U Michigan and housing
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Anonymous
| I am a counselor and attended earlier this year an on-campus session for counselors, including a panel of students to answer our questions. Another counselor asked the students to tell us what they would change (if anything) about their Michigan experience and they all said the housing situation. |
Anonymous
New freshman dorm spaces upcoming next year. https://umaec.umich.edu/projects/major-projects/new-central-campus-residential-development/ That’s 2300 brand new beds. More new dorms planned. https://record.umich.edu/articles/regents-approve-site-prep-for-student-housing-historic-home-relocation/ |
Anonymous
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https://umaec.umich.edu/projects/major-projects/new-central-campus-residential-development/web-camera/
It’s really impressive and located midway between the central campus and stadium area. |
Anonymous
| My DD is a Michigan sophomore and living in her sorority this year and just signed a lease for an expensive apartment for next year. Another consideration is many kids go abroad junior year and it's very difficult to find sub-lessors for spring semester so we will likely be paying for this 12 month lease for her to live in it for 4-5 months! Not a reason not to go to Michigan but still... |
Anonymous
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(1) There're webcams for phase 2, too. But as of right now it's only been demolition, not construction. (Plans for phase 2 have not been released yet.)
https://umaec.umich.edu/projects/major-projects/central-campus-residential-development-phase-2-housing-demolition/web-camera/ The un-demolished house in the lower left corner of the top webcam is the Raoul Wallenberg house, which will be moved next to the Arthur Miller house. (2) The amount of housing construction in Ann Arbor right now is impressive. In this previous post I mentioned the numbers. In the next few years (counting what opened this year), over 8000 new beds will have opened. This is counting both Umich new dorms phase 1 and private development. https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/30/1280638.page#30471852 |
Anonymous
Starting fall 2025, incoming first-year students had the option of choosing their dorm. (Though kids who didn't respond on time or were admitted from the waitlist did not have that option, I believe.) And see the posts about the new dorms opening fall 2026. So I don't think it's "north campus or nothing" any more. |
Anonymous
I think this has been true of Michigan for many years. We now know what a tool Santa Ono ended up being, so I hesitate to defend him. But it's my understanding that he heard this message from students loud and clear early on, and he was a key driving force behind the new dorms on central campus. (It was a stroke of luck though that the lumberyard property became available for purchase, otherwise they would've been adding new dorms on north campus.) So things are changing for the better, I think. (I have a kid in the dorms at Michigan who'll be moving off-campus next year.) |
Anonymous
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This was where I lived 30 years ago in grad school and it looks exactly the same now! Rent is double.
https://offcampushousing.umich.edu/city/ann-arbor-mi/listing/832-packard-st-74416 |
Anonymous
| DS is there now. He didn’t start looking for housing until mid-March and many apartments were still available. His is a new building that’s really nice - roof top pool and jacuzzi, with jumbo tv, indoor walking track and two-story workout room. I can’t imagine wanting to stay in the dorms after the first year with all the new housing available. |
Anonymous
Ugly outside but fine inside. Tuition in my grad program has doubled so that checks out. I think the emphasis on granite countertops everywhere in student housing advertisements is pretty funny. I would think that countertop materials would be low priority for undergrads. However it's pretty much shorthand for "not a dump" to the children of the suburban upper middle class. |
Anonymous
+1 |
Anonymous
Rooftop pool? In Michigan? |
Anonymous
Quite a few of the new student highrises have "amenity decks" or rooftops with pools. The big screen TV on top of one of them (Verve) is so big you can see it from Michigan Stadium, I'm told. |
Anonymous
Upon second look, the kitchen has been renovated. I had laminate countertops and not stainless steel appliances. |
Anonymous
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The choose your own dorm situation was bumbled this year. It was the first time they did it and the messages from different sources didn't always align. What ended up happening was that it didn't matter if you sent in your housing request on the first day or last day. They took all entries and randomized them. If a roommate group was set up, they were given one time slot. The time slots were available over 4 days and were not split up in male and female groups. Consequently, a noticably larger number of females had day 1 times and their rooms went way faster than male rooms. The real issue came from allowing those who didn't have a preassigned roommate to chose from all available housing stock. So, let's say there were 20 rooms available (40 beds). Then, the first 10 students were all singles and each took an empty bed in an open room. That left 10 doubles available to roommate groups. The 11th roomate group was shown no availabilty b/c all of the first 10 rooms were now just for 1 more person. Students choosing as early as the 2nd day were forced to break up pre-determined roommate groups or chose north campus. Had housing alloted a percentage of rooms for groups and a percentage for those going in blind, this would have been avoided. Hopefully, they will fix it for next year.
There were families that decided they would rather their kid live in an apartment than on North. So, the rented in the summer and there was plenty of availability. There isn't a housing shortage in AA. It's jsut expensive. My kid was worried about North and I get it. I know some kids live there, but taking a bus back and forth each day is a different experience. I think we would have been with the apartment renting group. This is not unique to Michigan. I know of at least 3 other schools that were on DC's list that had housing that required busing. For sophomore year, DC will either be in a greek house or renting with friends. Landlords are taking deposits for waitlists, but they can't actually sign until spring. Then, junior year, we'll probably be paying a year for a few months and it is what it is. Most students don't want to go away during fall semester b/c it's a better time to be in AA. |