<p>I just read an article in the paper about how some students at Texas Christian University will be living in lounges. This happened last year, too. I just thought I'd pass this info on for anyone interested in TCU, in case this is an important issue for you.</p>
<p>Kids start out the year in lounges at UT in Austin every year. They use lounges as overflow and call it "supplemental housing;" you get a slight discount on your housing and odds are good that you will get a "normal" dorm room at some point during the fall or especially by the time spring semester starts. Living</a> on Campus - Communities - Supplemental The kids who accept supplement housing don't seem to mind it. Housing on campus there is very limited. This at least lets you be "on campus."</p>
<p>The UT Housing department lets you know (when you are signing your housing contract) that you will be in "supplemental housing" so you have a choice, and if you don't want to be in a lounge, there are private dorms nearby, so close to campus that they may as well be on campus. It is good that they let you know well in advance so you can make other arrangements if you really don't want to start out the year in a lounge. </p>
<p>Some Ohio friends of ours moved their daughter into her dorm room at a Pennsylvania college last weekend. They knew she had three roommates but they assumed she'd be in a dorm room designed for four; they didn't know she'd be in a lounge. It was an unhappy surprise. It was dirty and only three of the four beds had been put together; dad had to assemble her bed. In the end there was barely enough room in the lounge for the girls' four beds, four wardrobes, four chests of drawers, and four desks. It was really a tight squeeze. </p>
<p>I like that UT is telling you when you sign your contract that what you are one of the last ones requesting a room (that's how they decide who gets put a lounge) and that "supplemental housing" is your only on-campus option.</p>
<p>Last year three girls were housed in a lounge on my daughter's floor in a UPitt dorm. There was plenty of space for them, and they actually enjoyed the experience and bonded. They were sad after a few weeks when they were separated to go to "real" rooms. But I was glad my daughter had use of the lounge again.</p>
<p>I think this is pretty common. I know at my #2's school, everyone on the floor was envious of the kids in the lounges because the rooms were much nicer and bigger than the standard dorm rooms.</p>
<p>^^^And there might even be a flat-screen TV in there! :D</p>
<p>Back in the dark ages when I went to Baylor, they used the lounges for rooms, and I think the girls stayed there all year. We had community baths, so that part wasn't an issue. The thing that was bad was that the rest of us didn't have lounges! I had a roommate who went to bed early while I was a night owl. She could not sleep with any light at all on in the room. So, I'd sit on my bed studying with a tiny booklight, and she'd toss and turn and sigh loudly until I finally went out and sat in the hall on the floor to study. I can't tell you how miserable my memories are of that time. So....I'm against housing students in lounges, even temporarily. The lounges are there for a reason, and you have to make a cutoff somewhere as to how many students you can put in each dorm. I think the cutoff should come before they fill up the lounges.</p>