Housing / Meal Plan

Information Regarding Registration

Being a first-year freshman at a big University can feel overwhelming at times. Of course, it is only human to feel stressed out at times, but it is important to understand that living on campus can be an incredible experience with the right steps taken in the registration process. The most important thing in the registration process is timing. As a first-year freshman, to assure that you have the best chance of getting into the dorm hall that u want, you are going to want to make sure that you are readily prepared with all of your information you will need to sign up when the time comes.

Roommates

Another thing to remember in this process is how selecting roommates works, which can be confusing if not properly worded. You can use roommate matching on Facebook or roomsync. Basically, you can look at others who need a roommate and match your interests with theirs. It is a great way to find a roommate who is somewhat like you. In order to successfully select your housing with roommates of your choice, not only do you have to specify who they in the registration,  but that person or persons has to also specify who you are in their registration so that the University has confirmation from both or all roommates that they do indeed want to live together in the same dorm.

Picking a Dorm

Living on campus can be one of your best experiences of college if you look at it with a positive attitude! The memories that you will make your freshman year will be some of your most memorable moments of college when you graduate. When selecting a dorm, you are assigned a window with a date and time you can select the room. However, the nice dorms fill up fast, and you cannot control what window you receive. When it is your time, you can select a dorm to see what rooms, if any, are available. Then it will have the room number. You will have to put your roommates names on the room or you cannot live with them. One thing that is important to remember is that if you do not end up in the dorm hall that you originally wanted, it is by no means the end of the world. For example, if you signed up to be in Brown hall and are upset because you are going to be in Carrick, look at it as an opportunity to try an unexpected obstacle and make the most of it because you might end up realizing you are happier there then what you previously wished for.

Meal Plan

The next step in this registration process is to figure out your meal plan, which is required by the University for all first-year freshman. The main thing you have to think about with this is how much you believe you’ll be eating the dining hall food versus the campus restaurants such as “Chick fil-A,” and “Subway.” This is vital because each meal plan is different in how many swipes you get in the cafeteria compared to the amount of dining dollars you will receive to spend not only on food but on miscellaneous items in the POD Markets located all over campus. However, when you are a freshmen, you only have one option for meal plans that you are forced to get. It includes meal swipes to the dining halls, $300 in dining dollars, and meal equivalency. It’s understandable that all of this information might feel rather eye-opening at the moment but I hope that you are now a little more comfortable and confident heading into your beginnings at the University of Tennessee!