so I am in Markley rn but someone wants to switch with me in west quad, I like the roommate I would have more in west, but is there a reason I would not want to be in west? I would be in Williams
Take West Quad. The location is much nicer. Only reason I can think of to take Markley is to see more freshmen.
West Quad > Markley
You’re lucky to have found someone who will trade with you
Thanks and how long does it take to get from central to north, will a 30 minute break be enough with the 10 minute passing time?
michmaybe, are you an incoming freshman? If so, when did you get your room assignment? Also, how did you hear about the room swap?
@mmDad1965. My daughter is an incoming freshman and got her dorm assignment a few weeks ago and the official room assignment with the ability to choose a move in time yesterday.
@maya54 Thanks. My son still does not have a room assignment (and, as a result, is also not able to select a move in time). He received an email yesterday saying they are working on it. It sounds like your daughter is also able to swap rooms now that she has an assignment, is that correct? I am extremely disappointed with UM on this housing process. I simply do not understand why it takes so long to assign housing on a random basis. Other large universities seem to have no problem providing housing information on a timely basis to all students. As an alum, I am rather embarrassed at the lack of competence in the housing department. I intend to communicate with the university after my son finally gets assignment.
You can swap before you even get the exact room. I did that as well
@michmaybe Thanks for the information. Because my son has no clue where he will be assigned, he has no ability to know whether he wants to swap or, obviously, be able to swap. This is another problem with the drawn-out housing process that has a negative impact on those who have not yet learned their housing assignment. I am glad it worked out for you and hope my son gets a good assignment that makes the need for a swap unnecessary.
@mmDad1965. First let me say that I am genuinely sorry for your son. As a parent I totally understand the anxiety that these kids naturally feel and I agree with you that Michigan is not treating them well when it gives some students housing information and others not. I I think that Michigan discredits itself by the way it deals with housing.
Once the kids are assigned housing they can participate in a housing swap. I’ve seen this done unofficially through the the university of Michigan class of 2019 Facebook page.
As for my own daughter, she was very lucky and was assigned a room in south quad. She feels this is a good location for her and is very happy with the assignment.
You should be aware that for the kids who are assigned North campus and seek to trade with someone else …well the chances of that happening are very very low. 99 percent of Kids want central campus or the hill. Very very few Will trade one of those spots for one on North campus.
West Quad will be much nicer than Markley and South Quad’s cafeteria is great. That said, Markley has A LOT of freshman which is really nice. I wouldn’t trade my Markley experience for West Quad any day of the week (even the coldest ones).
@maya54 I agree with your statement on North campus and the ability to swap. The fear of North Campus has been part of the anxiety of not hearing. We almost wonder if they are waiting as long as possible to tell him the bad news that he will be on North campus. If he wanted to swap from North campus, any small possibility is even smaller with what would be a compressed time frame.
As an alum, I truly know how awful North campus would be. At some point, the university has to do something as it impacts many aspects of student life (also, to the best of my knowledge, the North campus dorms have not been recently renovated like central campus). So many students want Central campus that applications to the honors program and learning communities are being submitted for a chance at Central campus and not because the student is genuinely interested in the program (and I have heard this strategy from many students over the years). I am sure it impacts some decisions on whether to attend UM or another college as well.
Congratulations to your daughter. South quad is a great location and now has the new cafeteria.
We are making bets in our house on when our son may receive news on housing. Thank goodness his football season tickets came in this last week to brighten the atmosphere. My son is so excited about UM and it is just too bad that the housing department does not understand the impact of their inability to accomplish what should be a relatively easy task. It will be interesting to hear their defense when I am finally able to communicate with them (yes, I am waiting to contact them until my son knows his situation; I have no doubt that criticism could easily result in a ticket to North campus).
Good luck to your daughter and Go Blue!
@mmDad1965. I don’t know if you’d be prepared to do this but I have heard from several kids in our upper middle class area who were placed on north campus that they used Uber a great deal on nights and weekends last year. This did help them socially although they still had to deal with the inconvenience for school stuff.
Certainly a thought if he gets North campus. Thanks for the suggestion.
The worst housing is not north campus, it’s Oxford.
What type of students live on West Quad? My freshman D got that. I know it’s not an exclusively freshman dorm, but are there at least freshman halls? Or freshmen houses? Do they try to keep freshmen together? I wonder if anything will be different about the demographics of West Quad after the renovation.
Funny to see people who’ve been here for orientation only passing judgment on where’s best to live
I was in markley 1st year. It’s got an unbeatable sense of community and the vast majority are freshman. Everyone is looking to meet new ppl. The issue with dorms with a lot of sophomores, they already have their friend base established. They don’t need you. So to me it kind of defeats the purpose of dorms
The location difference is very minimal as well. It’s not markley is at north campus, it’s easy walking distance to class and yes, even south quad cafeteria
I thought Mo-Jo has a good cafeteria. You don’t have to go that far.
I think it depends on what you want in a dorm. You can’t beat the Hill area if you want a freshman community.
The HIll dinning hall at MoJo is good although not as fancy as South Quad. Markley also has their own dinning hall and has better pizza and fresher sushi.
Markley and West Quad are both good choices. West Quad was newly renovated where Markley has small rooms and I don’t think it has been renovated since I lived there 35 years ago.