<p>Is this a shameless rip off? Received an e mail today saying thank you for applying. Reserve your UF campus housing now. Send in NON-REFUNDABLE $25 deposit to secure your request. No guartantee of admission, no guarantee of anything. Just send in $25 in the event you are accepted.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, that’s the way it is. People who want to get a good priority number go ahead and apply for housing and pay the $25. My D applied last year and paid the first day the housing application went live. As it turns out, she didn’t end up in the dorms, but at least if she had decided to live on campus, she would have probably gotten her choice of dorms.</p>
<p>At least it’s not the same as FSU, where we deposited $200 or so. We lost $50 of that when the UF acceptance came through.</p>
<p>yes, if you happen to get accepted and want to go, you won’t want to kick yourself for not spending the $25 - I said the same thing you did but hey, its better than UCF, whose housing app isn’t available yet, I believe their housing application fee is like $200 and if you don’t attend, I think you get back half (?) I don’t totally remember, but its a nice chunk you lose. 
but housing is limited and I guess this is the only way. ?</p>
<p>DO IT!</p>
<p>You will kill yourself later for not doing it.</p>
<p>gpowsang</p>
<p>$25 is a small price to pay to avoid the worrying when you don’t get a housing assignment until the week before move-in and the room is “bottom of the barrel”. We waited to send in our son’s deposit until he was accepted. He is in a permanent triple that (you can tell by closets) was originally a double. The 3 guys had a hard time arranging their desks, dressers and beds so that they could get all the internet access hooked up. I don’t think it’s a big deal to him, but I feel sorry for the girls that are in those triples. I know they generally like a little more room for their “stuff”. Pay it - you won’t regret it. If your child doesn’t get accepted it’s really not that much money compared to other schools.</p>