Talk about following in the family’s footsteps! New college student Sarah Bowling went to her university intent on starting the move-in process only to find herself in the very same dorm once inhabited by her mother, Laura Everett Bowling, decades before.
Laura graduated from Miami University, located in Oxford, Ohio, in 1994. Back in the fall of 1990, she occupied one particular room on campus that, 33 years later, her own daughter would move into this year. But this time, the big move will be even better.
Mom and daughter duo Laura and Sarah ended up both occupying the same dorm 30 years apart
Incoming first-year student Sarah Bowling was floored when she received her housing assignment for the 2023-24 academic year. By random chance, she will live in Emerson Hall, the same room that her mother, Laura, moved into during the fall of 1990.
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Incoming freshman Sarah, who just finished at the college preparatory school Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy, received her housing assignment and immediately contacted her mother. They’d heard this address before.
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“When my mom told me, we both screamed over the phone, and I was in total disbelief,” said Sarah.
“My first reaction was total and complete surprise and absolute shock,” recalled Laura. “I just couldn’t believe it. I was hoping she would be in South Quad just because that was where I lived, but never ever expected her to be in Emerson, let alone in my exact room.”
Evening the odds and learning from the past
Sarah is carving her own path in college, pursuing Integrated English Language Arts Education, while Laura graduated with a bachelor’s degree in marketing. Things will also differ greatly for Sarah with moving in, because times were very much different when Laura had her turn.
“We are much more prepared this time around,” said Laura. “In 1990 we didn’t have pictures of the dorm rooms to help plan what to bring to campus. There are so many more fun options for dorm decor and storage now, so I’m sure Sarah’s room will be much cuter than mine.”
Those sound like promising odds. But some much more incredible odds relate to the likelihood of these two ending up in the exact same dorm. “The odds of being assigned to the same residence hall of a parent are about 0.02 percent,” says John Bailer, university professor emeritus of statistics, adding that, with 4,474 residential rooms on campus, “the likelihood of being placed in the same room 33 years later is 1,099 to one.”
