>
<p>College assignment is largely random, the only real exception being legacy status. The assignment of room and roommate is usually done by the O-Week Coordinator; you fill out a rather thorough form with many important and many seemingly trivial questions to make sure that your roommate match is a good one for you. Furthermore, your room placement is also often given careful consideration. Where I live, the third floor is the more social, party-based floor, while the second floor is usually reserved for the students who desire a “quieter” living space.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, we mix upperclassmen and freshmen together really well - this is something I personally believe (although I’m no expert on other colleges’ workings) Hanszen does better than many of the other colleges, though all seem to do a rather good job. This gives freshmen exposure to students who have been through more, have more experience, etc, as well as introduces them to a wider base of friends. Several of my best friends here are sophomores, juniors, and seniors. I find this to be another huge advantage of Rice’s housing system.</p>
<p>I think that most roommate assignments work out pretty well. My roommate and I get along really well and have a ridiculous number of random things in common–we keep discovering more and more of them…haha. I know of quite a few people here who are already best friends with their roommates and can’t imagine being paired with anyone else. I only know of a couple of roommate pairings that aren’t working out too well–these are extremely uncommon, as far as I can tell. </p>
<p>To provide you with an additional prospective on the topic of drinking and the availability of alcohol on campus as a girl who does not drink but who has friends that do: </p>
<p>If you want the stuff, it’s not hard to find. If you don’t, no one will make you feel uncomfortable or try to pressure you to join in. I have never felt pressured to drink and even if someone did try to pressure me, I still wouldn’t partake–it’s just not something that I’m interested in.</p>
<p>I appreciate the feedback and will definitely share this with my S. I think it will make him more at ease.</p>
<p>MY S is a freshman in Martel. She is thrilled with her roommate/suitemates. She took her time and filled out the questionaire honestly. I think the O-week people did a fantastic job (in her case) of putting compatible but very different girls together. They are all different majors, from different parts of the country but easily agreed on suite etiquette regarding alcohol, overnight guests, quiet hours…</p>
<p>The key thing is to be brutally honest on the roommate form. More often than not, incompatible roommates are placed together because one (or both) decide to be PC on their form or misrepresent themselves. If you go to sleep at 8 PM, say it. If you are a party animal, make sure it is on the form. Do not say “I get along with everyone” unless you truly mean in. </p>
<p>I like my room spotless, for example, and made sure that was mentioned.</p>
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<p>This also helps a lot.</p>
<p>My son is a freshman and loves his roommate so much he wants to room with him for all four years! The key was to be completely honest and very detaiedl when filling out the roommate questionaire. My son nor his roommate drink and there are others in his dorm that are the same way.</p>