random. My son’s take was that if he moved in with a friend into a tight space, that there is a risk that they’d “break up” their friendship over some trivial roommate stuff.
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My son was on the discord and he said he was hearing a lot of that kind of talk there, too.
I imagine some kids will in fact give up their spots. Hoping anyway, since my daughter didnt get an assignment yet.
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Same with my son! It’s college!
Some will definitely be giving up their spots, at least judging from comments on the parents facebook groups (parents reporting that their kids got into apartments or private dorms). Some kids are even giving up a few of those coveted Blackwell spots. Your D could still end up anywhere!
(note the generational divide, with my son lurking among the students on discord, while I’m lurking on the parents facebook groups 
)
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My son did random and it turned out just fine. I believe all of the 9 kids in his suite had random, other than 2. He’s pretty mellow and easy going, but I think it definitely taught him some communication skills that will be helpful in life. At the beginning of the year there was a pretty thorough roommate agreement, I think both with all the suitemates and the individual roommate. The roommates had a zoom with their RA at the beginning of the year for a brief discussion about expectations before they signed their roommate agreements. I never heard of any roommate drama during the year and he’ll be renting an apartment with three of the guys next year.
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I laugh because that is…very relatable.
D was a freshman last year. Went in with a planned roommate, but they got put into a forced triple in one of the Units, so a random other person was added to the room. It was “fine” on a few fronts, tough on others.
On the “not a big deal” end of things, D and friend are pretty accommodating / gregarious / easy going, so they rolled with it. And the new roommate was, herself, not high-maintenance, didn’t go out partying late, etc. On the other hand, the new roommate didn’t go out much at all, so it was tough because there was always someone in the room (usually the roommate), and, per @scrambro’s point, it “kind of helps to ‘take turns’ not being in the room”. But if the roommate’s the one that doesn’t want to leave, there’s not a graceful way to be like “um, you can’t be in your room right now because I’ve been out for the last 12 hours and now need to not be around people”. Those are all (or can be) good lessons around growing up / learning to live with other people, but it did add a layer of stress to the year. And it definitely could have been worse if the unexpected roommate had been unpleasant to be around.
D and original roommate decided to give it another year, and will be rooming together in an off-campus house in the fall.
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My son went random and was in a triple with 2 other STEM kids. They all got along well but my son hungout more with one of his room mates rather than as a group of 3. Its a common situation in a triple where 2 room mates vibe better with each other than the other one. It can occasionally lead to a spare wheel vibe, but in our case they all were in different majors taking different classes and involved in different clubs. So, naturally all 3 spent very little time in their dorm and it wasn’t that difficult to get time alone in the dorm, if needed.
For the coming fall, S22 is moving into a frat he got recruited into. If not for that, he and the roommate he is close with would have moved in with some other friends into a large off-campus house.
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Same with my son (forced triple). Put in all doubles as choices (except the last one), but knew that odds were a triple was the most likely outcome anyway. And went into the lottery with the mindset that all the options had good and bad points (well, maybe except Blackwell ;-). Picked random for roommates and residence hall for the style to get the “full college experience” and maximize his chances of meeting friends in the dorms. Got Unit 3 residence hall which was what he preferred location-wise (prefers Units/Blackwell location over Foothill or CK). Happy to be so close to campus, dining hall, bear market, and tons of other great food options nearby, even though unit 3 sounds a bit run down. Might spend some of the money he saved by being in a triple on eating out more or a nicer apartment next year ;-).
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Does anyone else got $300 housing advance fee waived? I received a separate email saying, this is because I might qualify for federal, state and institutional gift aid later? I’m not low income.
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yes! daughter happy and her requested roommate got the same offer so we are assuming they are matched
Yes, we got our fee waived…Not totally clear why, though (although we do received financial aid).
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we don’t have any financial aid…that sentence says “As a student that may qualify as a recipient of certain federal, state, or institutional gift aid, we have automatically deferred the $300 advance payment…”
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Yeah, I have no idea!
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If you filled out Fafsa, you might get some aid that you don’t expect! If fees are waived, that’s great!
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We got our housing deposit waived as well - we filled out the FAFSA but only qualified for loans.
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Son got Foothill “RH Suite Double”. How can you tell how many other people will be in the mini-suite. The website says, “three to eleven bedroom.” Also, got the $300 waiver, and like other people mentioned my son did not qualify for any aide only loans. Does the email suggest that he may get a surprise award?
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Have your son poke around in Cal Central. There could be some aid/scholarships/awards that only required fafsa or HS gpa. There could be information there now, or it might (hopefully) still be coming. I don’t remember if the housing down payment was waived for us last year, we qualified for the Middle Class Scholarship.
I just moved my son out of a Foothill double, single gender, four bedroom, nine person suite. Did your son specify a single gender suite in the application? Those are smaller, up to four or five bedrooms I believe. The mixed gender suites are larger, up to 11 bedrooms. The number of bedrooms in the suite won’t be known until much later in the summer, close to move in.
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Son also got Foothill “RH Suite Double”. I recall yours is also an ME major that chose Cal over LA:). We did not have any waiver, probably as we didn’t file FA paperwork. Curious to see what suite he will get.