Franklin Apartments<\/a> next year.\u00a0<\/p>\n\u201cMy friend, who I\u2019m rooming with, got a good lottery number around the 300s, so we got to live in a decent place, but I can see how it would be frustrating for people who got unlucky with their lottery numbers,\u201d Rennekamp said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Catalina Reiber, a first-year psychology and English writing major, had the lottery number 22 and will live in Bouquet Gardens next year. Though she was able to secure the housing she wanted, Reiber believes Pitt needs to improve its communication about the housing selection process.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe University needs to ensure that there is clear communication as to what housing they are offering the following year, how the lottery system works, when registration is, what happens if you don\u2019t get a bid and how to move forward \u2014 whether you secure on-campus housing or not,\u201d Reiber said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Reiber also said Pitt should keep the housing websites more up to date, so students have a clear picture of what their housing will look like next year.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThey could do a better job at updating their website with pictures of dorms, amenities and other things so that students know exactly what they are moving into,\u201d Reiber said. \u201cI know many students who do have housing but have no clue what their housing for next year looks like due to a lack of pictures and descriptions.\u201d<\/p>\n
Aaliyah Pires, a first-year chemistry major, had a lottery number around 4,600 and ended up where she wanted, in a single dorm in Lothrop Hall.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHonestly, I think it worked out well for me. I got a pretty low lottery number, so I got the room I wanted,\u201d Pires said. \u201cBut it sucked seeing my roommates with higher lottery numbers get stuck with the Hampton Inn or something that they can\u2019t afford.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Shailene Dilone, a first-year communication science major, said she had a difficult experience with the housing lottery after she and her friends did not get a housing bid.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201dWhen I did general housing selection, I got stuck with the only last option, which was the Hampton Inn, but I can\u2019t afford it,\u201d Dilone said. \u201cI\u2019ve been asking Panther Central and Housing Services, but they\u2019ve basically done nothing to help.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ava Crossley, a first-year psychology major, also said she had a negative experience with the housing selection process and found an off-campus apartment instead.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI had an OK lottery number \u2014 4,200 \u2014 and that was the lowest out of the three of us [roommates]. We wanted apartment-style living,\u201d Crossley said. \u201cThen, on the day the bids were released, my name wasn\u2019t on the list.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Crossley believes that Pitt needs more housing to accommodate the number of students who want to live on campus.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t hate the idea of the lottery and points system, to be honest, it just really seems that they need more housing for sophomores and juniors, especially because most of us want apartment-style housing,\u201d Crossley said.<\/p>\n
Dilone said the housing selection process should factor in financial need, especially since some students are placed in housing they cannot afford.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that would remove the issue with a lot of people who can\u2019t afford certain dorms being stuck with no option or looking for apartments, because that\u2019s also super expensive,\u201d Dilone said. \u201cI think it\u2019s overall unfair to over admit students and then not be able to accommodate them with what they need during a housing crisis.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to Stonesifer, students can request a room change after the fall term add\/drop period when the University has a better idea of the available beds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As student enrollment increases, Pitt upperclassmen are being presented with more alternative housing options as opposed to on-campus…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":156982,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[71151,71152,4736,73,75,74,71153],"class_list":{"0":"post-156981","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pittsburgh","8":"tag-additional-housing","9":"tag-hampton-inn","10":"tag-housing","11":"tag-pittsburgh","12":"tag-pittsburgh-headlines","13":"tag-pittsburgh-news","14":"tag-upperclass-housing"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156981","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=156981"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156981\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/156982"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=156981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=156981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=156981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}