Hi, all - my daughter will start at umass in September. In looking through her spire stuff, I see a page/form that describes a room selection appointment. I am unsure as to what this is - she has already indicated elsewhere what her preferences are for living areas, roommates, etc - what is this additional form about? And by when should it be submitted? Thanks!
I believe that is for the Upperclassmen when they pick their rooms. Freshman are assigned rooms. However, if your daughter is unhappy with her room assignment when she receives it, there is a period of time where she can request an appointment (which is usually a span of a few days) to see what other room options are available to switch to. Last year my son was concerned about his room assignment so he requested an appointment to explore other options but he ultimately ended up staying with his original assignment and was very happy.
Like @ReRe568 said, room assignment appointments are mainly for upperclassmen, as freshmen are generally assigned rooms. The appointments that are listed now are probably for upperclassmen who forgot to sign up for the original and late assignments (which might sound dumb that they managed to miss even the late deadline, but you’d be surprised how often it happens). Also, any late transfers should be using this as well. At this point, it’s more or less not worth it to sign up for an appointment unless you still don’t have an assignment and desperately need one, because most (if not all) of the desirable living spaces to switch into would have already been filled since spring. Plus, many of the multi-year living communities don’t allow freshmen.
My advice would be to just let your daughter feel out how first semester goes with her roommate. If she doesn’t like it, look into the spring room-transfer process; the window opens around late-October/mid-November if I remember correctly (don’t quote me on that). That way, if she really doesn’t like how it works out, she’ll have the opportunity to switch and she’ll have much more options available than she has now.
Thanks so much for the very helpful responses! I really appreciate your taking the time!