<p>D was accepted to UP recently for next fall. She's our oldest, so this is our first journey through the whole college admissions/selection/matriculation experience. She hasn't decided that's she's definitely going to Penn State yet. However, I'm wondering about how much of an impact, if any, the timing of when we send in the deposit to hold her space(assuming, of course, that she chooses to attend PSU)will have on her on-campus housing. I'm a little concerned given that the current Freshman class is reportedly the highest ever and that the number of current applications exceed even last year's number. I do realize that the University guarantees housing on the UP campus for Freshman year, however I'd hate to have D end up rooming in a study lounge due to overcrowding. Do any of you existing UP students or parents know if Freshman housing is affected by how soon you send in a deposit?</p>
<p>My neice is not in a converted study lounge or anything, but they sent her deposits in after Xmas and she did not get any of her choices of dorms. She ended up in East Halls in a single sex dorm.</p>
<p>As for long range housing forecast, we've found with all of the larger universities housing may be in rather short supply and your child should be prepared to find off-campus housing at least of Sr. year. However, I think State College has an abundance of off-campus apartments and the PSU housing center seems ready and able to help with this.</p>
<p>Not a stupid question. My son is a freshman so I don't know alot. I do know they try to house all freshman on campus. I also know that kids who apply for special housing usually get it. There are many of these to choose from. Check them out. Many of sons friends already searching for apartments because they want the freedom of being off campus and more space. Some will be living in frats/sororities. My son is living in the honors dorm and is hoping to stay there forever (they have a dining hall in his dorm :)) I would definitely call residential living and ask all your questions.</p>
<p>Well they have 15,000 campus spots and half of those go to freshman so you can see it is not easy to stay on campus for 4 years.
They have a lottery in January to see who even gets a housing contract. If you do not get one then you know to start searching off campus.
The down side is that you do not have much say in where you live, and you do not find out what you got until July. I think you can stay in the same room (if it is not a freshman only dorm) but many kids want to move to another area and that can be difficult. Also it is difficult to get a single and those are in big demand too.
When my son was a freshman a bunch of the guys from his floor all "planned" to move to West Halls (engineers wanting to be near Hammond and IST.) My son wanted a single and discovered the odds of getting a West single were remote (as well as the odds of them getting the same floor which they requested) so he opted to move off campus. His friends ended up all over campus, some with new freshman roommates. The next year they all moved to apartments.</p>
<p>Wow, I can't thank you all enough for setting me (as well as dadonthehill) straight! Now I really do feel foolish, or at least incredibly naive, to actually think that since the deadline was May 1, we could wait a while until D made her decision before sending in a deposit. :o Especially since there's a very good chance that D will end up going to PSU.</p>
<p>Well now I'm going to write that check and send it on its way first thing tomorrow. Once again, thank you all--and congratulations, SpringfieldMom on your daughter's acceptance.:)</p>
<p>After you send your $$$ in, check your My Admissions Account. Once it says your deposit has been received, you'll get an email with instructions on how to access the housing and dining option info.</p>
<p>Supplemental housing means converted student lounges, etc.</p>
<p>Supplemental housing means they stick 6 or 8 students in a tv room or study lounge because they ran out of regular rooms. This is how the overflow is handled when they have more students than dorm rooms. I think you do get a slight decrease in board rates while you're in the supplemental housing, but they try to move kids out when regular rooms open up (when kids drop out).</p>
<p>Status: As of 12/11/2006, we have received your acceptance fees and are pleased that you have chosen Penn State. </p>
<p>Ok. I got the email with instructions. All I can fill out is my two choices of dorm and meal plan. Is there something I can fill out about my potential roommate?</p>
<p>Use the link in the email. On the eliving page (after you enter your My Admissions user name and password) it asks for "roomate preferences" and gives you 3 choices. (You have to know your potention roomates' PSU ID no[s]). Also it will ask if you have a special living option preference and building gender preference.</p>
<p>You pretty much do everything online now at PSU! The first three years my son was there we got a paper bill in the mail and then last year we get an email saying we had to access our bill online (with all these notices saying if you need a copy of it to print it before you pay) and they now prefer you to pay it online too.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Use the link in the email. On the eliving page (after you enter your My Admissions user name and password) it asks for "roomate preferences" and gives you 3 choices. (You have to know your potention roomates' PSU ID no[s]). Also it will ask if you have a special living option preference and building gender preference.
[/quote]
I don't know anyone that is going to PSU. Will they just give me a random roommate?</p>
<p>yes. Check out the special living options too, I don't know why more people do not do them. You are basically guaranteed to be in a certain area and get a room and get back in for future years if you stay in it. Maybe because most people want to get the "experience" of living in East with most of the other freshmen. But there are SLOs in East too.
I do not know if they pair you with a similar roommate or not; my son did not do an SLO but did get another engineer as his roommate. It was good bc they had some classes together and also knew they had to study a lot as opposed to having roommate in a less strenuous major who goofed off all the time. (Some of the eng majors, and others too I suppose, are under enrollment control and if you do not get a certain GPA by the time you declare, you do not get in. Which is an added incentive to study.)</p>
<p>2.
I just finished looking at some SLO's. I think I might choose this one: EASI - Engineering and Applied Sciences. Is living here guaranteed for all four years?</p>
<p>Engineering options (EASI, E House, FISE*)—Applications are available from the College of Engineering. </p>
<p>*NOTE: Only Engineering students applying to FISE need to complete an application. Students in other fields who are applying to FISE do not need to submit an application. "</p>
<p>What does this mean? I want to apply to EASI, does this mean that I have to submit a separate application? Where do I get this separate application?</p>
<p>There is desk space for each roommate on either side of what is labeled as a chest of drawers. It's not clear from that diagram. My daughter's room had that layout and the drawing is not to scale.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Check out the special living options too, I don't know why more people do not do them. You are basically guaranteed to be in a certain area and get a room and get back in for future years if you stay in it.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>If this is true, then this would be great news, since D ended up choosing an SLO as her first choice on the housing eLiving form. As of now, anyway, she would prefer to remain on campus for the four years.</p>
<p>1.long counter/desk for two.
2. Sorry, reading that link I do not know if you are guaranteed to even get in in the first place. I would think coming back you would need to get a contract first and then you may be able to get back in. But it does say that coming back is for active members only, I think people have wised up to the SLOs as great ways to get to be where you want and join and then do not participate. If you are not an "active" member, you would not get back in.
I think it would be a great idea to look over the web sites of each house to see what it offers and maybe email them a question or two? (don't bug them too much as finals are this upcoming week.)
3. you need a separate app for Earth & Mineral Sciences SLO.</p>
<p>I would like to add something about the supp. Some are not as bad as you may think. Here in my dorm for instance (East) The kids on our floor have got extra lofts from housing (free) and setup their room so two ppl have their beds over a desk and only two others are using actual bunk beds. They have a whole bunch of xtra space as a result. Housing could be much worse (believe me Ive seen other dorms when I visited other schools.) And anyway, Some schools dont even guarantee housing for freshman. As mentioned before, there also are a plethora of apts. off campus.</p>
<p>I don't want to create a new thread for meal plan, so I will ask it here.</p>
<p>Breakfast [150 pts]: 150 x 7 = 1,050 pts
Lunch [280 pts]: 1,960 pts
Dinner [330 pts]: 2,310 pts
Total for one week: 5,320 pts
Total for one semester [16 wks]: 85,120 pts</p>
<p>Meal plan 6 offers 80,500 pts which is the maximum you can purchase for one semester. If I eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner everyday [3 meals per day] I won't have enough points for the entire semester. I will have to eat less than 3 meals per day with no snacks. Why does PSU offer so little points in their meal plan?</p>