<p>Hey. I’m a 19yr. freshman aspiring to move (3 hours away) with a close friend for my first semester @UMontana. I’ve recently contacted enrollment services with my obligatory reasons, which included short-distance, financial affordability, along with horrible sibling and friend dorm-life experiences, which amounted to moreover overwhelming and shoddy experiential distractions than actual benefits. </p>
<p>They responded generically, with the “studies-show” nonsense, listing standard lease exceptions entailing married/medical/health/employer-necessities/family-status, etc.</p>
<p>My question is: What authority do they actually possess? What exploitative steps might anyone with experience on the matter suggest to me? </p>
<p>This is my impregnable stance, and my friend’s living status is dependent on this. So anyone contemplating either a reiteration of the same campus living > success spiel, or an attempt at swaying me by means of recollecting personal dorm-room triumphs might instead elect not to respond.</p>
<p>~ This is likely the wrong forum, but thank you.</p>
<p>If ‘usually’ averted me I would already have displaced my best interests. I know there are assured measures in my condition, and if anyone here is knowledgeable of them I would appreciate their sentiment. Only them. My argument is somewhat firm, but amelioration is my preferred path.</p>
I love the place, the people, the establishment. This is the ONLY plausible pursuance my friend and I can lead in order to grow up there, mutually. The conditions are such that if it topples for one, we’re irrevocably both left dormant in separate cities. Now, it’s of my belief that not only do affordability, luxury, and very comparable distances offset this study-influenced campus gimmick, but they alone accrete a life I’m very intent on fighting for. If that brings me to seem intolerant, it’s because I am. However, such inferences are inconducive of the actual thread and truly only belong in PM.</p>
<p>Brown, much appreciated. I’ll attempt what I can ~</p>
<p>1.) You had several choices regarding which schools to apply to, and the housing situation (if it’s this big of a deal) should’ve been a factor in choosing which schools you wanted to submit an application.
2.) It is NOT the end of the world if you don’t live with your friend–if you’re really good friends, you’ll make time to see each other anyway.
3.) How can you be “left dormant in separate cities” if you’re going to the same school? It’s not like one of you is going to NYU and one to UCLA. </p>
<p>And if a school has rules regarding their on-campus housing requirements (again, something that probably should’ve been looked at while researching schools), they can probably do what they want. There are thousands of schools in this country that you could’ve selected, you didn’t HAVE to go to UMontana. Some things they can do–they can put a hold on your records, essentially blocking you from registering for future classes, they can drop you from whatever fall classes you’re already registered for, etc. </p>
<p>If you came across to your college officials as snotty and entitled as you do here, I can certainly understand why they aren’t leaping over fences to assist you.</p>
<p>Okay, so they have rules. You have to follow the rules unless you can find a way around them. What authority do they have? Well, they can kick you out. Is that authority enough for you? I don’t see what about that is hard to understand. I would try to give you some ideas to help you but you are coming off as someone who wouldn’t care, so I won’t waste my time.</p>
<p>By the way, you’re not impressing anyone with your SAT words.</p>
<p>“By the way, you’re not impressing anyone with your SAT words.”</p>
<p>I was thinking the same thing. I don’t know what kind of career plans you have, but if you think you can pass that off in everyday conversation, you’re nuts. Tone down the diction. This is an Internet message board. Be precise and clear in what you are saying if you want to be helped.</p>
<p>If you have extraordinary circumstances that you don’t think they’ve adequately considered (if, for example, “my friend’s living status is dependent on this” is your way of saying “my friend is literally going to die if we can’t live together”), write another letter, make it very clear what your argument is, and do a better job with the supporting documentation.</p>
<p>“I don’t want to live in the dorm,” “I know people who did not like living in the dorm,” “I don’t want to spend as much money as it takes to live in the dorm,” and “I want to live with my friend, who is not attending your school and can’t live in the dorm,” and so on are not extraordinary reasons. Those are regular everyday reasons all kinds of people don’t want to live in the dorm. School administrators already considered those reasons when they made the rule and already decided that the communal living experience is sufficiently important to outweigh them. If your “impregnable stance” is that the rules that apply to everyone else don’t apply to you, you are going to find that almost nobody other than you takes that stance seriously.</p>
<p>Cards4Life is exactly right: if living off campus is as important to you as you say it is and if you don’t have significantly better reasons than you’ve already offered, then the University of Montana is not the right school for you right now. Why don’t you withdraw, spend a year at a community college while living non-dormantly with your friend, and then transfer to the University of Montana with enough credits to avoid the residency requirement?</p>
Well, we’re not, truly … unless this can happen. Otherwise hours apart with hectic lives. And it’s the only mutually affordable route. </p>
<p>Also, I have the poorest articulation I’m aware of. I’m an ineptly social creature, and this IS how I converse in everyday life, which by itself justifies my request for conversational cues and legality understanding before I partake a reasonable conversation with said office. I realize that I’m fortunate in potentially exploiting this opportunity, but also that if someone involved could fortify the trust to scribble dorm-intake from their minds, I’d work to be an asset to multiple aspects of their institution. Otherwise, neither of the three sides can conversely benefit.</p>
<p>@nontraditional: If I believed my reasons were accordingly weak, I wouldn’t allow myself to take this stand. They extend further, but yet again I’m poorly self-expressive. I’ve known exceptions, personally, and I believe my reasons to be much better and worth a few minutes of their time. But your points were exquisite and I thank you.</p>
<p>All the helpful advice is truly appreciated, people; I remain a poor, vexing writer until English brush-ups!</p>
Wait… are you saying you want to live three hours away from the school you’ll be attending just so you can live with your friend? Or is the school three hours from where your parents reside?</p>
<p>maru, can you find someone who knows you well enough that you can explain the nuances of your argument and who writes better than you do, to help you file an appeal?</p>
<p>SAT words work best when used appropriately, not when they are used without concern for style and fluidity. So Maru, you may wish to take a couple of writing courses your first semester to fix this problem.</p>
<p>Having said that, if your goal is to avoid dorm residency, then keep the exemptions in mind. One, as you mentioned, is a medical waiver. So think about any condition for which you might show a few of the symptoms, and see if you can get a family physician or another doctor that you know to diagnose you with it, and write a letter explaining why it make living in the dorms a non-option. Since there is no real way for them to dispute medical claims you make, this is likely your most fruitful avenue if your plan is to attend UMontana. Should this fail, and you find yourself unable to overcome your hatred of dorm life, you will need to withdraw yourself from the institution and seek admission elsewhere. After all, as other have noted, there are many schools with no requirement that you live on campus at any time during your studies.</p>