<p>The list of items needed for the dorm room includes a phone. Where are the phone jacks in the room? Do you need a phone which can hang on the wall or just one to set on your desk?</p>
<p>Are the layouts of the dorm rooms on the resident life site for each dorm drawn to scale?
My student is assigned to LaPlata and has no roommate. The room looks the same size as a double on the layout. There are other rooms which look smaller on the layout which look like true singles. We are trying to decide which size rug to buy.</p>
<p>Has anyone used the rug service through resident life? Are the rugs worth the price? They recommend a 12 x 10 rug for a standard LaPlata room.</p>
<p>If your student has a cell phone, there’s virtually no need for use of a landline. The phone jacks are there, and on-campus calling is free, but D1 (nor her roommates) used the phone -ever-. D2 didn’t take a phone at all. Maybe someone has a reason to use them; my 2 never used them.</p>
<p>The layouts of the dorm rooms, in our experience, have been drawn pretty much to scale. It’s pretty difficult to see on the drawings. I’m not sure if they always show the random cut-outs that may be in the room to account for beams, etc. They say that most of the double rooms in all regular dorms are approx 10 x 12, though.</p>
<p>If your student is in a room with no roommate listed, I suspect that a roommate will be assigned within the first 2-3 weeks of classes. There are always requests for changes, and I assume there are still students on the waitlist. (Maybe whoever was going to be assigned as a roommate was a last-minute cancellation and they haven’t gotten around to reassigning the space). When D2 started freshman year, her roommate listed had decided NOT to attend UMD. She found someone in one of her classes who wanted to move out of the room she’d been assigned. By both of them contacting ResLife and requesting each other, the move was facilitated. (Of course, there was a snafu and someone ELSE was also assigned at the same time, but that got straightened out pretty easily). If your student is a freshman without a roommate initially, she/he may have to do some extra work to meet people in the first 2 weeks. Most people in LaPlata will be probably be sophomores, FYI. I think we got a 8 x 10 rug, allowing for any kind of unusual layout…it’s not necessary to go completely wall to wall, as furniture will cover most of the perimeter of the room.</p>