Admissions doesn't know about residency requirements?

[goldberry]

Is that normal?  There is a local school with a residency requirement, and I can't find online if it is waived for local residence.  I asked the admissions office, and they directed me to the Resident Life department.  I can't get a response from there, so I contacted admissions again, and she said "We don't know anything about that, and there is no one else to ask."

 

Really?  Is it normal that admissions would not know what requirements are?  That just seems strange and I'm wondering if they are just flakes. 

[AFwife Claire]

Around here, the Bursar's Office is where the experts on proof of residence are.

But it sounds like she is asking about requirements to live on campus, so that would fall under resident life.  

[Joules]

I talked to one college where that was handled by the residence halls.  The director of residence life was the one and only person that could grant an exception to the residency requirement.

[*LC]

Have you tried searching for "name of school" "exemption" and either housing or residency or on campus? I have had better luck with general search engines and the college ones.

Could the person you are trying to reach be out for vacation right now?

[goldberry]

I talked to one college where that was handled by the residence halls.  The director of residence life was the one and only person that could grant an exception to the residency requirement.

 

Well, okay then!  I guess it's not that weird....  

[J-rap]

That seems rather strange.  You'd think they could have at least contacted someone else at the school who would know and gotten back to you!

[goldberry]

Have you tried searching for "name of school" "exemption" and either housing or residency or on campus? I have had better luck with general search engines and the college ones.

 

Thanks, this actually yielded a result!  Apparently living with parents in the same city are allowed exemption.  I will still need to call as we live close but not the same city.

 

But, why wouldn't admissions at least know that?  That still seems like something they should know.  I understand they can't grant the exemption, it does say it has to be granted by Resident Life.  But you would think they would at least know that yes, in some of these circumstances we *might* be granted an exemption.  If admissions is the place we are talking to in order to determine if we want to go to this college or not, they should at least be able to answer some questions.

 

Thanks for the help!

[Gwen in VA]

Dd2 lived off-campus her freshman year -- one of only 6 out of 1000 freshmen to do so.

 

We had a hard time finding out any details about how or if she could live off-campus. Admissions knew nothing. Dd had to make lots of phone calls to the phone numbers listed on the dormitory info forms to find out anything. But in the college's defense -- less that 1% of all freshmen use the off-campus option, and half of the students that did so were younger siblings of current students who share an apartment with their older sibling. (Of the remaining three off-campus freshmen, one  had a health issue and two lived with their families close to the college.)

 

Then dd needed to do an in-person interview in order to convince the residence life people that she wasn't a hermit and she would manage to develop an on-campus social life.

 

Freshman orientation was extremely difficult for the six off-campus students. Since the orientation was done in groups according to residence halls, the six off-campus students were linked with one particular residence hall and went through orientation with that hall. The residents of the hall thought the off-campus students were odd..... When I went to drop her off for orientation, it took about an hour to even find out which group she should be with. (NOT impressive, college!)

 

Thankfully dd2 is very comfortable socially, but living off-campus at a school where basically 100% of the freshman live on-campus is challenging.

 

Best wishes to your dd!