<p>I will be transferring as a junior next year and I will be dorming. I was wondering if most juniors at UB tend to stray away from dorming and end up getting an apt? Are there many that still dorm? For my preferences I chose rooms in Ellicott. Do you think I will mostly be paired with underclassmen?</p>
<p>Also, which meal plan do you guys think is best/most efficient?</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>My daughter was a junior transfer this year. She had 60 credits so she was eligible for - and chose - an on-campus apartment. If you opt for a room at Ellicott you won’t be placed with freshmen - they keep the freshmen together. Anything else is a possibility. While most upperclassmen do go for apartments on and off campus, there are still a significant number that choose to dorm. As for meal plans, she opted for dining dollars only which worked better for her since she can also use them for groceries and she’s a vegetarian - plus she seldomly visits the dorms for a dining hall. Your meal plan choice should be based on how you’re most likely to eat. Dining dollars can be better for upperclassmen since you can always add to them if you need to and unused dollars carry over to spring term. Meal exchanges have a specific dollar value so you’re not really saving any money on those.</p>
<p>How was the transition for her? And is she enjoying UB as a junior transfer? I know UB is a big university and it should be somewhat easy to make friends but I heard even schools like Bing are sort of cliquey with the groups…</p>
<p>The first few of weeks were really tough for her - learning the campus, missing her friends…The smartest move she made was to join 3 “just for fun” clubs where she immediately started building a base of friends. Halfway through her second semester there she has friends, interests, and has become sufficiently enamored of UB that she is determined to attend grad school there as well. So - I’m going to agree with any number of previous posters on CC by saying that joining a fun club that you are interested in (and that would obviously attract other students with similar interests) is the best way to start meeting people. Also, UB did not seem particularly cliquey to me. The school is just too big to support that since cliques by their very nature cannot contain too many people. I’m sure there might be groups that might tend to socialize more often with one another - team athletes or grad students within a major or…for example - but you’ll find that at any school where a particular group has to spend a lot of time together. We liked UB so much my son is starting there as a freshman in the fall. Good Luck!</p>
<p>I was a junior transfer and I got placed with sophomore. I chose to live in an on-campus dorm since I thought it would be easier to meet a lot of people that way since I knew zero people in the school/city and plus I wanted to try out the “typical college experience”. Most juniors&seniors end up living in an apartment but a good amount still stay in the dorms.</p>
<p>Your very unlikely to get paired with Freshman. Most, if not all [Ellicott] transfer students are put in either Porter, Fargo or Red Jacket quads. Most Freshmen live in Spaulding, Richmond or Wilkeson quads.</p>
<p>I strongly recommend living in the dorms if you don’t know many people (and want to meet people) and/or if you have trouble making new friends; you just come across more people that way but it’s all up to you and what makes you most comfortable.</p>
<p>I STRONGLY recommend Meals&Campus cash. I STRONGLY DISLIKE dining dollars and will not be getting any next semester.</p>
<p>That’s because you can ONLY use Dining Dollars at on-campus school sponsored locations (which give less bang for the buck). With Campus Cash, you have more&better options where you can use your money. CVS and Tops Supermarket BY FAR have the least expensive food and the only ‘Meal Plan entity’ that they accept is Campus Cash (they DONT take Dining Dollars). School Food tends to be very expensive for what you pay for (both dining hall food and especially the on-campus deli).</p>
<p>Thanks so much for answering, everyone! </p>
<p>Answerme, how was your junior year at Buffalo? Did you find it really hard adjusting and making friends? I’ll definitely be dorming and getting a meal plan. </p>
<p>I’m looking at the meal plans right now ([MyUBCard.com</a> Mobile](<a href=“http://www.myubcard.com/mealplans]MyUBCard.com”>Meal Plans | MyUBCard.com)) and the meal plans that I see all come with dining dollars. Isn’t it better to use dining dollars though, since they’re already including us around $300 for certain meal plans?</p>
<p>I’m debating between Upperclassmen Resident Block 160 (not sure if that’ll be more than enough for me though considering I’ll most likely be eating elsewhere too) and Resident Block 90 (although only one meal a day is not that great either)</p>
<p>Also, is it better to get rooms that are connected to other rooms? (i.e. a triple connected to a double vs. a regular triple) Are rooms connected to other rooms bigger in size or are they the same but the closets are placed in a separate common room? The pictures make it seem as though the rooms connected to other rooms (and having the wardrobes/closets in the shared common room) are smaller in size.</p>
<p>Only get a meal plan if you live in the dorms and will be using the residential dining halls. Otherwise, the meals are a big ripoff - you pay more for the meal swipe than their cash equivalence at the other on-campus locations.</p>
<p>If you’re living in the dorms, try to consider how many meals per day you’ll be eating at the residential dining halls. Keep in mind that they are not open for lunch - and you’ll likely be on campus anyway. Dinner would be likely - that leaves breakfast. If you like a big breakfast every day, then it might be worth it to get meal swipes for breakfast - although you’d better like a big breakfast, as they’ll be expensive. Otherwise, you can grab something lighter from the food courts or other on campus places (Tim Hortons is everywhere, there’s a Starbucks, plus campus operated cafes and such), for much cheaper.</p>
<p>So I guess my advice: If you like pancakes, french toast, bacon, eggs, waffles, omlettes, etc for breakfast most days, get more meals. If you like bagels, muffins, cereal, etc - get only enough meals for dinners.</p>
<p>I made a very long in-depth post but it got lost when I hit the reply button :(</p>
<p>I’ll try to quickly sum it.</p>
<p>It really doesn’t matter if the rooms are connected or not and there really is no/very unnoticeable difference in space between the two. Yes, the closets tend to be in the common area of connected room. </p>
<p>As for how my time went. It’s going fine, i’m very happy with my choice (I chose it over Binghamton and Stony Brook and never looked back). I have had some trouble making friends mainly since most people (regardless of school) make most of their friends/cliques in their freshman year so it’s harder to “break in”; I also have always had some difficulty building friendships. But I still have met a ton of all different kinds of people. But if you have never had issues making friends then you should be fine… </p>
<p>Also on another note, the public transportation is <em>amazing</em>.</p>