<p>DS just got an email telling him the dorm and room he’s in, along with the names of his two roomies. When we go to Halls under University Housing, enter his building and room number, it states the room is for two students. Based on the floor plan, it looks like it only accommodates two. Does anyone know if they’re cramping kids into these rooms because of the high number of applicants?</p>
<p>Which hall is it?</p>
<p>From what I've seen from my fellow freshmen, yes, it appears they are definitely cramming.</p>
<p>My room is listed as a 2-person, but magically there are now bunked beds in the place of the normal beds... Gofigure.</p>
<p>I'm hearing lots of reports of these magical appearing bunked beds...</p>
<p>C'est la vie, I suppose.</p>
<p>Bucknut, he's in Park. The room specifically states it can accommodate two people, and suddenly, that information and the floorplan has been pulled off the website. They're probably getting phone calls up the wazoo from parents who don't appreciate the high charges for tiny rooms with three roommates just because they were greedy and took too many students. </p>
<p>Is that even safe? I would think there are regulations about how many kids can be in a dorm room. The rooms MADE for three kids are quite roomy. Now there are bunk beds and a single and I don't even know how many desks or storage cabinets they could possibly fit in there. Think we'll get a discount now that a third person is paying for the room? We better!</p>
<p>Judging by all the fine print I remember scanning in the housing contract, I doubt there's much we can do.</p>
<p>But I believe the reduced cost is already built-in:</p>
<p>Scroll down to the bottom and you can see that a two-person South corridor bath is clearly marked as more expensive than a 3-person South corridor bath.</p>
<p>The same is true of price difference for me, living in a suddenly-4-person-not-2-person Olentangy room.</p>
<p>Also of interest, this appears to be a problem around the country! Here Mississippi is having a problem:
Colleges</a> see more demand for dorms - State - SunHerald.com
And here OHIO's own Akron is having problems with crowding:
Ohio.com</a> - Not enough rooms to go around</p>
<p>Yes, a two person room IS more expensive than a three person room. We were willing to pay the additional expense so DS would have one roommate. Now he's going to have two roommates, in a far more cramped area, so we should be charged accordingly. Why pay for two in a room when there are three?</p>
<p>Why not e-mail housing to ask about this issue? There's nothing anyone here can do about it.</p>
<p>I'm also trying to get info from the housing website, but the page is still unavailable. I saw it early this morning and when I went back later to check something, the "unavailable" message was there. I've e-mailed the housing department with the issue, but no response yet.</p>
<p>I just talked to a friend of mine who was also tripled in a double in Park Hall... with two girls who were pretty much best friends in high school. She's not very happy about this. Her mother already sent off an e-mail about it. My friend's not mad, just not happy because she wanted the experience of rooming with a person she had never met... and now she's a bit afraid of being excluded because the two already know each other. She wants to make it work and I'm really glad she's taking that attitude about this. I know I'd be uncomfortable in that situation. I just hope those two will try to include her some. Or they'll all at least strike a tolerable balance in there somehow. I also that those two friends won't end up hating each other partway through, because I would really hate for my friend to be in the middle of that, though I suppose that's where you enlist the help of an RA, right?</p>
<p>Another friend of mine was put into housing on North Campus and she didn't even request to be housed there. She's in a room of four people, but I think that's what a lot of those rooms are set up for, though. So, it's not quite what she wanted, but it's still pretty reasonable.</p>
<p>I'm not sure about the housing status of the other kid attending OSU from my high school, though. I never talk to him. I'll probably find out sooner or later, though. Word always gets around.</p>
<p>I'm personally happy with my rooming assignment so far. The room's smaller than the room I currently share with my sister now, but I think I should just shut up about that because I'm not tripled in a double. I have just one room mate in a room meant for two people in Baker Hall West, which seems to have a reasonable room layout anyway. Plus, I have a room mate who seems like someone I'll get along with well enough.</p>
<p>I have a question, though: Was Park Hall specified as "freshman housing"? That aside, I do hope there's some sort of discount if the students have to stay in tripled rooms really meant only for two people. It only seems fair to me to sort of "make up" for sticking everyone in even closer quarters.</p>
<p>I honestly don't know why they didn't just add a fourth bunk to the rooms that housed three people. There's far more space to do that than there is to add a third person in a room meant for two. </p>
<p>In looking at the floor plan yesterday, it appeared that there was no way they could add a third desk and cabinet to that room. I'm afraid they're going to ask students to share a desk and share a cabinet, and there's little room for anything in those things anyway. Seriously, if you'd seen the floor plan you'd agree. No space for three of anything. </p>
<p>And I'm glad I wasn't the only one who saw it online. I spoke to a friend today who said she tried calling housing and the lines were very busy. Apparently others are just as upset about this. If we'd known they were going to pack kids in like sardines, DS would have gone to his second choice school. This is really annoying.</p>
<p>That is pretty surprising; it seems they're still a while away from that whole mandating sophomores to stay on campus. Anyway, I'd take the double turned into a triple at this point because I haven't even received my assignment yet. I sent it in after the July 1st date so hopefully that's the only reason why...</p>
<p>I wouldnt jump the gun too much, they have been remodeling the halls for a while now. The site along with the floor plans could be out of date.</p>
<p>^ Entirely possible.</p>
<p>But then again, many of us saw the dorms at Orientation. And the ones I saw looked a lot like the floorplans. You know, with the promised (correct) number of beds in them...</p>
<p>AimHigh, the university should definitely give you the discounted price. From what I'm seeing in my fees, they haven't even billed housing yet (aside from the billing max. amount, then refunding it all). Frankly, if they charge you the two-person fee instead of the three-person fee, you should raise cain.</p>
<p>Also, that desk issue is huge. We were definitely promised desks in the housing contract; at least in Lincoln they were once all quads, so for me it's not a big deal other than that they changed it without me knowing until AFTER all my university/housing decisions were made.</p>
<p>A lot of the hard feelings from parents and students isn't even the crowding necessarily; it's that when we made our decisions, and our housing choices, and our Orientation, and had a chance to change preferences, we were told it would be one thing, and now it's not. THAT is what seems upsetting to me.</p>
<p>Has your student tried to call Housing? Usually with University matters, things go over better when the student communicates a problem rather than the parent (you know how state universities dislike anything they consider to be "helicopter parents").</p>
<p>--------UPDATE-------</p>
<p>Housing fees are now up! Go check it out for yourself, see if the correct fee has been assessed for you!</p>
<p>The first link is the Office of the Treasurer. Find Pay Fees, log in, click "Pay/View Fees" and looks for your housing charge!
Office</a> of the Treasurer @The Ohio State University</p>
<p>The second link, if you scroll around, is where you can find what your fee should be:
University</a> Housing : Current/Admitted : Policies, Contracts, and Fees : Housing Fees and Due Dates</p>
<p>I notice that for myself, they correctly charged me the four-person fee instead of the two-person fee in Olentangy to reflect that my double is now a quad. Food hasn't been charged yet though...</p>
<p>The Speaker--</p>
<p>Are you in Lincoln and they put four in your room? My ds is in Lincoln, but he only had one roommate listed. </p>
<p>Also, for anyone in Lincoln, is there a way to find out the names of your suitemates, not just your roommate(s) before arrival? Especially since you will all be sharing a living room and might want to discuss TV/ furnishing for that room.</p>
<p>ohiomomma--</p>
<p>Yep, Lincoln in a four-person... Such is life. The dorms can accomodate it alright, again, what irks me a bit is that the housing website and all clearly list my room as a double, and it was a double.</p>
<p>You can most definitely find your suitemates through the magic of facebook! There's a group called "Lincoln Tower 2008-2009" or something very similar, and already they've got a pretty comprehensive directory of who is where.</p>
<p>The Speaker,
I know people my age (OLD) that were in the towers back in the day when they had 16 to a suite instead of 8, 9, or 10. Most people have horror stories of those days. At least now, I think, they only put bunks in one room of the suite so the common area and bathrooms are less crowded. And, at least in Lincoln, you know that you have a desk and closet space already! (And, you are saving some money!) Hope it goes well for you.</p>
<p>I will tell my ds about the Lincoln tower facebook -- but maybe he already found that yesterday.</p>
<p>thanks</p>
<p>Also, I was looking again at the room rates, and it appears that for south campus 2 person, 3 person and 4 person rooms with corridor baths are all at the same rate. So, for those on South Campus that were put into rooms with 3 or 4 that had been 2 person rooms, there might not be any savings?</p>
<p>Holy moly, you're right! For a given bathroom type, 2 to 3 to 4 look to be the same price...</p>
<p>My apologies to AimHigh for reading that chart wrong in my last couple posts.</p>
<p>Oh that's not good. I feel for you South Campus.</p>
<p>My D is in Lincoln again this year and they have two extra suitemates. Her suite has 3 rooms with two sophomores each and 1 room with four freshmen. </p>
<p>So many stories about extra students this year! I wonder if the economy has caused some Ohio residents to change their plans and stay around?? Can you imagine the scene in the housing office as the unexpected forms started arriving? </p>
<p>I wonder if President Gee's idea to require sophomores to live on campus will be even less popular.</p>
<p>MaryTN's "D" and I are in the same suite. ( :)! ) If someone wants to find their suite mates in Lincoln, there's a Lincoln Tower 2008-2008 group with an in-progress list.</p>
<p>That's utterly messed up that for South Campus 2/3/4 are all listed at the same rate. I would absolutely lobby for that to change, and bet a lot of people are. I can't imagine that's going to stand.</p>
<p>I think Gee is definitely going to have to reconsider the Sophomore plan; someone seriously messed up or underestimated the number of students that would enroll this year. I wonder what happened.</p>
<p>This is a surprise. In all our visits and communication, we have been told that a suite in Lincoln is for 8. We paid the fee way in March to ensure our DD is in line for a spot in Lincoln. </p>
<p>What if the dorm is a tiebreak for someone to pick OSU over another school?</p>