<p>I would be surprised to see her turned away from Risley. Popularity of the program houses comes and goes. In recent years, kids have ended up in Risley who did not choose that dorm. Many (that I have heard about) are pleasantly surprised. Reading over the housing materials, they don’t answer your question. I would call the housing office for more information.</p>
<p>Thank you Cormom15 for understanding how overwhelming this is for my daughter. Your point was on target! Welcome back to a second semester freshman, received horrible time slot and so did all her friends. Then she has to figure out where she will live next year because with all the timeslots they got they will NOT be in West campus, College town residences or upper level house residences. So there are very few options for someone who wants to live on campus and be close to her friends and other sophmores. She does NOT want to live off campus yet. Just should not be! and if she does a program house on North campus I am afraid she will be isolated and not have friends to go to dinner with as she does now. This is a concern to me as a mother and to her.</p>
<p>I do understand because we just lived through the whole thing last year! I am sorry to hear that your D will be split up from her friends. My D had a good enough number to get onto West, but the process was very stressful among friends and the housing really ended up only so so. The dorm is ok and the house system makes it easy to find people available for dinner, as the dining hall is right there, so that’s a plus. A lot of West Campus sophomores end up pledging a frat/sorority because they are looking for things to do, although my D did not and she does find it to be a bit isolating. </p>
<p>I hate to even bring this up but wait until your D gets back next year as a first semester sophomore. Everyone races to find the best off campus housing by October break. A lot can change over the course of the year and then the students are absolutely stuck into contracts that they can’t get out of. So frustrating…</p>
<p>Risley sounds like an option for your D and her friends. I think the mixed ages/stages sounds like a plus actually in a lot of ways.</p>
<p>Thanks Cormom15 for all the advice. As a mom you get stressed when your kids are stressed.</p>
<p>My son and his friends are moving into Campus Hill. Hope it is okay …</p>
<p>Oh, about program houses. My son is in Just About Music. He did NOT apply for it, although he is very interested in music. But he took a room there via the lottery. Only JAM, Holland International, and Schuyler were available when his number came up. Honestly, he has made some very good friends there this year, and they will all be living together in an apartment next year. It might help that he is an audiophile and plays piano, so he did have something in common with the other residents. Although the building isn’t as nice as Mews, the room is about the same – and he has enjoyed living there much more than he expected. But, I agree, the process is very stressful. Also stressful the fall of sophomore year, when they are all looking for apartments and signing leases! I was surprised he didn’t wait until the last minute! I really hope he/they will stay in the same apartment for the next two years …</p>
<p>The lottery/program house application process is a bit confusing to me. So, galen0805, your son did NOT apply for the program houses. He got his room when the regular lottery process had remaining rooms in some of the program houses. Those who apply to program houses get to pick from the available rooms sooner? It doesn’t apply to my son, since he already lives there. I am just curious, since people are always asking about Risley and other houses.</p>
<p>galen - my D will also be at Campus Hill. I feel the exact same way you do!</p>
<p>I think housing for rising sophomore’s is crazy. This is so stressful, back from break, starting classes and now the housing lottery. D has been so stressed. She got the best number out of her group. Good enough (according to last years statistics) to get a double in West for her and her roommate, but not sure if it’s good enough to pull in the other girls that she would be blocking with. I called housing and they said she needs to be prepared to either take a double in West and cut the other girls loose during the lottery or have a back up plan to keep all of them together by blocking somewhere else. How crazy is that!?!?!</p>
<p>Cutting friends loose in the middle of the lottery…hey I got my room on West, so sorry for you, see ya later? Great way to keep friends.</p>
<p>So since she is in this position, she was trying to talk to the other girls. She was willing to give up a double in west to keep the 4 of them together and wanted them to talk backup plans. Well one of the other girls decided she wants to be in West no matter what and has another friend who is in the first time slot. They are pulling her into the block and she is ditching her original group. Real nice. Here my daugher was willing to give up a room in west if it meant all of them staying together, but this girl wants west no matter what.</p>
<p>So this leaves the other girls potential roommate out in the cold. Again, my D told her that the 3 of them would live somewhere else so that they can stay together, but hopefully, with just the 3 of them they will be able to get the rooms as a block? The other girl is willing to take a bed in a double and get a random roommate. </p>
<p>My D says EVERYONE is so stressed over this. This is a really horrible system. I think the blocking makes it worse because now everyone is trying to find and latch onto the people with the best time slots.</p>
<p>Just needed to vent!</p>
<p>mdmomfromli, vent away!!! My D found herself in a very similar situation. She had a very good lottery number, but when it came time to pick who to block with, it was very difficult without hurting someone in the process. She actually ended up abandoning her time slot (the 4th) for the 3rd and blocking with another group. As a result, she had to choose between two friends but did what she felt was least hurtful as the other girl that she did not block with had the 2nd time slot and another group to block with. </p>
<p>Fast forward to this year. The girl that she blocked with completely dumped her the minute they got back to campus. They had made plans all summer to look at housing for junior year (welcome back first semester sophomores) and this girl had every excuse in the book for finding fault with apartments and then blamed my D for everything - even enlisting the rest of the suite, although most have seen through this girl. It turns out that this girl decided to contact another group of girls from freshman year that she was not really friends with, but more less acquaintances with to see if she could room with them next year as juniors and then asked my D to “understand.” Why did she pick these girls? They are in a sorority and she wanted to join as a sophomore (perfect chance to get in) and did not want to live in the sorority house as a junior and she knew these girls would be living off campus. Worked out pretty perfectly for this other girl. To make matters WORSE this girl did not even tell my D that she had signed a rental contract with these other girls - she found out from another boy! My D contacted her and all she said was “heard the great news that you are living with so and so. Sounds like you are thinking of joining X sorority next year. Thanks for letting me know.”</p>
<p>Luckily my D has remained friends with the original girl as this other girl had done some equally horrible things to her as well. </p>
<p>So long story, short - it is a very stressful process that can leave many hard feelings. Once this is all settled for you, if you need any advice about next year…I’ll do my best to help!</p>
<p>mdmomfromli, I understand totally your fustration. My daughter as a rising sophmore is so stessed having to tell her new friends that she really really likes that she will not block with them because she will be applying for a program house because there will be no shot anyway she wil end up living with them with a second day late time. All of the girls in her group got a late time second day. One of her friends does not believe her and I am sure is mad. My daughter doesnt want the stress of it all and just applied to the program house. She will be isolated from friends. This whole process sucks and Cornell University Housing should change their system or do something about housing!!! For an Ivy League school they should be ashamed that they can’t solve these problems that exist from year to year!!!</p>
<p>GMABCD - I agree with your earlier statement! We do worry when our D is worried, especially when they are faced with a new semester of academic challenges, which should be the number one priority.</p>
<p>Your D is absolutely doing the right thing. My D offered to keep her time slot to accommodate another friend that had a terrible time slot on the second night (and could still accommodate the other girl she agreed to block with.) This friend decided to stay with her other friends even though she was warned about her terrible time slot. Again… fast forward to March - this girl and her friends got split up and ALL ended up scattered in various rooms in Collegetown dorms, not IDEAL at all.</p>
<p>The housing is unbelievably stressful, except if you are an RA or in a sorority as a sophomore and then there are no worries. The off campus housing is even worse if you can believe that! </p>
<p>I will try to pass along any helpful info I can to alleviate some of your worries!!</p>
<p>Thanks for all of the support. Spoke to D again this morning. It looks like a friendship may end over housing. The girl who ditched them, doesn’t understand why anyone would be upset with her and is mad that my D is upset. Not to mention the girl who she really threw under the bus, because now she doesn’t have a roommate…as my D said this morning that girl is MAD!</p>
<p>I think the real problem (besides not enough housing) is being allowed to block with so many. That creates such drama as everyone is searching for someone with the “best” number and trying to get into the block. When I was in college you picked a roommate and whoever had the best number got to pull in the other person. I think Cornell should limit blocking to 2 people, it would eliminate drama and give more students a fair shot at getting into West. </p>
<p>D is taking a tough courseload this semester (20 credits) and really didn’t need this drama now.</p>
<p>I think D may look at Campus Hill for Junior year, but I guess Sophomore year needs to be figured out first.</p>
<p>^
You might want to look into Ravenwood apartments, where I’m staying next here. They might still have an opening. They’re basically on West and are pretty nice inside-- and I’m a bit of a snob.</p>
<p>It’s nice to be able to vent with other Cornell Mom’s and kids. But seriously Cornell University Housing is seriously at fault and it is ridiculous that an Ivy League Institution can not come up with a better solution or create more dorms. For God’s sake we certainly pay enough in tuition and the cost of dorming is by far cheap!</p>
<p>mdmomfromli - sorry to hear of all of the dorm drama. We have been there 2 years in a row! My D was very distraught this year when she was dumped flat and then thrown under the bus by her close “friend” who decided that her “social standing” was now her number one priority.</p>
<p>As far as off campus for Jr year, my D chose Campus Hill over Ravenwood because she felt it was just that much closer to campus and as a girl walking alone at night that is a very important consideration, especially lately. Collegetown was just too pricey and the apartments were not nice enough to warrant such high rent.</p>
<p>GMABCD - totally agree about the venting. Since we are a year ahead - hopefully we can help you with any questions you may have about the housing debacle!</p>
<p>Would love to see a “Cornell Parents” ongoing thread here. We are currently in the research phase but Cornell is rapidly rising to the top! When I was reading about Dartmouth, I gained a lot of helpful insight from reading through their ongoing thread devoted to parents of students.<br>
Such topics as housing, hotels, travel, student issues, parent weekends, restaurant recommendations, things to do while visiting, general advice, etc… Thanks to all for your contributions to this forum.</p>
<p>^^
Collegetown is ridiculous unless you are a huge partier. Eddygate charges $1,750 per month for a 450 square feet room. Ridiculous, this isn’t Manhattan.</p>
<p>Ravenwood is not much farther than Campus Hill at all. Ravenwood is literally a 2 or three minute walk to the West Campus complex, basically the same distance you’re walking from a North Campus dorm to Appel/RPCC.</p>
<p>Mom2Players - I would love, love a parent’s thread!</p>
<p>Saugus - girls really have more to be concerned about location because of the safety issues that we all keep reading about and the minute you step off campus, the Campus Security is not available. I agree about Collegetown. I am happy for you that you like Ravenwood though!!</p>
<p>I believe the biggest problem is the fact that they allow blocking. That makes what appears to be a decent time slot a horrible one…there are some studio apartments available at Collegetown Plaza. There are rooms available at houses sprinkled throughout collegetown. Both will go fast as the lottery system plays out and transfer students get offers of admission. On North Campus, there is a whole house available somewhere in the 400 block of Thurston - at least it was available in late December. Have your student walk down that road and look for the contact information. If you go to some of the websites like:</p>
<p>ithacarenting.com
craigslist
some of the realtors in the area</p>
<p>you will find something big enough for a friend group, but it will take some effort.</p>
<p>Cornell has 13,500 undergraduates. It is unlike other Ivies in terms of size and scope, so offering housing to everyone isn’t really feasible. It really is like a lot of other schools its size. I think the problem is that they “guaratee housing for sophomores” - that just sets everyone up for disappointment. They need to lay out the facts in the fall semester, so people can plan accordingly.</p>