<p>I don't even want to go into the whole schmeil but basically - while my daughter's academic experience so far has been wonderful, I am most seriously displeased with the Residence department. The whole thing, everything about it, has been a - well I don't know a better expression to use so I'll just say it's been a cluster, er, something, because that is what it has been.</p>
<p>Now after the semester is over there are totaling almost a thousand bucks of just basically BS charges that are seriously, I believe, just a bunch of technically not REALLY deliberate on their part, but in actuality and in intent, are just "gotcha" traps that they KNOW a bunch of 18 and 19 year old stressed out naive college kids are going end up falling into. And are the people you talk to <em>ever</em> smooth. They talked circles around ME - how is a KID supposed to get anywhere?</p>
<p>We are disputing them (and a couple are outright mistakes on their part, which the standard response to that is incredulity that a mistake could have happened! What! University has a mistake in it, lord have mercy on our souls! And stony silence or some non apology to the effect of "we are sorry you are unhappy that your daughter screwed up" which actually she didn't. </p>
<p>But I'm just so aggravated. And I heard people on this very forum gripe about these things last year and what I hear a lot in better schools (we are in a good school - certainly PAYING for it) is that the academics are better but the dorms are the same old runaround crap. I honestly think they set it up this way as an income stream. Fees and charges are a classic hidden income stream maneuever and I don't believe for one minute that they aren't aware of what the end result of their policies is, and I don't believe for one minute they intend it to be anything else.</p>
<p>Oh and they absolutely don't believe that they are more expensive than an apartment. Well, I did the math. They are.</p>
<p>I hear you, snapdragonfly. I really hate the “non apologies,” which seem to have become standard operating procedure for a number of institutions.</p>
<p>Sympathy. My son traded his dorm-assigned bed & mattress when the guys decided to get a platform system through the school. Then the school LOST his bed/mattress after they put it in storage! And we were charged for it! Supposedly we’ll get the money credited IF they find it. Irritating? Absolutely. But since this is the first hiccup I’ll let it pass. It better be the last…</p>
<p>I am just curious. At my kids’s school, people have complained about extra charges for gym, printing, laundry…I would rather have some of those things be a la carte rather than be included in the overall housing costs.</p>
<p>High Point college gives out free ice cream and water. I am sure they are not free, parents are paying for those things one way or another. If my kid doesnt eat ice cream, why should i pay for that? If some kids do not know how to do laundry and some parents want laundry to be included, well, I don’t because my kid knows how to do laundry.</p>
<p>Not sure what charges you’re talking about. After three kids at three different institutions, we never had ANY unexpected charges. We guided the kids on how to do a thorough room inspection at the sign in, made sure they knew the policies about sticking pins/tape on the walls, and are lucky to have children who are “easy” on their environment.</p>
<p>D2’s friend did get hit with a charge because the entire dorm was fined for the actions of a couple of partiers who didn’t take responsibility for their actions.</p>
<p>I understand your frustration, but the university won’t let you register for classes (or check out of the dorm in the spring, or check into the dorms in the fall, or graduate or something else equally vital) until those outstanding charges are paid. We’ve never been nickled and dimed, just had to pay for a lost key and for rekeying the dorm room door before they’d let my son check out one spring. It wasn’t unexpected, he knew he would have to pay the charge when he had reported the lost key months before.</p>
<p>Good life’s lesson for the next ten years of scuzzy apartments-- take photos on move in day of absolutely everything that wouldn’t appear in house beautiful- a crack in the window, a ding in the molding around the door, peeling paint from near the light switch. Email them to the residence office.</p>
<p>Then produce those photos again after move out. Voila. problem solved. My kids have done this for every cruddy apartment they’ve lived in- magically, either the landlord shows up to repair the cracks and dings that first week (which is great) or at a minimum, the extra charges get reversed and the security deposit gets refunded in full.</p>
<p>This is a good lesson for the rest of their lives. Document the damage upfront. Works for rental cars too.</p>
<p>My D’s only extra charges were freshman year when some kids “from another floor” trashed the lounge and the university just charged everyone on D’s floor. It was only $25 each. I, along with others, ask “What kind of charges are you talking about?”</p>
<p>I wonder, also, what the extra charges are and what they total. S1 got hit with $50 for general “dorm damage” in common areas…but both my kids moved out of the dorms after freshman year and yes…it is cheaper to live off campus in many, many places. In my kids’ case they found really beautiful apartments that were newer and cleaner than the dorms and had in unit laundry. Food and rent are still less than dorming for both kids. The food and dorm costs on some campuses have passed the reasonable tipping point in many college towns. S1’s college alumni magazine said the college was giving financial “inducements” to keep kids on campus and to keep on-campus costs more in-line with what it actually costs the kids not to live on campus. I’ve often wondered if colleges think we parents are stupid and don’t know how to use a calculator. Gosh, we didn’t have them in college but I leaned how to use one (or the one in my phone) and I can put comparison budgets together with a calculator AND with pencil and paper.</p>
<p>Not sure what the op’s charges were for, but at one school we toured the guide mentioned there were a number of fees for things that tended to happen in the dorms. The only one I remember offhand was that there was a fee if someone tripped the electrical circuits because too many students were using blow dryers, microwave ovens, etc. at the same time. Not sure to whom it was applied…</p>
<p>I remember that there were lots of “damage charges” assessed at the end of the year for things that happened in the dorm - regardless of who caused them, they were charged to the entire floor or dorm… damage to lounges, bathrooms, front doors.</p>
<p>Some schools will bill at the end for laundry fees, cleaning fees etc.
It can get pretty outrageous. More and more schools are having private companies build and manage dorms, and they are profit-driven management groups. Something to look out for as it becomes more and more common…</p>
<p>I got some charges for D1, but I called and complained and the school removed the charges. I think for some families that don’t care about those charges, that’s when the university makes money.</p>
<p>Last summer, my D stayed in a dorm at a small private college while she was doing summer stock. They had a list of “dorm fines” - including littering, profanity, opening a window, and “noise”. She figured that if she had to live there full-time, she would have gone broke.</p>
<p>I hear you snapdragonfly, I definitely got the impression my son’s university housing office had a major program to enhance revenue. The dorms are much more expensive than apartments. At my insistence, my son signed a lease for an off campus apartment, but he had already committed to the dorm. It seemed to me he had plenty of time to cancel, but the university’s deadline for cancelling was in May (during finals) for a September start, and the result was a $700 penalty + loss of $200 deposit. Seemed grossly excessive to me, but that’s how it was, and of course it offset most if not all of the cost advantage of being off campus.</p>
<p>I had never heard of crazy room/board charges either until AFTER my son graduated. He and all the dorm kids had been charged about $15 for some kind of damage, plus $250 for his individual room clean-up.</p>
<p>He and his roommate shared a bathroom and it was really skuzzy. When we went to help my son move out, I went in there and yuck! It was disgusting. At the time, I was nicely dressed and unable to clean-up, so we went back in our jeans and with paper towels/cleansers and got to work. The place was old, but when we left, it was at least frsh and sanitary. Needless to say, I was livid to see these clean-up charges later.</p>
<p>So along with a $15 check, I wrote to the RA and complained and gave him a little history too. Turns out, I used to dorm in the same building in 1974-1975 and I believe me, they hadn’t upgraded. Balance: $0.</p>
<p>For what? Holes in the wall? Does the school charge for every hole from posters and pics on walls? Many schools do charge for holes from pics/posters. However, I can’t imagine having 1000 worth of holes. </p>
<p>You mention “gotcha traps”. What were they? Were they for broken items? What??</p>