My son got the last window of opportunity to select a dorm and all that was left was Mary Burke East.
We came back from Freshman Orientation after seeing the dorm, we were not happy, small dorm
and not clean. Does anyone know if this is a good dorm?
Not familiar with Mary Burke, but if your son is not happy with his situation he should put a room change request in ASAP. Things frequently open up very late in the summer or early in the semester when the “summer melt” becomes apparent. Requests are generally made on a ‘first come, first served’ basis.
thank you. I called the housing department, they said the first deadline to submit a change request had passed, the next one is august 14th.
I have reading all the posts about the University of Alabama. My son is also from Connecticut. We are in a quandary as to how to manage the distance as well. Should be send all his stuff to his dorm and fly or drive the distance, stopping in Virginia as the midway point? What did you do?
We are from CT also and have two kids at UA, one graduated last year and one is going into her junior year. We found it best to fly down a day early and do most of our shopping in Birmingham. We pre-ordered at Bed Bath and Beyond for both and then did Target and Walmart shopping in Birmingham too. After move-in I had to do a run to the Tuscaloosa Target for things we forgot or didn’t realize we would need. (or couldn’t fit in the car after shopping in Birmingham.)
This is a very personal decision. We chose to ship most of our son’s stuff from Philadelphia and flew down for move-in and rented a car.
In reality, they need very little, and before you blink an eye, it will be time to move out. When in doubt, don’t pack it. He can buy what he needs down there or order through Amazon.
Many people order online and pick up in Tuscaloosa. That can be done at Target, WalMart, and now the soon-to-be-opened Bed Bath Beyond. There are probably other stores that do this as well.
You can also order online and ship to Tuscaloosa. So many place ship for free, so why not take advantage? 
Last year, I saw a bunch of OOS parents picking up their Target orders and their Walmart.com orders. BTW…Walmart.com has a ton more stuff than just the store. You can literally furnish an apt thru Walmart.com.
Boys seem to need less stuff (I know that sounds sexist). Boys seem to care less about all the coordinated stuff (girls’ dorms look like House Beautiful), and they don’t have all the clothes, shoes, hair stuff, etc, that girls have.
For boys, I found that as long as they had basic bedding and spare sheets, and a whole bunch of shirts, underwear and socks, several towels, along with their other basic clothes & toiletries…they were good to go. Seriously…21 pairs of socks and underwear…boys are notorious for delaying their laundry. And…flip flops for warm weather …no socks needed!
FYI, the Tuscaloosa Bed Bath and Beyond will not open in time for move in.