<p>Hi. Just trying to get some insights into the process for the current freshmen as they will have to deal with the UM system to get on-campus housing for the first time soon.</p>
<p>I'm sure it is key to apply right away. What else can freshmen do to:</p>
<ul>
<li>live with or near their friends (same floor, dorm, suite)</li>
<li>get first choice of their housing</li>
</ul>
<p>I remember reading something about the timing of your initial housing deposit (when you were a HS senior) playing a role. Is this true? Does the # of credits you have matter?</p>
<p>What is your best advice for a current freshman who definitely wants to be on-campus next year?</p>
<p>Perhaps you can convince Jon Baldessari to explain the process in a transparent way so that the confusion is cleared up. I emailed him last year with a list of questions asking for a clear explanation of the process but wasn’t able to get anything back in writing. I got a brief phone call in response instead of a return email with the details I’d hoped for, unfortunately, and I still don’t understand exactly how the whole thing really works. He told me that two lotteries were held at the same time - one for the upperclass halls and a second for UV, and a student could only be “selected” in one of them - or alternatively for neither of them. </p>
<p>I do know that my daughter’s sign-up time last spring (since she was “selected” for the upperclass halls lottery but not for the UV lottery) was later than her roommate’s time even though my daughter was already a junior in terms of credits earned after first semester due to entering with 51 AP credits. Though she had more credits than her roommate the advantage of an earlier sign-up time was because her roommate had accepted admission earlier the previous spring than my daughter was able to since we were still waiting for the S/S scholarship competition weekend results. Jon did confirm that the system was set up to grant priority in order of admission date - so that ED students will end up with first dibs when choosing housing for sophomore year. The longer you live on campus the higher your housing priority will be and that housing priority number is originally established when you accepted admission and PAID the enrollment and housing deposits. </p>
<p>I heard from a friend last spring whose daughter’s friends had given up their current rooms in the upperclass halls (you do have the right to return to the same room you currently have as an upperclassmen the following year) for a chance to participate in the UV lottery but weren’t “selected” in that lottery and then had to scramble to find off campus housing. It sounded as if making the choice to attempt to even try for UV housing meant that they lost the right to stay in their current rooms?! </p>
<p>Re timing- the lottery results were posted on MyUm (replaced by Canelink this year) on February 18th. The opt-in process was held between Jan 25th and Feb 8th and I know several of my daughter’s friends (two boys who weren’t on top of the process and/or carefully reading emails from housing explaining the deadlines) completely forgot to do the opt-in process and ended up on a waitlist for campus housing. The actual sign-up times began Tuesday, March 19th, but my daughter’s time wasn’t until Saturday, March 30th at 12:45 pm at which point she was logged on her laptop poised to click. She asked me to log on simultaneously as a backup just in case her computer crashed at the exact second the system allowed her access - it was like a military operation! In the end it all worked out and she ended up with the room she wanted : )</p>
<p>Thanks for the details, IllinoisMom! What a crazy process. I will check out the links you provided and see if Jon can give us some clarity.</p>
<p>It seems crazy that your housing lottery is based on when you made your deposit. So my DS might not have a good number because he insisted on waiting to see where else he got in? He could have deposited two months earlier.</p>
<p>Because your DD went in with a roommate with a better lottery number, they went with her number and both got that advantage? (I think it worked like this went I went to college although the details are definitely fuzzy!).</p>
<p>I will alert DS to be on the lookout for the opt-in period so he can be on it. We are obsessive about being early/on time for sign-ups so he is well-trained! I will offer to be his back-up, just like you were!</p>
<p>Exactly See dumbo11’s post about that in the earlier thread I linked.</p>
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<p>D’s roommate freshman year (dindune’s D) was staying in Stanford (as an RA) and D targeted a single in M/P after she learned she hadn’t been selected for the UV lottery. So we didn’t experience that situation but from what I have heard from others I don’t believe the linking to a roommate with a better time feature is part of the process at the _. But I’m not sure since we weren’t attempting that so definitely something to ask housing about. It also would be nice if the housing priority system was explained in advance to applicants. </p>
<p>At D’s other top choice - UMinnesota- housing priority works in a similar way in that the first students to pay the housing deposit have the first choice of rooms. However the housing deposit there is only $25 and an enrollment commitment/deposit does NOT have to be made. So you can secure housing without accepting admission and only risk $25. We did this on the first day housing deposits were accepted there - with no announcement MN opened their housing website on Veteran’s Day, when by chance we happened to actually be on campus touring the school. </p>
<p>D (who I believe might actually be your daughter somehow switched at birth - a highly organized detail-oriented planner who set up colorcoded systems for organizing and prioritizing her work back in elementary school, something I didn’t realize for years - until she explained why she needed more green notebooks instead of the patterned ones I’d picked up - every color had corresponded to the same subject area every year it seemed and I was messing up the long-running system!) was exploring the MN website that day on her phone and noticed the housing website had just gone live that morning so was one of the first to deposit granting her first choice in housing if she’d enrolled there. I mentioned that alternative approach to Jon but it seemed clear they don’t have any plans to change the current system.</p>
<p>My DS organized the group of friends for Mahoney Pearson for sophomore year (4 guys in suite) and for UV junior year, had them all follow the opt in schedule and never had a problem getting his housing. Very happy to remain on campus all 4 years versus dealing with apt or housing rental.</p>
See dumbo11’s post about that in the earlier thread I linked.</p>