My son will have a totally random roommate at Texas Tech. I don’t think there was a questionnaire with the housing sign up (can’t remember back that far lol)…his roommate has already changed once, but the new one assigned reached out to him and I believe they’ve shared snapchat/insta handles.
As far as gaming goes, my son is into video games, plays about 2 hours or so a day (except weekends since he works every Fri-Sun)…he built his own gaming computer and bought a pretty cool curved monitor, all are going with him to his dorm. I’m not really worried about him flunking out or spending all his time in his dorm gaming, he’s not that obsessed. And maybe it’s a cultural/religious thing with us, but I’d much prefer he be in his dorm gaming then at a Frat party over a keg of beer 
(we obstain from alcohol for religious reasons).
Tech as a esports teams and UTD does to…Before he decided on his school I asked him if he was good enough to qualify for the teams or scholarships lol…he said not even close…oh well lol.
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Again, he was raised to be respectful and considerate. If he knows his roommate doesn’t like his playing, he won’t play.
Thanks for the suggestions.
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@STEM2017 it could be worse, my son plays double bass, tuba and bagpipes, 
. Just one of the reasons having a single all four years went in the + column when evaluating schools.
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Two hrs is not bad, my son has a friend that games about 10 hrs a day. Luckily, he is not headed to live at dorms so can continue his all nighter gaming sessions.
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Any tech minded people willing to help me out? I want to purchase a computer for my son for graduation. Would like it to last all 4 years. Any thoughts on Mac Air vs Surface vs others? Thank you in advance for any responses!
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He needs a double just to fit all his instruments!!!
Bravo!
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Wow, that is so cool! I hope that he’s planning to join the Cello Shots, if they’ll take double bass players 
Cello Shots - YouTube
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It really depends on what he likes. My son has a MacAir book that he got this past Xmas that he will take to college. Should be good all 4 yrs.
He really wants an iPad with the pencil for taking notes, we are thinking of getting him that for a graduation present.
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Yea, that’s extreme…I’d put the kabosh on 10 hours a day for sure. Between marching band, part time job and school he didn’t even have 10 hours a day free lol
Doubt you could ignore a bagpipe ANYWHERE in the vicinity of the dorm, lol, never mind the single. Although just the sheer size of all those instruments would take up most of the common space of a double dorm room and justify the single if he doesn’t mind stepping over them. Love it though!
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My kid wants some sort of note taking tablet too. Has anyone used the remarkable 2? It’s still spendy but it looks more made for the task. Obviously my D would prefer the ipad…
Check first with the school, and specifically for your child’s major, to see if there are any tech requirements that they recommend. You may also want to see if there is required software to download and if it’s more compatible with a PC or Mac. We’re Mac people but at my D’s school there was more tech support for PCs so we went that route.
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The surface had really cool note taking ability and able to solve math problems written on the computer.
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They say they support Mac and Dell and everyone gets Microsoft 365 for free.
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Another vote for an Ipad + Apple Pencil for note taking in class!! My son’s cousin gifted him the new iPad pro for his graduation and then he bought the apple pencil himself. He has a ThinkPad laptop already (hand me down from my husband) that he’s taking as well. Between those and his desktop in his dorm he’ll be set for any studying scenario!
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@Pnwfamily I only have Macs and I have a Samsung tablet that I’m okay w/ for trashing around. If you’re familiar with Windows/PCs, can you share if the surface allows students to take notes on it with a pen and then the handwriting translates to text if they use OneNote? I use OneNote but I can’t seem to get it to convert to text and talk to my Office 365 OneNote (not the handwriting part). Thx.
We weren’t even thinking about Surface until we walked into Best Buy and they walked us through some of the things it could do. One of them was transcribing handwriting using OneNote.
Comment for the waitlist bar: someone called UCLA and they said they are reviewing apps. This got me thinking since I’ve been wondering why it’s been so quiet with WL since 5/1. Perhaps they were understaffed for the app quantity and since no schools seem in a hurry to start pulling WL in May, they are going back and rereading or more closely looking at apps of WLs? Interesting… I was expecting any warm body to do from the right section of the WL grid once they got to this point.
Thank you! My son got himself a laptop that he swore would last him for 4 years (he used his own work money) but I think he got it for gaming. Speaking of gaming…he never gamed really til COVID and it’s constant. I stopped complaining because there’s not much they can do right now. Let’s hope he doesn’t get addicted! It’s a heavy laptop and I can’t imagine lugging that darn thing around campus!
Did you look at the Surface Pro? I googled and there was Surface laptop and there’s a Surface pro. I found a $750 Pro. I might get him that and he can use his gaming laptop as the main thing. What are you thinking of getting?
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Trying to decide between MacAir, Surface vs other laptop. I really want to buy something that is dependable and will last all 4 years. The Surface was really cool, I don’t pay attention to the latest and greatest tech toys and don’t know about how it holds up.