Congratulations, freshmen! You’ve made it through your first housing registration. Ready to cry? Well, if you’re not crying yet, this will help: it only gets marginally better when you’re a sophomore. I have a tissue if you need one.
I remember last year when five friends and I thought we were going to end up in Student Village II. That was probably the biggest joke that Boston University has ever played on us. In the end, four of my friends ended up in Myles Standish Annex (not even in the regular Myles Standish) and my roommate and I ended up in Sleeper Hall in West Campus.
I’ve been asked two specific questions at least 10 times this past year. The first being, “Where do you live?” I automatically respond with an eye roll and groan as I say, “Sleeper Hall.” This brings them to their next question, “Are you a freshman?” What an awful question. Not once has it made me feel remotely good about my situation or myself. But I guess I would ask that question as well if I were in their shoes because Sleeper Hall is generally a freshman dorm. In fact, I’m one of four sophomores on my floor living with 44 freshmen. Case in point.
Situations like mine, and that of many other students, result from BU’s inept housing registration system. Full of same room, internal room and community room selections, the BU housing system makes it so most BU students have almost no chance of getting anything close to what they want. Which doesn’t seem that great to me because we’re paying a lot, and I mean a lot, for a basic room with four walls and two beds. In fact, the price of housing has gone up about $500 since last year and I can only expect that it will be even worse come next year.
Same room selection and internal room selection mean that those already living in great places on campus such as Stuvi, 1019 and the brownstones don’t have to leave because they can just pick to stay in them for eternity (OK, not really).
Another curveball that BU throws at its students is the process of “pulling in” other students. This process is the best thing that ever happened to students who have upperclassmen friends and the worst thing for those who don’t. Basically, if you have older friends, you can be pulled into awesome housing. Which allows friends to pull in all of their friends into their dorm and essentially take over the whole suite or floor.
By the time you get to community room selection, which is the registration process that the majority of BU students go through, there is almost no housing left except for the larger freshman dorms.
The point is that the system in place is not designed to its fullest potential. There are modifications that can be made to ensure that students can live in places that they are happy in.
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