Horrible dorm assignment!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:1) Basements are cooler than the upper floors (heat rises), so your child is in the best position for a dorm without A/C.

2) California doesn't get that hot for very long as you enter into the school year -- especially at night (it will be cool).

3) There are thousands of schools that cost a lot of money that don't have A/C in their dorms -- your child will be fine. It may even teach them how to be a little bit resilient.

Inland CA definitely gets hotter and stays hotter longer than Coastal CA. The 5Cs are inland. However, it is still desert so cools down at night.

Even if true, that first month of college is an exciting time, and you won't be spending much time in your dorm when you are just starting out hopefully. It's very abnormal in the Inland Empire for it to be greater than 75ish at night, even sometimes with 100+ degree days. This week there's a high of 95 and low of 71 in the area.

It’s going to not feel great if it’s 95 all day, heat tends to get trapped in a room.

In the basement?

It’s obviously partially above ground if it has a window. I lived in a first floor dorm with two windows and no ac my freshman year. It got hot, we used fans. Op’s kid will have to do the same.

[Anonymous]

OP, Get a dehumidifier or daughter will suffer from mold. It will cool the room like AC. Get a note from doc if necessary.

[Anonymous]

I went to college in the early 80s in Arizona. No AC in my dorm. Some dorms had "sleeping porches" -- basically a large room filled with beds and screens in the open windows.

[Anonymous]

I had to pay a lot extra for my single in college. It was a lottery, and I won.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here-I plan to let DC handle it but living so far away does make it more difficult to bear. I appreciate those of you who have a modicum of understanding-and the rest of you can go a sit on a thumbtack. After a bad high school
Experience we were expecting college to be way better and this is a very bad start in our book!!

My freshman had an alcoholic for a dorm mate. It could be worse.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, Get a dehumidifier or daughter will suffer from mold. It will cool the room like AC. Get a note from doc if necessary.

LOL - it's SoCal - there will be no moisture in the air for the dehumidifier to pull from.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Totally agree with the sentiment that a single is the way to go. I had a double in TN in the '90s, can't remember if we had AC, hated my roommate and was incredibly jealous of the people who had dared to request a single. Having a roommate is highly overrated.

To give you another perspective, my daughter will be a freshman at an Ivy this fall and was assigned a triple. No AC, high floor. Bummer but those are the breaks. And everyone does *not* in fact pay the same for housing; the annual fee for a triple is about $2K less than for a single. From student message boards, the going rate for someone to initiate a housing swap (their single for your double or triple) runs at least $2K, likely more like $4K.

DC just finished freshman year at Harvard in a suite. Her two roommates got there before us and she had to sleep in...the common room. No, not a room that was separate from their living area, she was in what was supposed to be the living space for a double suite. I was much more angry than she will ever be about it of course, but it is insane to me that the Harvard College can't afford enough beds for their relatively tiny class.

That happened to me 20 years ago! It was really unsettling year and sometimes remembering it still annoys me. Somehow they both claimed the closet in the bedroom so I had to ask for space for my hanging stuff as if 1/3rd of it shouldn’t have been mine. I was the non-prep school kid and had no idea how important it was to get there early and claim space. We were supposed to have two of us in the living area, but roommate #4 got cast in a tv show or movie (can’t remember which) a week before orientation so we never got a 4th.

I think that the housing crunch at Harvard and Yale from my experience is from people requesting and receiving what we called medical singles. In my era it was pretty strict and for things like religious observation, food allergies, complicated medical equipment. I think the rules are looser now and singles are allocated for students who request them if they have sleep apnea, anxiety, autism, etc. That probably puts more kids in fewer rooms.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Totally agree with the sentiment that a single is the way to go. I had a double in TN in the '90s, can't remember if we had AC, hated my roommate and was incredibly jealous of the people who had dared to request a single. Having a roommate is highly overrated.

To give you another perspective, my daughter will be a freshman at an Ivy this fall and was assigned a triple. No AC, high floor. Bummer but those are the breaks. And everyone does *not* in fact pay the same for housing; the annual fee for a triple is about $2K less than for a single. From student message boards, the going rate for someone to initiate a housing swap (their single for your double or triple) runs at least $2K, likely more like $4K.

DC just finished freshman year at Harvard in a suite. Her two roommates got there before us and she had to sleep in...the common room. No, not a room that was separate from their living area, she was in what was supposed to be the living space for a double suite. I was much more angry than she will ever be about it of course, but it is insane to me that the Harvard College can't afford enough beds for their relatively tiny class.

That happened to me 20 years ago! It was really unsettling year and sometimes remembering it still annoys me. Somehow they both claimed the closet in the bedroom so I had to ask for space for my hanging stuff as if 1/3rd of it shouldn’t have been mine. I was the non-prep school kid and had no idea how important it was to get there early and claim space. We were supposed to have two of us in the living area, but roommate #4 got cast in a tv show or movie (can’t remember which) a week before orientation so we never got a 4th.

I think that the housing crunch at Harvard and Yale from my experience is from people requesting and receiving what we called medical singles. In my era it was pretty strict and for things like religious observation, food allergies, complicated medical equipment. I think the rules are looser now and singles are allocated for students who request them if they have sleep apnea, anxiety, autism, etc. That probably puts more kids in fewer rooms.

And students going to Pomona realize how great it is to have AC so now so many are requesting medical exemptions for an air conditioned room. So the college has to have an official air conditioning accommodation policy. Despite what some poster keeps insisting, it is pretty miserable not to have air conditioning in the Inland Empire August-October and again in April-May, so plenty of students are requesting air conditioning.

Air Conditioning Policy and Procedures
Pomona College is committed to accommodating qualified students with disabilities who may require the installation and use of an AC unit in their on-campus residence hall assignment. Certain buildings have limitations as to where AC units can be safely installed in a room. Therefore, when an accommodation is granted for an air conditioner, the student will be assigned to a room where an AC unit has already been safely installed. The AC accommodation is met through either pre-installed AC window units or through a central AC system. Students may not bring their own AC unit due to strain on the College electric grid and other infrastructure concerns.

If a student prefers a different room that does not have a pre-installed AC window unit or a central AC system, they have the right to decline the housing placement offered and not make use of their AC accommodation.

By declining the offered placement, the student understands they voluntarily chose to forego their housing AC accommodations and will participate in room draw. Furthermore, the student understands that by choosing their own room assignment for 2024-2025, the room may or may not meet their approved housing accommodations.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Totally agree with the sentiment that a single is the way to go. I had a double in TN in the '90s, can't remember if we had AC, hated my roommate and was incredibly jealous of the people who had dared to request a single. Having a roommate is highly overrated.

To give you another perspective, my daughter will be a freshman at an Ivy this fall and was assigned a triple. No AC, high floor. Bummer but those are the breaks. And everyone does *not* in fact pay the same for housing; the annual fee for a triple is about $2K less than for a single. From student message boards, the going rate for someone to initiate a housing swap (their single for your double or triple) runs at least $2K, likely more like $4K.

DC just finished freshman year at Harvard in a suite. Her two roommates got there before us and she had to sleep in...the common room. No, not a room that was separate from their living area, she was in what was supposed to be the living space for a double suite. I was much more angry than she will ever be about it of course, but it is insane to me that the Harvard College can't afford enough beds for their relatively tiny class.

That happened to me 20 years ago! It was really unsettling year and sometimes remembering it still annoys me. Somehow they both claimed the closet in the bedroom so I had to ask for space for my hanging stuff as if 1/3rd of it shouldn’t have been mine. I was the non-prep school kid and had no idea how important it was to get there early and claim space. We were supposed to have two of us in the living area, but roommate #4 got cast in a tv show or movie (can’t remember which) a week before orientation so we never got a 4th.

I think that the housing crunch at Harvard and Yale from my experience is from people requesting and receiving what we called medical singles. In my era it was pretty strict and for things like religious observation, food allergies, complicated medical equipment. I think the rules are looser now and singles are allocated for students who request them if they have sleep apnea, anxiety, autism, etc. That probably puts more kids in fewer rooms.

And students going to Pomona realize how great it is to have AC so now so many are requesting medical exemptions for an air conditioned room. So the college has to have an official air conditioning accommodation policy. Despite what some poster keeps insisting, it is pretty miserable not to have air conditioning in the Inland Empire August-October and again in April-May, so plenty of students are requesting air conditioning.

Air Conditioning Policy and Procedures
Pomona College is committed to accommodating qualified students with disabilities who may require the installation and use of an AC unit in their on-campus residence hall assignment. Certain buildings have limitations as to where AC units can be safely installed in a room. Therefore, when an accommodation is granted for an air conditioner, the student will be assigned to a room where an AC unit has already been safely installed. The AC accommodation is met through either pre-installed AC window units or through a central AC system. Students may not bring their own AC unit due to strain on the College electric grid and other infrastructure concerns.

If a student prefers a different room that does not have a pre-installed AC window unit or a central AC system, they have the right to decline the housing placement offered and not make use of their AC accommodation.

By declining the offered placement, the student understands they voluntarily chose to forego their housing AC accommodations and will participate in room draw. Furthermore, the student understands that by choosing their own room assignment for 2024-2025, the room may or may not meet their approved housing accommodations.

Eh I attend. A lot of Freshman were lying and saying that they needed AC medically when they did not. Pomona responding to this was inevitable. I lived in the worst two dorms-Wig and Lyon, and the heat never effected me, since I just bought a fan. This policy is completely new, because it should be followed by people who really need AC, not just annoying first years who know nothing about living in Claremont.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here-I plan to let DC handle it but living so far away does make it more difficult to bear. I appreciate those of you who have a modicum of understanding-and the rest of you can go a sit on a thumbtack. After a bad high school
Experience we were expecting college to be way better and this is a very bad start in our book!!

My freshman had an alcoholic for a dorm mate. It could be worse.

My freshman roommate was a depressed person who was flunking out of her major, sleeping in until noon all the time, and angry that her parents wouldn't let her stay in the DMV and go to JMU. By the time I tried to inquire about a roommate change, the only option was someone whose roommate moved out because the roommate keeping the room would bring dates into the room and have sex with them while the roommate was sleeping.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here-I plan to let DC handle it but living so far away does make it more difficult to bear. I appreciate those of you who have a modicum of understanding-and the rest of you can go a sit on a thumbtack. After a bad high school
Experience we were expecting college to be way better and this is a very bad start in our book!!

My freshman had an alcoholic for a dorm mate. It could be worse.

My freshman roommate was a depressed person who was flunking out of her major, sleeping in until noon all the time, and angry that her parents wouldn't let her stay in the DMV and go to JMU. By the time I tried to inquire about a roommate change, the only option was someone whose roommate moved out because the roommate keeping the room would bring dates into the room and have sex with them while the roommate was sleeping.

My roommate freshman year would have sex in the bunk under me. She dropped out jr year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Totally agree with the sentiment that a single is the way to go. I had a double in TN in the '90s, can't remember if we had AC, hated my roommate and was incredibly jealous of the people who had dared to request a single. Having a roommate is highly overrated.

To give you another perspective, my daughter will be a freshman at an Ivy this fall and was assigned a triple. No AC, high floor. Bummer but those are the breaks. And everyone does *not* in fact pay the same for housing; the annual fee for a triple is about $2K less than for a single. From student message boards, the going rate for someone to initiate a housing swap (their single for your double or triple) runs at least $2K, likely more like $4K.

DC just finished freshman year at Harvard in a suite. Her two roommates got there before us and she had to sleep in...the common room. No, not a room that was separate from their living area, she was in what was supposed to be the living space for a double suite. I was much more angry than she will ever be about it of course, but it is insane to me that the Harvard College can't afford enough beds for their relatively tiny class.

That happened to me 20 years ago! It was really unsettling year and sometimes remembering it still annoys me. Somehow they both claimed the closet in the bedroom so I had to ask for space for my hanging stuff as if 1/3rd of it shouldn’t have been mine. I was the non-prep school kid and had no idea how important it was to get there early and claim space. We were supposed to have two of us in the living area, but roommate #4 got cast in a tv show or movie (can’t remember which) a week before orientation so we never got a 4th.

I think that the housing crunch at Harvard and Yale from my experience is from people requesting and receiving what we called medical singles. In my era it was pretty strict and for things like religious observation, food allergies, complicated medical equipment. I think the rules are looser now and singles are allocated for students who request them if they have sleep apnea, anxiety, autism, etc. That probably puts more kids in fewer rooms.

And students going to Pomona realize how great it is to have AC so now so many are requesting medical exemptions for an air conditioned room. So the college has to have an official air conditioning accommodation policy. Despite what some poster keeps insisting, it is pretty miserable not to have air conditioning in the Inland Empire August-October and again in April-May, so plenty of students are requesting air conditioning.

Air Conditioning Policy and Procedures
Pomona College is committed to accommodating qualified students with disabilities who may require the installation and use of an AC unit in their on-campus residence hall assignment. Certain buildings have limitations as to where AC units can be safely installed in a room. Therefore, when an accommodation is granted for an air conditioner, the student will be assigned to a room where an AC unit has already been safely installed. The AC accommodation is met through either pre-installed AC window units or through a central AC system. Students may not bring their own AC unit due to strain on the College electric grid and other infrastructure concerns.

If a student prefers a different room that does not have a pre-installed AC window unit or a central AC system, they have the right to decline the housing placement offered and not make use of their AC accommodation.

By declining the offered placement, the student understands they voluntarily chose to forego their housing AC accommodations and will participate in room draw. Furthermore, the student understands that by choosing their own room assignment for 2024-2025, the room may or may not meet their approved housing accommodations.

Eh I attend. A lot of Freshman were lying and saying that they needed AC medically when they did not. Pomona responding to this was inevitable. I lived in the worst two dorms-Wig and Lyon, and the heat never affected me, since I just bought a fan. This policy is completely new, because it should be followed by people who really need AC, not just annoying first years who know nothing about living in Claremont.

How do you go about getting the AC accommodations? Does a medical doctor have to make a statement?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I went to college in the early 80s in Arizona. No AC in my dorm. Some dorms had "sleeping porches" -- basically a large room filled with beds and screens in the open windows.

Per the article, the 5C’s do this too. Absolutely and completely ridiculous when these colleges have so much money and it’s a recurrent student complaint!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:1) Basements are cooler than the upper floors (heat rises), so your child is in the best position for a dorm without A/C.

2) California doesn't get that hot for very long as you enter into the school year -- especially at night (it will be cool).

3) There are thousands of schools that cost a lot of money that don't have A/C in their dorms -- your child will be fine. It may even teach them how to be a little bit resilient.

Inland CA definitely gets hotter and stays hotter longer than Coastal CA. The 5Cs are inland. However, it is still desert so cools down at night.

Even if true, that first month of college is an exciting time, and you won't be spending much time in your dorm when you are just starting out hopefully. It's very abnormal in the Inland Empire for it to be greater than 75ish at night, even sometimes with 100+ degree days. This week there's a high of 95 and low of 71 in the area.

This sounds like hell. I’m going against the masses and I’d get my kid an Airbnb for a month to sleep. He can hang out at the dorm during the day. He lucked out with the single though.

My son is prioritizing looking for places with singles and AC is not negotiable. We crossed off the list this month after visiting because of the dorms and the requirement to live in it freshman year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Totally agree with the sentiment that a single is the way to go. I had a double in TN in the '90s, can't remember if we had AC, hated my roommate and was incredibly jealous of the people who had dared to request a single. Having a roommate is highly overrated.

To give you another perspective, my daughter will be a freshman at an Ivy this fall and was assigned a triple. No AC, high floor. Bummer but those are the breaks. And everyone does *not* in fact pay the same for housing; the annual fee for a triple is about $2K less than for a single. From student message boards, the going rate for someone to initiate a housing swap (their single for your double or triple) runs at least $2K, likely more like $4K.

DC just finished freshman year at Harvard in a suite. Her two roommates got there before us and she had to sleep in...the common room. No, not a room that was separate from their living area, she was in what was supposed to be the living space for a double suite. I was much more angry than she will ever be about it of course, but it is insane to me that the Harvard College can't afford enough beds for their relatively tiny class.

That happened to me 20 years ago! It was really unsettling year and sometimes remembering it still annoys me. Somehow they both claimed the closet in the bedroom so I had to ask for space for my hanging stuff as if 1/3rd of it shouldn’t have been mine. I was the non-prep school kid and had no idea how important it was to get there early and claim space. We were supposed to have two of us in the living area, but roommate #4 got cast in a tv show or movie (can’t remember which) a week before orientation so we never got a 4th.

I think that the housing crunch at Harvard and Yale from my experience is from people requesting and receiving what we called medical singles. In my era it was pretty strict and for things like religious observation, food allergies, complicated medical equipment. I think the rules are looser now and singles are allocated for students who request them if they have sleep apnea, anxiety, autism, etc. That probably puts more kids in fewer rooms.

And students going to Pomona realize how great it is to have AC so now so many are requesting medical exemptions for an air conditioned room. So the college has to have an official air conditioning accommodation policy. Despite what some poster keeps insisting, it is pretty miserable not to have air conditioning in the Inland Empire August-October and again in April-May, so plenty of students are requesting air conditioning.

Air Conditioning Policy and Procedures
Pomona College is committed to accommodating qualified students with disabilities who may require the installation and use of an AC unit in their on-campus residence hall assignment. Certain buildings have limitations as to where AC units can be safely installed in a room. Therefore, when an accommodation is granted for an air conditioner, the student will be assigned to a room where an AC unit has already been safely installed. The AC accommodation is met through either pre-installed AC window units or through a central AC system. Students may not bring their own AC unit due to strain on the College electric grid and other infrastructure concerns.

If a student prefers a different room that does not have a pre-installed AC window unit or a central AC system, they have the right to decline the housing placement offered and not make use of their AC accommodation.

By declining the offered placement, the student understands they voluntarily chose to forego their housing AC accommodations and will participate in room draw. Furthermore, the student understands that by choosing their own room assignment for 2024-2025, the room may or may not meet their approved housing accommodations.

Eh I attend. A lot of Freshman were lying and saying that they needed AC medically when they did not. Pomona responding to this was inevitable. I lived in the worst two dorms-Wig and Lyon, and the heat never affected me, since I just bought a fan. This policy is completely new, because it should be followed by people who really need AC, not just annoying first years who know nothing about living in Claremont.

How do you go about getting the AC accommodations? Does a medical doctor have to make a statement?

Two years ago, you could tell them that you have a medical issue that requires you indoors (heat related eczema is apparently what a few friends of mine had that magically disappeared) without proof or some type of crippling anxiety. Last year, they clamped down and started asking for doctors notes.

Pomona first years used to have a 1/3 chance of getting a single. It’s down to 1/4 out of housing issues, because of single requests like these and the college trying to slowly expand.