I am only a freshman right now, so I do not have much experience with housing selection at Mercyhurst, but I can already tell that I am not a huge fan of the process. For all freshman housing, it is determined by a first come first serve basis, so the sooner you commit to MU, the sooner you can pick which dorm you want to live in. Most people want to pick Warde Hall because it is really nice and a lot newer than the other options. Personally, I committed really late in April, so I did not really have the option to choose where I wanted to live and I got stuck in Baldwin Hall. I was okay with it because I knew housing was done on a first come first serve basis and I committed very late.

I thought I would be able to have more of a say my sophomore year, but I have just been very confused through the entire process of selecting housing for next year.The first step they had us do was sign the housing contract and fill out who we thought we might room with next year. The instructions along with this step were not clear at all as my roommate and I seemed to fill out the wrong form. We had to ask someone else in our group for help and she was able to help us, but it was still very confusing. I think the part that annoys me the most is that there is not videos or photos of the majority of our housing options for next year. The only place that has a video is Ryan Hall and it is the newer dorm, so of course it is going to be the nicest one and probably the one that people would feel comfortable staying in without a video. But both of the apartments that a lot of people want to stay in do not have any videos, photos or even a floorplan.

I just find it annoying how the only way to access these is to email Res Life and wait for them to respond. I am sure they receive a lot of emails about photos or floorplans for the apartments so I feel that it would be easier to just post them on the website from the start. I also had no idea that upperclassman housing was done based on a point system. It makes total sense, but I was very surprised that I had never heard about the point system. I think there is not a lot of information about post-freshman level housing and that can make the whole experience about deciding where you want to live next year a little stressful. I am also confused about all the dates and what has to be done by each one. I wish they would have sent an email with more straightforward information for everyone.