Room Preferences 2014 Freshman Housing Application Issues

alanahlovee
Sat, 08 Feb 2014 18:55:42 +0000

Unless they’ve changed the application since I applied last year, you should be allowed to enter your preferences for the dorms. I had the same worries about how the application boded for the rest of the university too, but it’s been nearly a year and I haven’t experienced or heard of anyone experiencing any of those issues I was worried about. I think the housing application is difficult when it first opens up because there are SO many people on it at the same time who are all trying to get their first choice of dorm. Last year I applied on the first day and it took forever to get through, but when I went back to work on it at a later date, it ran pretty well.

Also, there is definitely a benefit to committing and applying for housing earlier. UC’s freshman class this year was the largest in school history, and because of that, many freshmen who applied late (I’m sure close to or after the priority deadline) were not able to get into university housing fall semester because they ran out of space! This might not be the case this upcoming year, because the incoming class might not be as big and because they bought out some units at University Park Apartments to try to make sure it doesn’t happen again, but I would err on the side of caution when it comes to applying. If you apply relatively early and not more towards the deadline, you shouldn’t have any issues at all, but I would definitely not wait until the last minute if you have a particular dorm in mind (for example, certain dorms like Turner fill up REALLY quickly because of Honors students and athletes who are able to apply early, and Morgens and Schneider which accommodate upperclassmen who apply a month before) or if commuting is not a possibility just to be safe!