Housing and Traveling

Hello again!


So I've got a comment/question to answer and something else to talk about. I'll answer the question first.

I was asked how I get to and from school, being from NJ which is kind of a hike. Well I'm from north Jersey, so it's about a 5 hour car ride for me, a 50-60 minute flight, and a 10 hour bus ride. When I move in and out obviously my parents drive up and we load/unload the car and make the 5 hour trip. For Thanksgiving and Christmas I fly home because I usually have alot of stuff and don't want to impose that on others. For Columbus day this year and spring break last year I got rides home with friends. As far the the bus goes, it's a bit long and about the same price as a plane, so why not fly. The airport is literally a 15 minute drive from campus, max, and it's very easy to call a cab to take you or find someone you know that's going. I don't have a car on campus because I share it with my siblings at home, but that has NEVER been an issue for me, no matter where I need to go. I have plenty of friends/teammates with cars who can take me to the store, the doctor, or the airport, and the bus goes downtown six days a week too. It's also SO EASY to find a ride home during break times. People send out emails asking for rides, and we actually now have an on-campus website that organizes all of these requests (people offering/needing rides) so they are easy to find and usually all they are asking for is help with gas money.

Hope that answered the question and if not shoot me an email at camoresano@smcvt.edu

Moving on, tonight we had our meetings about room selection for next fall. I don't have to go through the process because of study abroad, but my roommate does, and when she goes abroad in the spring I'm moving into where she was living, so I obviously want it to be somewhere good. Room selection is kind of a lot of information, so I'll try to keep it short and sweet with a summary for what it's like for first years.

-Lottery cards: this doesn't really apply for most of the first year class, but lottery cards are made available for townhouses (seniors only) and then suites (priority by class year and lottery number). Very few first years get into the suites as sophomores, but it's more likely if you are in honors housing (honors program), GREAT housing (alcohol and drug free), or ambassador housing (living with international students). I can provide more information on any of those if anyone wants, just let me know.

-Number Draw: whether or not you have suite lottery card or plan to live in a single or double room, everyone gets a lottery number from their class. Last year and every year before this year the numbers were literally put into a box, students waited in line on their specific day, and they put their hands in an pulled out a number. That was your lottery number and room selection was done depending on your number, lower numbers are better. This year, they changed the system to electronic, so we will all receive our numbers through email on the same day at the same time. If you ask me, it's alot nicer.

-Room Selection: after the numbers are given out, each class is assigned a day to come sign up for their rooms. Single rooms and double rooms aren't usually on the same day, but for Honors or GREAT housing, they might be. What you do is go to Alliot (upstairs) with the appropriate printed paperwork, and wait for your turn (based on number), then you look at a floor map of wherever you want to live and you pick your room.

It sounds alot more complicated than it is, and the only stressful part is finding roommates and worry about getting where you want to be. Having back-up plans is always a good idea, but for the most part people are happy with where they live. I definitely love where I am now!

As a side note, there is an organization on campus called GOT SKILLS? that hosts alot of events, talks, and demonstrations throughout the year. If you go to one of these, you get raffle tickets to fill out with your name and other information. If you accumulate 10 raffle tickets, they go into a drawing for the first 3 numbers in your class number draw, which is definitely a perk! Aaaand the events and talks are always really interesting, so if you have time to go to them, you definitely should.

I think that's all I need to say about housing. As always, keep reading and post comments/questions or send me emails!

p.s. we got dumped with about a foot of snow last night, it was awesome! I can't wait to get back out to the mountain. I'll try to get some pictures up of the snow soon. Until then, stay warm!

-Christine