How was Accepted Students Day?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Chapman University
21

<p>On the tour, “who” promised you doubles?</p>

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<p>The student tour guide? If you looked at the housing options online at Chapman website, you would clearly see there are three options for living in the dorms - singles, doubles and triples. There was never any mention that you get a “guaranteed” double. The price is higher for a single (outrageously, so), and less expensive for a triple. </p>

<p>My son is in a triple in Glass, and while it isn’t ginormous, there is a long slider closet, a bathroom, a storage space for food, a bunk bed, a higher single bed (so you can store stuff underneath) and three desks. These aren’t the tiniest rooms I have seen and it can be managed. Housing will help you reorganize your room after the semester starts, if you want to de-bunk one of the beds. The long slider closet has two dressers, and there is a dresser in the room itself, as well. We also brought a mini fridge for the room.</p>

<p>At least with a triple, if you don’t like one roommate, you might like the other!</p>

22

<p>She spoke as if the singles were mostly for sophomores and above. She said that, because they were building a new dorm, the most crowded room for freshmen would be a double. She spoke about this at length. </p>

<p>She also said that freshmen could choose the new dorm and this turned out not to be the case.</p>

<p>If they are sacrificing freshmen so more upper classmen can have singles, the freshmen class ought to protest. With an additional dorm, there ought to be fewer roommates and not more.</p>

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<p>I doubt that anyone is being allowed to have a single room. It would not make sense to do that when you have lots of people in triples who want to be in doubles instead. There may be exceptions made where someone has some kind of health problem or other special issue and needs a single, but I think it is very rare.</p>

<p>I would complain about the student tour guide to the office who runs the tours. It sounds like she didn’t know what she was talking about. Although, to be fair, I remember hearing when my S started last fall that the new dorm would be for freshman and that everyone would probably get to be in doubles. So, maybe when you had your tour that info was correct.</p>

<p>My S is in a triple in Henley and he has never complained about it once. When you are living the same way as everyone else is, it just doesn’t seem like a big deal.</p>

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<p>funfun,</p>

<p>Sorry about that.</p>

<p>What I have found on many of the tours is that sometimes, especially student tour guides, well…they don’t have ALL their facts, in order. She may have heard that. It also may have been hoped that all would be doubles, as well, when she was told what to brief prospectives on during a tour.</p>

<p>What has happened with many colleges with the economic meltdown is that there are more spots being offered to students, in an effort to maximize their enrollment yield. This is just a fancy way of saying that if they offer spots to 5000 students, instead of 4000, they have a better shot of getting the 1000 students they need for the freshman class.</p>

<p>It usually works pretty well. The problem this year, is that with so many parents finding that their college funds for their kiddies has declined, they may not send their kid to the school. They may go with another option that had better financial aid.</p>

<p>So colleges know that they have to hit a magic number of students. If they miss on the low side and don’t get enough kids to send in deposits, they can offer spots from the waiting list. If they miss on the high side, they end up - like USC did many years ago - figuring out what the heck to do in terms of housing kids. USC actually rented out a hotel for those resident kids. </p>

<p>Doubles are great. But the triples weren’t bad at Chapman. At all. You should see what goes for a triple at some other schools. Honestly. The fact that they all have either their own or shared bathrooms also frees up a bunch more space in the room. </p>

<p>As for the new residence, my son just found out that is his housing for him next year (sophomore). It is quite a bit more money per month, and it wasn’t his first choice - or even his second choice. This tells me that Chapman has a larger number of yesses this year, and that is good for the applicants, overall. </p>

<p>There may have been limited numbers of spots in the new dorm for freshman. She may not have been misrepresenting that. But, usually the housing offices of college campuses will offer a certain number of spots to the upperclassmen in a new building - especially, when parents get asked to contribute (beyond tuition and fees) to the new building funds. When we write checks to help support buildings on campus, the expectation is that our kids may benefit from those fruits of our labor, right? My other son is at another college, and when their new dorm opened up last year, they did the same deal…a limited number of rooms per dorm for freshman, and the rest went to sophomores, juniors and seniors based on their housing lottery numbers.</p>

<p>Housing lotteries are never fun, and you may be disappointed, again. But really - the housing at Chapman is so great, that the disappointment of a triple may not be the biggest thing in your life. It also may put you in touch with two great roommates. </p>

<p>And you still may end up with a double, in the end. Just be patient.</p>