Lucy MooreWashington University expected, at most, 1,350 students to accept their offer of admission, but more students accepted and as a result, some members of the class of 2010 found their housing assignments disappointing.
Maryse Pearce, a freshman living in Beaumont, requested a modern double, but, like many incoming freshman, has a traditional triple.
“I was really upset at first,” said Pearce. After seeing her room and moving in, however, Pearce has changed her mind and decided, “I like my dorm, it’s a nice size – it’s worked out well in the end.”
With so many students, both upper and lower classmen, unable to secure the housing they wanted, Chancellor Mark Wrighton sought to explain the influx of incoming students.
“It’s not easy to predict who will accept our offer,” he said.
The Chancellor expects many students to be creative and learn to live with their housing situation.
Still, some freshmen are reasonably apprehensive about their living, particularly those in traditional dorms.
Matt Herman, who lives in Rubelmann, pointed out the lack of basic amenities in his dorm.
“I would like to have a door on my closet,” he lamented.
Plus, being able to fit everything into a small room can require innovation. “Whatever doesn’t fits gets hauled back to Kansas,” said Christine Hansen.
Besides the reduction in “home comforts” that members of the class of 2010 will experience this year, such as having to share a communal restroom, kitchen and laundry area, another general area of concern arises: roommates.
Jessica Williams was assigned a triple in Umrath and worries about, “the compromises that we’ll have to make.”
Jen Sisto, also in a triple but in Rubelman, said she, “wasn’t sure what it would be like having two roommates instead of one.”
Generally, these apprehensions come from the horror stories about awful roommates everyone has heard from upperclassmen, but not everyone has something frightening to say.
“It was a new experience having to accommodate two other people’s agendas.I learned to be flexible,” said Min Qi, a current senior who lived in a triple in Beaumont her freshmen year.
Along with learning the necessary skill of how to live with someone else, having a roommate or roommates creates a more social atmosphere.
Roommates bring their friends back to the shared room, which brings more opportunities to meet people.
Living with someone also means less strain on your wallet because they can help to share the burden of buying/renting a fridge, microwave or other parts of a room.
Those students who were assigned a second priority or “forced” triple, 45 students total, may find this year particularly difficult because those rooms weren’t originally designed as a triple room.
Associate Director of Residential Life Rob Wild and the offices of Residential Life are, “acknowledging that its not an ideal situation,” and providing a $200 gift receipt to the University Bookstore and a lottery number at the front of the class for housing next year to all students still in a second priority triple by the end of August.