<p>My D is attending UOC this fall as freshmen. Here are some Questions I have for housing that I did not find in the FAQ at the parents site:</p>
<ol>
<li>I thought most of the dorms are two per, are there more than two in a room? Any special procedures the students have to follow to apply for them? Do you see an advantage in multiple roomates at UOC?</li>
<li>Can students pre-arrange roomates? What are the advantages and disadvatages? Procedures to apply for? If one do not prearrange roomates, how does UOC assign roomates? Does UOC mix upper classperson with lower classperson?</li>
<li>Does one "house" traditionally has more party than the other(out of 75 houses)? How do they define a "house"? How many houses to a building?</li>
<li>When does the upper class move into the dorm? Is it the same time as freshmen on 9/19? Are the beds pre-assigned or first come first serve?</li>
</ol>
<p>For starters, I’m pretty sure the housing application deadline has passed a while ago now. Talk to your daughter to make sure she filled it out. It’s likely that she did it when she deposited. The housing assignments are going to be released by August 6, I believe.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>I think triples technically exist, but they’re rare. I don’t know of any students in triples now. There are no special procedures that I know of. Personally, I think the advantage for U of C first-years is in singles, since they don’t cost any more than doubles for the first year. But that’s just my take.</p></li>
<li><p>Yes, they can prearrange, but this would have to be completed already. They assign roommates based on the questionnaire in the housing application. It’s rare for a first-year to be assigned a room with an upperclassman, but it does happen on occasion. I think that only happens if the upperclassman wants a roommate but can’t find a current student to room with. In general, don’t expect this to happen.</p></li>
<li><p>I suppose some houses traditionally have more parties than others, but I couldn’t really say which ones. Generally, houses in Max Palevsky, Pierce, and South Campus have more parties, but that rule has plenty of exceptions. Since the houses are randomly assigned within buildings, they don’t really develop an identity that carries between years. A house is basically just a section of a building, with anywhere from one to eight houses per building. Again, they’re randomly assigned. Each house has its own resident staff (resident heads and resident assistants), as well as its own table in one of the dining halls.</p></li>
<li><p>Most upperclassmen move the following Friday and Saturday this year. The rooms are pre-assigned, so it’s not first-come first-serve. All of the returning upperclassmen already picked their rooms in May, so there won’t be competition for space.</p></li>
<li><p>Beds in all buildings except Pierce take twin extra-long sheets. Beds in Pierce take regular twin sheets. For comforters, either twin extra-long or regular twin works fine.</p></li>
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<p>In recent years (but not, I think, last year) they had a limited number of “forced triples” where because of over-registration three people had to be housed in what normally would have been a double. In 2007, my son was assigned to one of these (in the Shoreland, where the doubles were much larger than in other dorms), but one of the three students assigned to the room never showed up and he wasn’t replaced. There were some indications that the housing people more or less knew that he was likely not to show, and he never communicated with the other roommates. I think there were fewer than 10 triples that year, so it affected about 2% of the first-years in the class of 2011. There may have been a few more for the class of 2010, which had a few more people.</p>
<p>Closing the Shoreland and replacing it with South Campus really limits their ability to do this. You could physically fit three beds, desks, and dressers into a Shoreland room without bunking or stacking. I think it would be impossible for the doubles in some of the other dorms, and much more difficult in any of them.</p>