<p>Hi there!
I’ve been accepted to UA, and it’s a school that I would be really happy to attend if I don’t get accepted to my top school. I was wondering how the Housing is on campus? I don’t want to submit the enrollment deposit until I’m sure that I’ll be attending. I believe I’ll get into the Honors College (I have above the requirements, currently awaiting a hopeful acceptance!); if I do get into honors, will I automatically get a space in the Honors Dorms, even if I don’t submit the enrollment/housing deposit until a much later date? Or is it like some other schools, where space is limited and I should submit the deposit even if I’m unsure?</p>
<p>In honors dorms space is relatively limited. I have 2 friends that submitted their housing deposit late and are not in Ridgecrest. One is in Presidential and the other is in the honors overflow in Blount. This year it seems to be more of a problem with females than males. If honors housing is a priority for you I would go ahead and pay the deposit.</p>
<p>if I do get into honors, will I automatically get a space in the Honors Dorms, even if I don’t submit the enrollment/housing deposit until a much later date? Or is it like some other schools, where space is limited and I should submit the deposit even if I’m unsure</p>
<p>No, you’re not guaranteed a spot. You should deposit by Christmas. Later than that might get iffy to get an honors bed…or to get one where you want one.</p>
<p>You don’t need to be accepted to the honors college at the time you make the deposit to get into honors housing. If you make the deposit on October 1, you’ll be fine as long as you get into honors before housing selection (which is in the spring). And as long as you meet the requirements, you’ll get into the honors college, so don’t worry about that.</p>
<p>Oh okay. So I just need to make the deposit? I was under the impression that I had to be accepted into honors before I could make a deposit. Thanks for clearing that up!</p>
<p>In our experience, housing deadlines are definitely less stressful when you’re 1st in line. DS is/was not honors (almost!), but our early deposit gave us many, many more options. DS grabbed a sweet suite [see what I did there?] in Riverside West (right across the street from Lakeside Dining). And a friend who was, um - not first in line, won life’s lottery when DS pulled him in. None of these things would have been possible if we “over-thinked” it to save a few bucks.</p>
<p>The calculus may be a little different next year when new dorms are opened. Isn’t a new Presidential dorm opening, along with a new rec center and new dining hall?</p>
<p>No, the housing app isn’t up yet–it opens October 1st, I believe!
Thank you guys very much! </p>
<p>So the freshman enrollment deposit is nonrefundable, correct? Is the housing deposit refundable? Apparently we have to submit the enrollment deposit before we can apply for housing? UA is an awesome school, and I would love to attend, but a $200 nonrefundable enrollment deposit is a lot for my family when there could be a chance I won’t attend UA. If I decide against paying the deposit until I find out in February, would that be too late for a nice dorm on campus?</p>
<p>This is what that Alabama did to our family last year. Not in a bad way. </p>
<p>My entering freshman had the recommended mix of dream, excellent, and safe schools in mind last summer.</p>
<p>Alabama was lightning-fast accepting him.</p>
<p>We did a quick tour, and despite the cookbook recipe for picking colleges, it was game-over after the tour. He’s at Bama now, and loves it.</p>
<p>UA’s early application/acceptance practice forced our family to have honest and open discussions early. Money, distance from home, cars, jobs, the whole nine yards. Since UA was one of our “excellent” schools, he just decided.</p>
<p>He was definitely more relaxed senior year with the Big Decision behind him.</p>
<p>We’re not wealthy. One way to look at the early housing deposit expense is to consider that you might not have to apply to as many schools, and apply the application fees not-paid to your just-in-case deposit to get a good dorm? We saved about $150 on application fees we never paid.</p>
<p>I love Bill’s explanation. I never understood why some families allow their students to apply to 10 (or more) schools. $50-100 here or there really does add up. Money does strange things to the decision making process. I strongly suggest having a frank and open discussion about what your family is willing to pay for college upfront, before any tours of ANY schools - then, if you choose UA after that tour, money won’t enter into the decision as much. UA’s scholarships should be icing on the cake - not the primary reason you are going. In the long run, the fit of the college is much more important, IMO. By having the $$$ discussion upfront (before attending or applying anywhere), you will make the decision more easily, and you can almost guarantee it will be the right type of decision.</p>
<p>First time, I think many of us parents and kids think it’s like sports: there are deadlines for getting into the playoffs, and then a systematic playoff system begins, until two universities battle it out in the finals for the privilege of welcoming you next fall.</p>
<p>That wasn’t our experience.</p>
<p>Schools will be working to their schedules, not ours. Little and BIG decisions pepper families at the oddest times, including tours, home town receptions, early acceptance letters, and deposit deadlines.</p>
<p>It worked out for us because there were only 4 in serious contention, and Bama was tied for first with you-know-who, bless their hearts.</p>
<p>Thank you so much Bill and Aero! That really does put things in perspective for me.
Unfortunately, we’re just now starting to realize how expensive applying is–no one in my family had applied before so they didn’t know how expensive it would turn out, and neither did I! I actually didn’t realize that the housing deposit would be available to deposit before I made my final decision.</p>
<p>UA is my number 2 school, and we are planning a trip there sometime soon so I can get a feel of the campus. I will definitely discuss this with my parents! Again, thank you both very much! It really did help a lot.</p>
<p>Another issue is that for many schools, unlike Bama with the automatic awards, you do not know how much you will receive in aid until the official notices are sent out in the spring. Although the financial aid calculators on websites provide an estimate, many don’t include merit awards that students may receive.</p>
<p>I believe National Descision Day exists for a reason - it’s so students have a chance to compare choices and make the decision that’s best for them without a demand from any institution for them to make a decision when they don’t have all the information available to them. So, I was pretty stubborn that we were NOT going to put a deposit down until we had all the information from all 6 of the schools my son applied to.</p>
<p>We wound up making our deposit in March, I believe. For us, it worked out. That was before last year’s housing crunch. Although we deposited late, S still got honor’s housing with no problem (he had no preselected roommates).</p>
<p>Last year there seemed to be a shortage of honor’s housing - I saw several reports here of honor’s students that were not able to get honor’s housing (perhaps there were fewer honor’s beds after they moved all honor’s housing to Ridgecrest?) and a shortage of housing in general, at least for females, prompting them to squeeze students into rooms meant for single students and offering incentives for upperclass female students to move off campus.</p>
<p>For next fall the new Presidential building should be open, so there should be less of a housing crunch. They have most likely not yet determined if honor’s will remain in Ridgecrest or be designated in other areas next year yet, so it’s difficult to say whether there may be a shortage of honor’s housing or not.</p>
<p>Do what you’re comfotable with. Even if you wait to deposit, you WILL get a room on campus. As freshmen are required to live on campus, they will find a room for everyone. But the longer you wait, the fewer choices you have. If you have specific preferences and you want a room in a specific dorm, facing a specific direction, on the floor with the laundry/kitchen, with 3 of your best friends, then you NEED to deposit early. If you just want to room to live in, then you can wait much longer to make a deposit.</p>
This is an important observation. You can and should have the discussion about how much you are willing to pay. The hard part is that for many/most schools you don’t know what they are going to cost to attend. They publish the list price but your net price may be much lower. Sometimes that school with the incredibly high list price can become your least expensive option. Unfortunately, the only wat to find out is to apply and wait until they make their offers.</p>
<p>In our experience, merit aid was very apparent upfront by the various colleges S applied to - if they want you, they will make it very clear upfront what aid they are giving you well in advance of Nat Decision day. In our case (4 schools), ALL merit aid was offered by mid-December. In fact, when the final aid letters came in Feb, they were a joke what they classify as further ‘aid’: loans, loans, and more loans. But by then, S had made up his mind w/ UA. Done and dusted.</p>
<p>One of the best things I did was send my D’s ACT scores to all the colleges she was interested in. It cost me about $90 and we have received app fee waivers from every school on her list except Notre Dame!</p>
<p>Just our experience, but of the schools that were strong considerations -</p>
<p>S applied to Bama and knew well in advance he’d get 100% tuition + the engineering award. Knew what the dorms and meal plan would cost, knew approximately what course fees were going to be - the only real financial question was how much books would cost.</p>
<p>S applied to Purdue they began sending out merit award notifications in the fall and one of S’s classmates did receive one fairly early (November), but we were still hopeful and they said they were still sending notifications. I suspected by early the next year that we were simply not going to get any award from them, but after exchanging some ‘pleasantries’ with their financial aid staff on our second visit in February? March?, were told to remain patient they were <em>still</em> issuing awards. (As suspected at that point, they did not offer S any award).</p>
<p>S applied to Rose Hulman - had very little guess on what type of aid he’d receive. Knew from reading CC that their max awards were about 50% of cost, so was not expecting more than that. Really had no idea what to expect until the financial aid notification was received in the spring with a mix of merit and need based aid that totaled just under 50% of total cost making it a stretch, but within reach. Son opted not to consider it because it was too close to home. I suppose I could have called and harassed their financial aid office to get earlier notifcation, but until FAFSA’s are processed and they can compare the stats of their accepted students, they may not have a firm grasp on exactly how much a specific student award may be and they are in their right to take until spring to make those determinations.</p>
<p>S applied to MIT EA - he was deferred until regular admissions which were not until spring. We did not anticipate him getting accepted, but it was still a possibility. Since they use the CSS profile, it was easy to run the financial aid calculators with my financial info, but more difficult to compute how a non-custodial parent’s income would factor in. Since S was rejected during regular admissions, never received a statement from financial aid, so still don’t know what the total cost would have been.</p>
<p>I have no regrets about waiting until March (and a 2nd visit to Bama) before making a deposit. S was still able to get honor’s housing and had tried the roommate finder app with little luck, so didn’t have any preferred roommates anyway. Don’t think there would have been any benefit for us for depositing earlier. But, of course, YMMV…</p>
<p>Thank you guys! All of this information is extremely helpful. I’ve discussed everything with my parents, and first things first, we need to take a visit to Alabama before deciding on anything else, which we’ll be doing soon. I know they don’t want to pay the deposit if I’m unsure if I’ll end up going, but they also want me to get a nice dorm so there’s a bit of confusion with them still–though I think I’ve decided I don’t want them to deposit until I’m much more sure about Bama.</p>
<p>@jrscsmom; That’s extremely helpful information! I don’t particularly care about which room I get/who I room with, but I am interested in the honors dorms. I have heard about the new expansion for it, and I think that would definitely help out if we decide to deposit later. Thanks again!</p>