My D is a sophomore living in Global Village this year. It’s very nice, but one of the more expensive on-campus options. The weird thing is you get your own shoebox sized personal room in the Global Village suite, but then if you stay on campus for the remaining years you’ll pretty much have to share a bedroom in an apartment (unless you can get in University Commons, which is really hard to do - most move in to a friend’s apartment when a space opens up, so they never get to the lottery). Unfortunately, D did not get housing assigned yet for her third year - they say she’ll get it by July (!). On the more hopeful side, she just interviewed for an RA position - fingers crossed!
In short, housing would probably be my biggest complaint about RIT!
Thanks @MazeArtCrew! @mamaduck, housing is a concern of mine. I take it that RIT does not have enough space in campus housing to accommodate all students?
Hi @mamaduck. I hope the RA position works out for your D, especially since she didn’t get a placement yet for next year. I also just shake my head at the whole housing system. D and her friends opted to go off campus, to Park Place. I am not thrilled with that decision either, but the lottery does make them getting what they want - or apparently sometimes anything, very difficult.
@snowdog I think the problem is that they guarantee housing to all first years - that may come up at accepted students day - and at this point they don’t know exactly how many spots to hold for freshmen. So upperclassmen like mamaduck’s D are left in limbo. But, the likelihood of mamaduck’s D, as a junior, wanting to live in the freshmen dorm is pretty small. So, there must be more to RIT’s algorithm than my English major mind can comprehend. 
Happy Pi Day.
@12dandelion @snowdog They do actually guarantee housing for all students, regardless of year. However, they don’t guarantee who, where, or when - so my D will get housing somewhere - but she won’t have a say in her roommates or where it is, and may not find out before July. However, once you’re in an apartment, you get to keep it (must pay a fee if you want to keep it during a co-op absence). The problem seems to stem from being in Global Village. Since it’s sophomore housing, you can’t just stay, and you go back into the housing lottery with a lower priority. Some of her suitemates were able to score open spots in a friend’s apartment at Perkins.
The other hard thing is if she gets alternate RA, she can’t commit to off-campus housing in the meantime … ugh.
Another mom of a happy freshman here. We reserved via Hotwire and wound up here:
http://www.woodcliffhotelspa.com/
I think you can figure it out via the facilities offered on Hotwire and the zone on the map. It’s a lovely place, maybe 20 minutes to campus. And the price was great, less than $100/night for a room with 2 queen-size beds. And we were checked in by a very happy student doing his RIT coop there!
Another strong vote for the Facebook group for parents of incoming freshmen. Very helpful.
We also opted for lunch with my daughter’s college.
Check out the whole schedule. Other activities we found helpful were touring specialty houses (my daughter wound up in Photo House as a result, although her major is not connected with photography at all), and the meeting with the premed advisor. She answered many questions from students who were in several different colleges and majors and had premed ambitions, and there were upperclassmen on their way to medical school as well.
Someone asked about the local accepted students receptions. We live in Brooklyn, NYC and attended the one in Manhattan last year. It was a lot of fun. There were recent grads, current students, and of course the tireless Shawna Lusk, orientation director. My daughter had connected with other incoming freshmen via their Facebook group and once she found her friends, I didn’t see her again until we went home at the end.
@mamaduck Having to leave Global after sophomore year is why my D and her friends didn’t even list it as a choice - they wanted to be done with lottery system after this year. The odds were not in their favor and they all got split up, so they re-grouped into Park Point. I’ve read there are openings there and at Province right up until August move-in. That said, I wouldn’t want to pay the 1 BR rent, nor would I want my D to be sharing an apartment with people she doesn’t know. Good luck.
Hi @oldmom4896 Is your daughter going to stay in Photo House?
12dandelion, she and 3 friends originally applied for various on-campus suites including Global Village. They were placed back in Nathaniel Rochester Hall but not in Photo House. They appealed separately to live elsewhere.
@12dandelion - well, we’re stuck in the bind of Alternate RA. There’s a good chance she’ll get a position by spring, but in the meantime we’re having trouble figuring out housing. On top of that, she’s staying in Rochester over the summer. I think she’s going to sublet for the summer at Providence or Park Point. She might sign a year lease for PP or Providence if she still doesn’t have an RA position by the end of the summer. What I can’t figure out is how the lease terms run - it looks like 11.5 months. What do the students do for those 2 weeks, esp. with their stuff? Can you shed some light on the matter?
Hi @mamaduck Alternate RA does sound like a bind.
My D won’t move into Park Point until August, so I don’t have all the lease details yet, but I think someone told me that if they are renewing the lease for the same apartment, their stuff can stay there throughout August. But where they would actually live is a good question, since I believe it’s when the complex does deep cleaning.
Are you active on facebook at all? There is a parents group … “Proud Parents at Park Point and Province” Some of the members are parents of current residents, and some are like me, just in the process. It might be worth a call to the Park Point office. This is their website. http://parkpointrochester.com/
By the way, my D left the museum studies program. She even withdrew from her class this semester. It “sounded” like such a cool program, but she said she just didn’t really enjoy the classes that much. She’ll be majoring in advertising and PR now, with a minor in art history. Turns out she loves that, so all those hours in museums weren’t a total waste of time. 