"Non-Traditional" Housing

Parents Forum
1

My daughter is going to be a freshman at Quinnipiac University next month. I posted over there, but that board has very little traffic, so forgive me for posting again here.

She got a call on Thursday that she had been placed in “non-traditional” housing and did she have any questions. Well, her first one was “what is THAT?” We have discovered that the freshman class is overenrolled and they are short on housing options. This has happened before - 2 years ago for sure. So, they have had to convert study lounges into rooms. My daughter and 7 other girls are sharing 4 bunk beds in study lounge. That’s right. 8 girls, 4 bunks. You can see the pictures they put on Facebook here:

https://www.facebook.com/QUResLife/photos/a.1128492373832784.1073741831.225042857511078/1128492527166102/?type=3&theater

The pictures are hard to really determine the space but it does not appear as though there is enough room to take the bunks apart, even if we lofted them. So, basically, that means it seems we have less square footage per resident although the University contends otherwise. (We have asked for the square footage.) The hallways typically house 50 students with a shared bathroom. Now there are 58 girls with the same bathroom facilities and no study lounge.

For comparison sake, let me explain most of QU’s Freshman housing. There are very few doubles. Most freshmen end up in either a quad or an 8 person suite. The quads are very large rooms and have 4 lofted beds, with desks underneath and a wardrobe. They share a communal bathroom in the hallway. The quads consist of 4 double rooms (beds don’t come lofted, and you have a bed, desk and wardrobe. These rooms are small) plus a common room and a private bathroom for the 8 students with 2 showers, 2 stalls and a few sinks.

I’ve heard that once students get over the initial shock, most tend to like it. They do have priority to move when traditional space becomes available (but think about that for a second… your daughter moves into a 4 person quad or an 8 person suite in October after everyone has gotten to know each other and develop a routine? Not ideal.)

I am trying to keep an open mind. My daughter has connected with her roommates online and is generally okay but this is going to be a HUGE adjustment. 8 personalities, 8 different schedules, 8 different preferences, one open space. This sounds like a recipe for disaster. My daughter is a pretty easy going girl and as she put it “well, this is certainly a curveball.” I gotta love her ability to just try to plow through and make the best of it, but this is not at all what she wanted.

I guess I am just venting, but also welcome any thoughts, advice or experiences from anyone else who has gone through a similar situation. Oh and by the way, no, there is no room & board adjustment.

2

Penn State does “supplemental” housing like that every year, even if not overenrolled. Some people like it a lot. Others just deal with it until other housing becomes available or they move into another dorm or apartment the following year.

She barely has to spend any time in the room if she doesn’t want to. Study at the library, go to classes, attend club meetings, come back to sleep.

3

The link doesn’t work, but I think this is pretty outrageous. It’s a good thing your D is approaching it philosophically, though, and I guess you have no option but to support her in that and practice the old “nod and smile.”

I went to a boarding school in England for a few years, and we lived in a converted Victorian mansion. Each dorm room was a very large former bedroom, and about 10 of us lived in each one, in a combination of single beds and bunks. It was fine.But we didn’t have desks and bookcases in the room: our study periods took place in classrooms. We didn’t have a lot in the way of clothes, mostly day and evening school uniforms–yes, we changed before tea :slight_smile: --but we must have had some sort of wardrobes, I don’t recall.

Apropos of your D possible moving into another room later in the year: that happened to me. Everyone else in my class was in the same room, but I started out with older girls for space reasons. This made me feel somewhat disconnected, as a new student. After several months they moved me in with everyone else, which was a LOT better.

4

The year my kid was a freshman at Santa Clara, they over enrolled…and had to create triples out of doubles.

BUT they also gave quite a nice housing discount to students who chose those triples. I would ask for annadjuatment to room costs.

In addition, they pretty much guaranteed all would be in doubles for the spring term because of students studying abroad or leaving. And that was offered to all…but most chose to stay in the triples until the end of the year.

Oh…and those force triple lids were at the top of the sophomore dorm room choice list.

Really…if,your daughter is OK with this…then it’s OK. Is it ideal…probably not. Will it work…yes…most likely it will. I agree with @bodangles it’s a place to sleep.

Oh…now you can take far less “stuff” with you!

5

Sorry about the link - probably because you have to log in to Facebook… She was already packing on the light-ish side, but we really have to think about this now. And, I went back and looked at the pictures again. There are 4 outlets. With all of the electronics I see extension cords lined into power strips. How in the world can they safely plug in a couple refrigerators (the school recommends 1 per 2 students) plus lights, electronics. I know dorms don’t tend to have a lot of outlets, but I assumed she would at least have one (double outlet) to herself. One plug it is, I guess. I can’t believe the Fire Marshall is okay with that.

Oh, and it gets better. I just found out one of the roommates’ social media account has pictures of her marijuana dealing supplies. Baggies, scales, large quantities of marijuana and all. I guess I am thankful my daughter showed me. Now, off to ponder how to deal with that. Maybe she will be moving out of this 8 person room after all.

6

It is usually a shocker for most of our kids go off school because they are used to have their own room/bathroom, but most of them adjust pretty quickly. Both of my kids had a single (by choice) freshman year and had to share a communal bathroom. They complained initially about it initially, but they soon figured out when the bathroom was getting cleaned and when was the best time to take a shower.

Kids are very adaptable if we do not make a big deal out of it. Most of the schools my kids were interested in didn’t have very nice dorms because those schools have been around forever and their dorms tend to be older. Schools with nicer dorms tend to be newer schools, like High Point University.

7

I don’t believe that any student actually NEEDS a fridge unless they have special dietary needs or need to store medications. Start by eliminating that. Same with microwaves. The dorm probably has a kitchen where she can heat things up and boil water/make coffee. (Think moka pot.) The only electronics she’ll really need are a small light of some kind and a place to charge her laptop and phone. Kids do not need printers and TVs nowadays. She can listen to music/watch tv and movies on her laptop with headphones. One power strip/surge protector should do.

I’d actually be somewhat concerned about ventilation with that many people in one room. As soon as someone gets a cold, they’ll all have it. :frowning:

I find it hard to believe that anyone who was actually dealing would post those pictures on social media. Unless they were really, really dumb. Hopefully it is supposed to be a joke.

8

There aren’t enough outlets in a double dorm room…and student bring surge protector extension cords there too.

9

There are 2 in a double. This would be the equivalent of a single outlet in a double room. I get it - dorm rooms are dorm rooms. My point is they are converting space not equipped for this many students.

10

Oh, and when I lived in that 10-person room, we all had the same enforced bed time and wake time. That could be a real problem in your D’s room. It would be nice if they had an RA or someone who would sit down with all of them and help them negotiate some house rules.

And don’t forget the bed rails if your D has an upper bunk! (See the thread on that subject.)

11

@Hangdog my kid lived in a dorm room with only 2 outlets. I know…that seems like double what your kid will have. But really…she should be fine…with an extension cord with surge protector. All she really needs to plug in are phone and computer for charging. This can also be done at the library or in most classrooms.

I would ditch anynextra electric needed anything. No fridge, no microwave, no TV…nothing that uses electricity.

She will survive.

12

I wouldn’t be happy either. Unfortunately, there are probably few if any other options. My D was tripled her first semester and it didn’t work out for her, second semester we sprung for a single. I can’t imagine 8 female personalities in one room with limited space. In the end though, smile and nod might be your only recourse. That, and assuring her that the second semester will be different and its really less than 4 months. So sorry, certainly takes a bit of the excitement out of the process I think.

13

There were few years when my kids’ school over enrolled. They converted some lounges into dorm rooms. As it turned out, those lounges had the best views of the school with big windows. The school was able to get those students into traditional dorm rooms within a month or two.

OP - stay in touch with the school’s housing to see what they could do for daughter and see if they have plan in moving those students out of the overflow room. D1 was a WL student, so all rooms were assigned by the time she was admitted. I “worked” with the director of housing over the summer and she was able to get a single before the school started. The director and I were on the first name basis by the time it was all done.

14

At the big state U my sister attended, there always was over-flow housing in the lounges. They also always were empty by Thanksgiving due to no-shows and drop-outs that created space in the regular dorm rooms. It may be worth asking what this university’s experience has been with the “non-traditional” housing. Are most of the students re-homed by second semester? Or are they all still there through the entire school year?

15

@happymomof1 they said there will be some openings available but that most kids will stay in this housing for the full year, either by choice or due to lack of availability. But some spaces will definitely open up. We figure by then she will have a better sense of how it is going and decide if she wants to stay or do a mid-year switch with roommates she potentially doesn’t know and who have already had time to build friendships. Unless a space opens up in a room where she knows someone, she may be better off sticking with her group (assuming it is manageable.)

I’m curious to see how it pans out. I really don’t have any idea where she will be 3 months from now.

16

If she’s lived happily in a cabin at camp, I’d be optimistic about how this can work out. She’ll probably want to establish habits right away of listening/watching all her media with headphones, studying in the library or some other quiet space, and taking personal cell phone calls on the lawn or in the hallway. You might suggest that she bring this up with the roommates early on.

17

@Hanna Great advice. It is a very good sign that the girls have already covered the bases of a lot of the tricky issues via group text. Things like overnight guests, parties in the room (all agree no), who drinks/smokes, etc. Plus I know her school makes them sign a roommate contract in the first 2 weeks of school designed to cover the key issues.

18

It also may turn out that some of the other 8 move out, so her 8 becomes a 6 or a 5 by the end of the semester.

My daughter was originally put in a 4 bed room in her sorority, but there were only 2 assigned to it. When the seniors found out, they bumped my daughter to a double and I think 3 took the room (very big). She had the same double both years. This year, she is getting a single that is supposed to be a double but it is just so small they make it a single when possible. She’s thrilled.

19

I found the photos of the 8-person room on FB. It’s very hard to determine the size of the room, because I suspect wide-angle photos were used.

One of the first questions should be, “What is the price break?”

Not much privacy in that room!

20

There is no privacy in ANY dorm room…is there @CTTC