<p>I wanted a single hall style, but now my parents are worried about intruders barging in through the door. (i’m not sure what happened with the recent event with the lacrosse students but was her door locked?)</p>
<p>They are worried that since I don’t have a roommate, I may be in danger if I’m in a single in a hall style building…(the roommate would…protect me? lol)
I told them about the common room style ones. But are they really safer? Do you literally have to have a key to enter the common area and then another key to get to your room? and is it really more…house/room like? or is the atmosphere no different than a hall style?</p>
<p>should I just get a random roommate? I really don’t like the idea of living in old/new dorms because I will be with all freshmen and my school sends 90+ kids to uva and I want to actually have the chance to meet new people. and the probability of me getting a roommate that was a student at my school is … not large, but significant.</p>
<p>is the common style ones single-sex with all freshmen paired together?
and what’s the probability of getting a double in a hall-style residential college?</p>
<p>yeah, sorry for the long post. But some answers would definitely put my parents (and me) more at ease. thanks.</p>
<p>It would take quite a human to kick in a dormitory door. The incident that you are referring to involved an unlocked apartment door (off campus) and a kicked in inside bedroom door in an apartment. You would have no trouble kicking in most hollow interior doors; however, the solid wood doors in dormitories are not easy to get through.</p>
<p>The incident was not random violence.</p>
<p>Classic knee jerk reaction. That incident was very unfortunate and it should make people a little more aware of their own security, but it doesn’t mean you have to think irrationally. The odds of somebody kicking down a door to harm you are astronomically small. You have rooms nearby that will hear the noise. These are isolated incidents, very unfortunate, but isolated. Living in a single should be fine if that is what you want. You aren’t living in Mogadishu, so you should be fine.</p>
<p>Or just go on facebook and find someone who’s looking for a roommate. I’ve been talking to like 10 different girls, and though I ended up opting for random assignment, I would have loved living with almost all of them.</p>
<p>I would not change your plans based on this heartbreaking event. As I’m sure you know, it was not a random attack so what your parents appear to be fearing is not any more or less likely. It is something that I will not pretend to understand, however, it was not random.
I don’t know that a roommate will make you any safer… you have to rely on another person to lock the door. Remember that everyone entering your residence hall must swipe their student card to gain access, and can only do so if you are a resident of that building. Do not let grief for the events become hysteria and drive a decision that does not have similar characteristics.
If YOU feel better with a roommate than that is a different story, but I would try to calm your parents concerns which are natural. You are their daughter, they love you.</p>