<p>When I was a sophomore at a top-tier private LAC, my old roommate from freshman year lost out on the housing lotto (parent's finances, late payments, etc) - and needed to find a triple situation because she was waaaay past any deadlines for guaranteed housing (squished triples or otherwise) and had to get a double to <em>agree</em> to accept her as a triple.</p>
<p>I offered up to share my double room... asked the girl I was sharing the double room with if it was okay with her (I had met her maybe an hour or so previous, it was a random match)... and she also said yes. It was a tiny double in a very old but picturesque dorm building - and we made it work. </p>
<p>I think it is wonderful when lemonade is made out of lemons; even better when you like lemons. I do think that parents and students alike need to be aware of the tripling, distance dorm possibilities. With two roommates you have double the chance of a good match but also double the chance of getting mismatches, and some of those mismatches can really make the year challenging. For some kids, things can be just too much with a difficult room situation. I would not mind it as much if the prices were just not so high. I know that for S1, we were paying double the market rate for the apartment he was assigned that was quite a distance from campus. The college had rented a bunch of units in an apartment building and were then using them as dorms at more than double the cost. Not only was my son a freshman off campus, but rather than being in a dorm situation, he was in an apartment building. On top of all of that, the room mate was not a good match. Made the year that much more difficult. S2 was in a quad one year, and it ended up being the party room of the dorm which I suspect did not help any of the occupants' grades. Half of them did not make it back the following year. For some kids, any place will do and will build character and be fodder for stories. For some kids, it can be the tipping point for problems. And of course, even ideal situations would not save some kids. I just feel that at the prices these colleges are charging and all of the advertising and bragging that goes on, the housing for freshmen should live up to the PR. As kids get older, many will strike out on their own or learn the dorm systems and are able to get better quarters, make friends who become roommates, and it is less of a random shot in the dark which freshman housing is. </p>
<p>When I was senior, I shared a studio with a former floormate from the dorms who lost out on housing. I had gotten the studio which was grad school housing because of an error on part of the housing office. We made it work, and it saved us both a lot of money. I was also in an apartment situation with two girls who had driven out a number of roommates, and somehow we all made it work. But when it does not work, oh what a pain it is for the student and then for the parents. At the prices these colleges charge, I really want the best possible chances of the least possible problems.</p>
<p>In my neck of the woods, I haven't heard so much about forced triples as I have about kids being put into temporary housing -- in lounge areas and such. Is this a different solution colleges are using or are some doing both this and the tripling?</p>
<p>Dbwes, colleges are doing all sorts of things to deal with the shortage in housing. As yields and acceptance numbers go up without a corresponding increase in housing, there simply is not enough space. Colleges are doubling singles, tripling doubles, quading triples and setting up barracks type dorms in some situation. A friend's son at Uof Iowa was put in a barracks type situation for about half the first term his freshman year. He had been late in getting in his app to the school, late in getting his housing deposit there and the uni was short on housing. Because it is a large school, there is enough attrition during a term, that most of the kids were housed in dorm rooms or other true housing by the end of the semester. I don't remember if a price adjustment was made for the difference in the quality of the housing.</p>
<p>Schools are also renting space from hotels, apartments anywhere to house students, sometimes at significant distances from the campus. City schools are particularly pressed for space and if they guarantee housing, this is what they end up having to do. Or they get space from other nearby colleges. I know a few colleges who have done that, and run shuttles to the campus. </p>
<p>Actually the barracks type housing turned out to be a favorable thing for friend's son. Forced him to organize his belongings and go to the library to study. Got him into that mode right from the beginning. But for a different kid, different group of kids in the barracks, it could have been a bad outcome. Some of these schools are charging upwards to $10K a year for housing, and tuitions are now creeping well past the $40K range. For that, you do not want substandard conditions. You are not paying for tent city or hardship surrounding. I do think that some sort of compensation should be given when the school cannot adequately meet reasonable housing expectations of freshmen. The situation also should be addressed at those brag sessions as well so that students and parents alike understand that those dorms they are touring may not be where the kid is going to live. In schools where kids are housed on a different campus, the tour should include that commute, and look at the schedule of those shuttles. If your kid is in performing arts which means wee hours at the theatre, will the shuttle be available? If your kid is a swimmer with 6AM on deck practice, will there be a shuttle available? Are shuttles running weekends and holidays? How much time does a round trip really take if kid needs to run to his room to pick up something he needs? Schools slyly circumvent those issues when they danged well know these are problems and complaints that ring out through the year. If you have a kid that keeps to himself but wants to try to reach out a bit more, a highrise apartment situation is not as conducive to this as the traditional dorms, and schools that keep the freshmen together that first year are better for kids getting to know more kids in their starting year.</p>
<p>Also want to mention that certain schools like Fordham are now getting more students from out of town who have to dorm. They are also getting more requests for locals who want to dorm rather than commute despite the commuters discount the school offers on the tuition. That cuts deeply into the housing available. Other schools are finding that they need to revamp the old dorms and have to close one or more during a school year which makes for a big shortage. It 's a balancing act for the school because if they build too many dorms, they lose money too. You get a trend or time when all of a sudden it is cool to live off campus, and you end up with empty dorms, try to force the kids to live on campus, and get flak for that. There is really no winning. I just feel that at very least the freshmen should be housed together on a dorm, on campus in optimal circumstances. As they get to know others, the area, the options, it is less important to guarantee housing. But some of these kids are young both in age and experience. The parents are also anxious. Give them a strong start and less stress at the onset.</p>
<p>My sophomore is voluntarily in a triple this year. It was the only way she could room with her roommate from last year since that girl was bumped. The shortest girl is taking the lower bunk, the other girl the upper one. They gave DD the stand alone bed (she's lofting it) since she tends to stay up later and rise earlier than either of them do. They also gave her a closet alone and the other two are sharing one. They have minimal hanging clothes and my DD is somewhat of a clotheshorse (unlike her mom). DD & her roommate are nothing alike, but get along very well and have been hanging out over the summer, even though they had never met before college.</p>
<p>I think the kids deal with it better than the parents, do.</p>
<p>I slept in top bunk by choice my freshman year. I always feel claustrophobic in bottom bunks. My son had housing in one of the more distant apartment buildings last year. CMU owns the whole building so it feels just like a dorm. He didn't mind the walk (less than what we made him do to high school) and since he gets no exercise otherwise we were happy he got to walk a couple of miles a day, though he may have taken the shuttle sometimes as well. They could easily have made his one-bedroom apartment a triple, but they seem to do that only with rooms that are part of the main campus. Triples cost less than doubles, and I believe when there is the barracks situation that is a further discount. While they don't advertise temporary barracks housing, it was mentioned as a possibility by our tour guide during accepted students weekend.</p>
<p>Many prefer the top bunk. when kids are lofting the beds, that is an upper bunk anyways. </p>
<p>I just don't like the fact that the schools are putting money into some danged luxurious things that they just love to showcase and then stick the kids in a barrack or far away dorm because they are not addressing something basic such as board. All of this at top flight prices. Some of these areas charge more for their lacking dorm spaces than the local market charges for apartments so off campus is a good option after freshman year. But instead of building more dorms so all frosh can be housed optimally, they put money into garden apartments or townhouses for the upper classmen and charge a premium. I think it is a misdirected use of funds.</p>
<p>My daughter's school (Pitt) doesn't triple, I guess because the rooms are too small. But last year three girls were placed in the common room on her floor. They actually liked the arrangement, and they were sad when they had to be split up into "real" rooms after a couple of weeks. I was happy because then my daughter and the rest of the kids had the use of the TV that was in there! This year, I'm hearing of lots of kids being told there is no room for you in the dorms, period, even freshmen. Starting college life off campus is a drag if it's not your choice. And classes seem to be filling up earlier. Yes, the class of 2012 is huge, but you would think admins would have accounted for that. It's all I've been reading for the past two years!</p>
<p>A lot of nerve these colleges have. Big increases in costs, and the money going into thing that have nothing to do with important things like the classes needed, a good start in housing, etc.</p>
<p>I am sensitive to this housing situation because I have written my son's college several times about what I think is their foolish housing policy. The freshmen are the ones who can get shorted in housing rather than the upper classmen. Instead of putting the freshmen all together on the main campus in the traditional dormitories, many are put into highrise suites (4 kids sharing 2 bedrooms and a bath) on the south campus. For a school trying to attract more out of area students and to gain a flagship school atmosphere, it does not give the freshmen a good start in bonding. The school has also chosen to spend money for new housing on garden style apartments for upper classmen rather than building more dorms to house more kids and keeping more of them on the main campus to build the atmosphere instead of splitting the freshmen into two campuses. What's even more foolish is that there is plenty of off campus housing available in the form of garden apartment within a mile or so of the main campus priced comparably to the new housing. Makes no sense to me.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Students were required to move in alphabetically, in waves hours apart and since the school offered no guidelines on proper ettiquete, early arrivers were free to lay claim to the limited space . In my son's forced triple room there were 3 beds and 3 computer jacks, but only 2 bureaus, 2 desks and 2 closets. One roommate with bad manners had the good fortune to have a last name beginning with B and he took the bed, a desk, a bureau and an entire closet leaving my son and the 3rd student with the bunked beds and sharing a desk, closet, and bureau. We ran into other families with kids in tears because early arriving roommates had bunked the beds on risers so that the last arriving student ended up on a top bunk a few feet from the ceiling. All of this could have been avoided if administration had arranged for roommates to be allowed to arrive at the same time and insist that no one unpack until everyone arrived.
[/quote]
I am just reading this now (we were on a college visiting trip!). I would have been furious about the above situation, and would have been complaining to the RA (not wasting too much time with them, just going up the ladder of responsibility and getting that first rung over with quickly) and then up on the ladder. One wonders about their RA training program, if they hadn't covered this issue. I would have thought the RAs (or their supervisor) would have anticipated this problem and figured out a way to deal with it. </p>
<p>If there isn't closet space, a desk and a dresser for EACH student in the room, the tripling should not be done, period. </p>
<p>It would be great if CC would have two threads -- one where forced tripling was done and how it was handled and another thread for schools where forced tripling does NOT result in a lower room bill.</p>
<p>If there isn't closet space, a desk and a dresser for EACH student in the room, the tripling should not be done, period. >></p>
<p>Dd's voluntary triple has two built-in closets and a portable wardrobe. The other two plan to share a closet and have the wardrobe removed. There are three desks and dressers. They get a $200 discount for the year.</p>
<p>And what is your alternative solution? Simply tell some kids there is no housing available at all? That's being done at some schools, and some upperclassmen who can't get or can't afford apartments are having to take a semester off. (source: Boston Globe article about UMass Amherst).</p>
<p>As discussed earlier, there are many reasons this is happening at many colleges. Higher than expected freshman yield is only one of the reasons. In some cases, historical trends of kids moving off-campus junior & senior year have suddenly changed this year - more kids are chosing to stay on campus due to the high cost of gas and heating/utility bills. That is something completely out of the college's control.</p>
<p>Re: closet space - how many clothes does a kid really need? His frosh year, S had 1/3 of his dresser and 1/2 of his closet empty. His roommate had a full dresser, closet, and another dresser from home that was full. Roommate never wore half of those clothes, and S never went cold or naked. </p>
<p>I understand your frustration, but there isn't an easy answer. And if you moan and groan around your kid (especially your freshman) and tell them how awful this is, they'll believe you and go to college with that attitude.</p>
<p>The desk thing is over rated. In four years of dorm living, I <em>never</em> used my desk in my dorm room. For that matter, I grew up in a home where I <em>never</em> used my desk in my bedroom - and the last four years (high school) my room was tiny and I didn't even have a desk in my bedroom.</p>
<p>Most campuses have state of the art libraries with fields of carrols/desks available. Many students don't even use a desk. I did a lot of homework while sitting on my bed.</p>
<p>As for closet, I shared mine that sophomore year when we agreed to triple in a room originally designed as a double. It wasn't that big of a deal.</p>
<p>It wasn't a big deal to you, but it could be a big deal for others. I did ALL of my homework at my desk. To have trudged to and from the library in a foot of snow and 10 below zero temps to get to the library would have been ridiculous. That's why I stand by my point that we need to discuss these issues with our kids to see the level of importance THEY attach to them. I can see my son taking up two drawers and half a closet. I can see my daughter taking up every bit of storage space in the room.</p>
<p>The problem is confounded by a couple of factors, though. At my d's school, dorm housing is required for the first two years, and not guaranteed for the other two. Yet when housing is assigned, the seniors pick first, then the juniors & then the sophomores. So if there's not enough room because seniors and juniors decide to stay on campus, the sophomores who have no choice get shafted. Shouldn't it be the other way around? House those who must live on campus first, and then if there's room left over, give it to everyone else?</p>
<p>And anyone who is in a tripled double room should get a break on housing costs! There's no excuse for a kid to pay the same for a third of the space.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Dd's voluntary triple has two built-in closets and a portable wardrobe. The other two plan to share a closet and have the wardrobe removed. There are three desks and dressers. They get a $200 discount for the year.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>That's all? Just $200?!?!</p>
<p>The university/college is making money when they triple students and only give that small discount! Not much of an impetus for them to rectify the situation!</p>
<p>
[quote]
We ran into other families with kids in tears because early arriving roommates had bunked the beds on risers so that the last arriving student ended up on a top bunk a few feet from the ceiling.
[/quote]
Roommates need to agree on the arrangements of furniture and they'll need to assert themselves to do so. Some students have some pretty wild ideas of arrangements - often to the favor of the one with the idea. If the room's tripled, the other two should be able to override the rude one. If it's a double, I would have maybe given the rude a couple of choices - either keep the risers and THEY get the top bunk, or lose the risers. If they were unwilling to compromise I'm sure the RA could work it out. </p>
<p>btw - My D preferred the top or lofted (same height as the top) bunk. The lone bottom bed tends to become a couch for any visitors and you have to think about whether you want all kinds of random people sitting on your bed all the time. My D already worked out the bunk situation with the roomies before even arriving on-campus (they give contact info a few weeks before move-in).</p>