My daughter has applied to Alabama for fall 2017! Hoping to visit in November after her school volleyball season is over. Can anyone give me a idea on the dorms and how you select which dorm is right for you? Also how do you find a room mate? I have two older children who both attend other Universities, and both their schools did the roomie selection process differently than each other. One let students go on a website and find a compatible roomie and request them, the other university just assigned a room mate based on a few questions students answered. Any info on dorms is greatly appreciated. Thanks 
you will see an example of the suites on the tour. Alabama does the website that allows the students to find roommates via a site. Also they have pictures of all the dorms on line so you can get a feel for the one your daughter might like.
There are a lot of different dorms at Alabama. Look at the website for details and prices. Traditional style (2 girls to a room, and the community bathroom is down the hall), versus suite style (4 girls each have individual bedrooms, sharing 2 bathrooms, a living room and kitchenette within their suite.) Some suites are “Honors” students only but some are not…Suites are more costly, but overall I am pretty sure they are newer. (There are a few suite dorms for 2 students instead of 4). Also, I believe some sorority girls choose to live in the traditional dorms such as Tutwiler, maybe based on its location? Traditional is generally considered more social, I have heard, because you see people in the hallway or students leave their doors open at times… Suites are great for quieter studying or privacy, since each student has a small individual bedroom, but harder to get to know the neighbors. In the suite style building, male suites and female suites are on the same floors.
Depending on how early you pay your housing deposit, you will get an earlier date to request your actual dorm room for the dorm that you want. If you miss the deadline, I believe there is random assignment of roommates and less choice of locations.
Students at Alabama often move off campus for sophomore year (I know that seems odd at first, but lots of student apartments are in the area…and some upperclassmen do stay on campus). My daughter is a sophomore in Ridgecrest East, it is a suite style Honors dorm. It’s nice! Last year she was in Ridgecrest South, which was also nice.
You can search from last year’s threads here for more details than I know. I am sure others will chime in!
How to select what is right for you: first decide on a budget, because there is a huge price difference between suite vs traditional dorm style. As mentioned, you will see the suite-style dorm on your tour (and none others), and this is what kids fall in love with (their own room). My advice is to look carefully at the prices BEFORE you visit. Second, do some of your own homework by looking at the UA Housing website http://housing.ua.edu/halls/ (noting that you might not be eligible to be in every single hall), and by using the search feature on this forum (it’s a magnifying glass next to the page numbers on the main forum). In my opinion, UA’s housing is not necessarily ‘theme’ based. One hall isn’t ‘known’ for a certain type of lifestyle. Sure, there are living/learning communities (Blount, e.g. and Bryant for males), and Tut has a lot of sorority girls, but there are all sorts of students in all sorts of dorms, mixed together. It is a nice feature of UA on-campus housing.
How to select a roommate: UA Housing does have a ‘roommate finder’ program. Students who have paid their housing deposit can fill out (online) a simple profile, and other students can see that and pick accordingly. Profiles are listed by student email address, so quasi-anonymous. Most students (and parents) use facebook or similar social media to find roommates. Both systems can get dialogue started between kids. My advice is to start early. If UA is a top pick, as mentioned, put your enrollment deposit down early, enabling you to put your housing deposit down early (noting which/what is refundable - some of that money is not). If you do not have a preference for roommates, you do nothing…and when it comes time to pick your room, you simply assign yourself to wherever you want to live (where space is available). If you are mega-late in the process, yes, UA Housing can/will assign you to a room.
Actually, there is some theme housing with certain requirements. Check the UA Housing website.
Actually, does anyone know if there is still a model dorm in Mary Burke? I know there is a model in Bryant, but tours of that are only regularly given to athletic recruits. (You can try and talk your way into seeing it if you are an incoming male engineering student and interested in living in Bryant).
Yes, there is a model in Burke or at least there was when we visisted in Feb. S is in RCW.
We saw a model in Burke in June during Bama Bound. I can’t remember if it was decorated or just an empty room, but either way, it gave us a good sense of the space and storage in a community-style dorm room. Much more storage than we expected.
FWIW: We saw the model in Burke when we visited in July (on the hottest day of the summer to that point, yay us!), and it was decorated.
Is showing Burke ‘new’ to the tours? I do not recall it being an option when we visited (thru HC/COE) in Nov 2011. At that time, too, I recall many commenting (disappointed) that they only saw the suite model. We were explicitly told that no other dorm models were available. (We talked our way into seeing Bryant, but that was on our own initiative.)
No, we’ve had a model room in Burke for at least 5 years. It’s open year-round, not just on University Days.
Hope this helps,
Janine
The model dorm room at Burke was mentioned as we rode past (near?) it on the bus tour, but we weren’t actually taken into it—we had to go there ourselves after the tour and ask at the front desk to be taken to see it.
We were offered the option of seeing a room in Burke on the larger campus-wide bus tour when we visited in the spring of 2014. No one expressed any interest in seeing it, so we didn’t go in. We did see the outside, however.