Michigan Tech's Housing & Residential Life Website

• What is a "converted room"?
• When will my room get "broken down" to regular room occupancy?
• What is the process from breakdown to regular occupancy?
• What if I only have three people assigned to my room, but my housing assignment letter says I’m in converted status?
• What can I do to prepare to live in a converted room?
• What help can I get if I move?

This year the number of students living in the residence halls may exceed the number of regular spaces available. Since this may be the case, regular rooms have been “converted” to accommodate one extra person. This means that a regular triple room has been assigned four residents.

Be assured that triple rooms are larger in size than double rooms and that you...

• have been given a reduced room rate
• will have a complete set of your own brand new loftable and movable furniture that includes a loftable bed, dresser, bookcase, desk, and desk chair
• have your own computer hookup

We promise to move rooms to regular occupancy as soon as possible. Occupancy numbers tend to decrease as we move toward residence hall opening and through the fall semester. This means you or one of your roommates will have the chance to move to another room as soon a space opens.

As you may know, assignments are made based on the date your completed housing application and contract were received. From this, your room has been assigned a priority number based on the earliest completion date of housing contracts for all occupants of the room. This priority number is used to identify the order in which we move rooms to regular occupancy, which we also call "breaking down" the room.

When a space opens and your room priority number is next in line to breakdown, all residents in your room will get an email from the Housing & Residential Life office. It will indicate that a space has opened and where this space is located. Any person in the room can choose to move to the open space.

Some students do choose to stay together and not breakdown. If your room chooses not breakdown and all four residents decide to stay in the room, your room comes off the breakdown priority list.

If no one in the room chooses to take the space offered, but someone still would like to move, your room priority number goes to the bottom of the breakdown list.

All converted rooms are offered regular occupancy before we allow any current residents to move into any residence hall empty spaces.

Once your room is in regular occupancy status, your room rate will be changed to reflect the regular room rate for the remainder of the semester. Check here to see the room rate information.

Your room may be designated as converted but only currently have three people assigned to the room. This is because we have students seeking housing until the start of classes, so the space in your room could have a resident assigned to it before you arrive.

We will send you a letter letting you know that you have been assigned another roommate, except if this happens one week prior residence hall opening. If this is the case, and if possible depending on when the new student arrives or comes into the Housing office looking for a place to live, we will let you know via HuskyMail email of the change.

If the space is not filled after the first week of class, you will not get an additional roommate, the extra set of furniture will be moved out of your room, and you will be billed the regular room rate from the date your room became officially broken down.

While living in a converted room will take some patience and teamwork, having a positive attitude will get you a long way in building new relationships. Here are some ideas on how to make the converted room transition a smooth one.

• Contact your new roommates soon and plan for who can bring what so there are few duplicate items in the room. Keep in mind that housing only has limited storage space available.
• When packing, be attentive to what you bring and make a concerted effort to leave non-essentials at home for now, however storage space is available down the hall for items that don’t fit in your room.
• Be candid with your roommates about expectations when you complete the Roommate Agreement with your roommates and Resident Assistant (RA) after you arrive. This agreement will help work out all the details of living together.

Here are some room rules your can set that will make living in your room easier from day one

• When do you like to get up in the morning and go to sleep at night?
• How late is okay to have guests in the room?
• Do you like to study in the room? If yes, do you study with noise (Music) or in silence?
• Is it okay if to borrow each others stuff? Or what is okay to borrow and what is not okay to borrow?
• How clean or messy is okay for our room?
• What annoys you? Why?

If the answers to each of the questions seem to raise some issues, then it is a good idea to set rules for the room now. For example, you study with music and your roommates study in silence, you could offer to wear headphones while you study. Be considerate of each others needs, each person experiences college differently.

Sometimes working through issues can take some time. Communication is the key to working it out. Take the initiative and do not let issues get worse by ignoring them or complaining about them to everyone. Be upfront with your roommates.

Plan a study schedule and stick to it. You should plan for two hours of study time for every hour of class you have on your schedule. So if you are registered for 14 credits hours, you should have 28 study hours planned. That adds up to 42 hours of academic work a week. The rest of your time can be used to exercise, eat right, get involved, and hang out with your new friends.

You will be able to study in your room if you set some room rules; however there are newly updated study areas available in East McNair and many other locations for quiet and group study on campus, like the Library. We have found that overall academic performance is not affected by living in a converted room.

Get out of your room, use campus resources, and get involved. There are many things to do at Tech. Invite your new roommates along!

When someone from your room plans to move, upon request we can

• Provide some boxes to pack your stuff
• Offer assistance in moving your stuff to the new room
• Provide moving dollies at the Reception Desk that can be checked out and used to move items