In February, I met a girl named Lindsay on the GWU Class of 2012 Facebook group on the "Female Roommate Search" message board. We hit it off and started talking online and on the phone everyday, as if we'd known each other for years. She was great! Although we are different in many ways—she is a Journalism major in the School of Media and Public Affairs and I am undecided in the Columbian College of Arts and Sciences; she is from a small town in Connecticut named Suffield and I am from this slightly larger city in Florida named Miami, haha; she graduated from a New England boarding school and I graduated from a larger private school—we also have a lot in common—we both want to go to
law school; we both want a double; and we both wanted to be anywhere but Mount Vernon or Thurston (as much as we love green places and partying all night, neither place appealed to us). Basically, we were different enough to learn from each other, but similar enough to be able to live with each other. So, when dorm request forms came out, we decided to request each other as roommates. As for dorms, we loved Madison but could definitely live in Crawford, Lafayette, and Strong. It was perfect! We were both Regular Decision so we knew we would get the leftover dorms after Early Decision 1 and 2 students got their picks, but we hoped for the best.For the weeks that followed, we chattered every day about what we would buy for our dorm, what we were bringing with us from home, and any other dorm thing there was to talk about. When we met at CI 3, we were sure we would make great roommates.
Finally, it was time for dorm assignments. At about 8 o’clock PM on July 21 (her birthday, I might add), we decided that no matter what the verdict, we would not let it get to us. After all, there was always Room Swap.
The next morning at 8:30 AM, I woke up and grabbed my laptop, knowing that a thousand other GWU freshmen across the country were doing the same thing. I clicked the link to the Housing Portal and opened it… but there wasn’t even a link there to view the assignments! I called Lindsay, wondering if she had been able to find our assignments. “Nope,” she said. “It’s not on here.” We agreed to call each other when we found it.
I stared at the computer and wondered where in cyberspace our housing assignments were. Hadn’t they said 8:30 AM? Could I be wrong? And if I wasn’t, what awful person was playing this joke on us? Even more importantly, were we the only two people having this problem?
So, I logged into Facebook and opened the GWU Class of 2012 group. I read through a few Wall Posts from confused students like myself. “Where are the assignments?” one person wrote. I refreshed the page a few times, and all of a sudden, I read the best and the worst news I’d ever heard. A girl I knew who had been Regular Decision and had requested the same dorms as me had left a post telling us that the assignments had been emailed to us, and that she ended up in her seventh choice housing. The good news? Housing assignments were in our email inboxes. The bad news? I don't even know if I filled out a seventh choice! Could we really end up there? Now, what this student experienced could have been a rare event, but with only one person’s story to base it off of, I was worried. I logged into my email and opened the one called Your 2008-2009 Housing Assignment.
Room: Madison Hall 810
Room Type: MA-DBL
I grabbed my phone to call Lindsay. She answered the phone, frustrated with the computer. “I can’t find i-” she began.
“LINDSAY! WE GOT A DOUBLE IN MADISON!”
Needless to say, it was a great day. But for many others, it wasn’t. One of the odd trends from this year’s assignments is that many people that did not want singles ended up in Mitchell, the all-singles hall. How did this happen, when they warned us that usually only the Early Decision 1 students get rooms in Mitchell? Most are trying to switch out of Mitchell because they want that “college experience”. Hopefully it works out for everyone.
How did housing go for you all?
7 comments:
Wow, top floor maddy.
By my estimation, you're going to waste a full month of your life riding that god-awful elevator. Have fun on move-in day too, that should only take you 5 or 6 hours.
Nice! I got a double in Madison as well. Congrats on housing!
Logan, move-in day would be great if I weren't doing EDC and my roommate weren't doing Surf's Up. Guess we'll have to miss out on the fun :(
And by the way, if you were a dedicated Grey's Anatomy-watcher such as myself, you would know that long elevator rides are the best part!! :)
But the long elevator rides on grey's are a time for romance and intrigue.
Long elevator rides in Madison hall (I lived in 403 last year) are a time for trying to figure out if the liquid on the floor is fruit juice or vomit, and for wondering how much smaller the elevator could be before it just becomes a moving coffin.
You'll see when you get there.
Oh! I almost forgot. When you want to call the Madison elevator, make sure you push the up and the down buttons, even if you're just going up. If you don't push the down button as well, the elevator will go down to the basement and then come up to the first floor (even if theres no one in the basement). It took me a whole semester to figure that out.
Wow, the elevator sounds like quite the charming place. Definitely knew you were a Grey's Anatomy watcher :)
Thanks for the up and down tip, I knew there was something wrong when we waited for what seemed like years at CI!
Somers 110 here. It's not that I'm a GIANT fan of green silence, but its definitely a place to get some things cleared out of my head if needed. As for madison, I actually really enjoyed their quads more than doubles. It's so cool that you were able to find such an awesome roommate before housing closed! Great post!
Noel B.
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