MarieMTmom

Goodness! Here we are, almost at the middle of April and we still have not made our final decision

I have read the descriptions of the residence halls, but I am curious about a few things, and I would love to hear a current student's opinion on the following questions:

* Which residence hall is the favorite among MT students and why?
* Are there laundry facilities and A/C in every hall? Are they always operational?
* Does anyone have information on the freshman Hawk Hall?
* Are the beds provided extra-long twin size?
* Are the mattresses firm, posturepedic type?
* Which furniture is supplied with the rooms? Do they have microfridge?
* How many bathrooms are there in the suites? Are there bathrooms and showers in the hallways as well?
* Which is the favorite dining hall?
* What means of transportation will be most practical to get from your hall to the new performing arts building?
* This is silly, but, what is the popular Tote bag at UHa? (It seems that every college has one)

If anyone has pictures or videos of the interior of the halls and rooms I would really really appreciate it if you could post them here or PM me :-)

Thanks

violadad

My son is a Hartt '07 viola performance BM grad, and was there in a double major program academic years Sept '02 through May '07, so info might be a bit dated.

Laundry facilities are in each dorm, quality and operational status vary considerably, as does best time to use.

Hawk Hall just opened this academic year. There used to be a series of photos on the website. I have no idea of that building's layout; I do believe it has central air.

The older freshmen dorms (The Complexes) went through a complete gut and refurbish the summer of '06. I haven't been inside since that redo. "Only B, D, E and F Complexes have air conditioning." per the website.

There are limited AC units in Regents Park and the Village, and are reserved or allocated based on health needs. Park River has central air.

Beds had always been twin extra longs, mattresses are not the greatest. You could check with ResLife if you want/need specific specs. Per son, they were serviceable, and varied from year to year, some better than others.
(Off topic, but he was at Shenandoah for Shenandaoh Performs last year and the bed he had killed his back; it took him a week to recover.)

Standard furniture per student includes bed, desk, dresser. Suites also had a kitchen type table/chairs, but no additional common furniture for the suite. Suites with kitchens had a full size fridge, stove. Standard dorm rooms do not supply mini fridge; it was bring your own or rent one. Same with microwave.

If you're familiar with institutional food service purveyors, UHartford uses Aramark. Food was "ok", nothing special on a par with typical college dining experience. The wife and I had a few meals there, some better than others. I wasn't too happy with the costs of the meal plan, nor the parameters. His particular schedules made access limited on many days, and ended up doing a lot of a la carte eating, sucking up his allocated "dining dollars" fairly quickly. This got better atfer freshman year, when he had a suite with kitchen and microwave. Cost us a bit more to supply food, but offset was less eating/ordering out on our dime.

Bathrooms/showers in the suites were 2 full for the four and six occupancies, 1 full for the two person units. The dorm style housing had hall units only.

The transportation to and from Handel Arts Center will probably be by campus shuttle bus. I imagine a bus schedule will be posted, if not already up on the website.

MarieMTmom

Thanks Violadad for such detailed information. You even touched the issue of meals, I am glad you offered some insight on that. I'll keep searching for info and hope to hear from other posters as well.

violadad

Another side note, beyond freshman year the housing selection seemed a nice process, at least for son. UHartford's "Room Selection" process begins in March or April for the following year for continuing students, and status is determined by a combination of total credits, financial obligations outstanding, disciplinary record or room infractions, and GPA. As a dual performance major, he always carried a decent credit load, plus had a number of AP credits going in, and was always near 4.0. The details are on the ResLife portion of the website.

This system put him a year ahead for room selections (basically, was a junior as defined by credit load while still a sophomore year-wise, etc.) so it seemed he always had a leg up for the next year. He went from freshman dorm to six man suite, then two years in a two man suite (with same roomie). For his fifth year we opted for an off campus studio, better suited for his last year's needs. Out of pocket additional cost was a bit less than $1000 more than what a 2 man suite and meal plan would have been. He did carry the commuter meal plan his last year, which gave him the access and flexibility he needed.

Another issue- if your student has a car, parking rates had been adjusted for class year, less for upper classmen than freshmen. They may have now gone to a flat rate for all. There are student lots prone to (serious) flooding in extreme weather (maybe 6-8 times during his time there), but notices and alerts are posted well in advance and safe on campus parking alternatives put in place. It's a non issue if one is aware of it. A few ignoring the warnings have had water damage/total losses. Just thought it was worth mentioning.

MarieMTmom

Thank you Violadad. It is always nice to hear the wise advice of a parent with experience. Any other tips are welcome anytime.