<p>ditto to the last two posts. </p>
<p>it is just part of what needs to be done if UA is a good possibility on his list.</p>
<p>Okey dokey. Thanks for the advise. DS still has to wait for school to start here (after Labor Day) to request transcript. After that, I’ll help him stay on top of the scholarship app., HC app. and housing deadlines. I know that he and his dad were very impressed by their “red carpet” visit a couple of weeks ago. VA has great in-state options, but that Presidential scholarship is hard to beat - since he is the first of 4 to go to college in the next few years.</p>
<p>
At least $200 if not more. The $200 is the freshman tuition deposit and is non-refundable. Not sure what the housing deposit is. </p>
<p>A little more than a few bucks.</p>
<p>a few bucks in terms of the cost of college.</p>
<p>it is all about choices. you can choose to pay the deposit now or not.</p>
<p>if you want to be able to choose your roomies/building/etc, then pay the deposit now. if you don’t, then you get to deal with the stress and disappointment of not having your preferences when the time comes. if having your preferences is not important to you, then no need to pay the deposit now.</p>
<p>In years past, all but $25 of the housing deposit was refundable. As others have stated, you need to weigh how likely of a choice UA is along with how stressful it will be to have a later housing pick and then make the choice whether or not to deposit early to guarantee an earlier housing choice time slot.</p>
<p>Yes, you “lose” some money. But, it’s like insurance. You may never get back all of the money you pay into your homeowners, car, health, etc insurance. But when you need it, you are very glad you had it. If the parents and future student don’t care if they get in the Honors dorms or any dorm of their choice, don’t care if they get to pick their roommate(s), etc, then they may not want to put the deposits in. If just one of those is important to them, it’s their insurance.</p>
<p>class2012mom - </p>
<p>the enrollment deposit is not refundable.</p>
<p>you have to pay the enrollment deposit before you can pay the housing deposit.</p>
<p>so you lose all of the enrollment deposit and $25 of the housing deposit.</p>
<p>^ Yes, potential loss of $225. I was just answering the housing deposit part of the questions. Sorry if I wasn’t clear.</p>
<p>when people talk about this, they are generally thinking about the total layout they will have to make and how much of it they will lose (regardless of what it is called.)</p>
<p>no worries.</p>
<p>If anyone wants to spot me the $225 then I’ll take it.</p>
<p>^^^The advice that everyone is giving here is extremely important and valid IF you want your pick of housing preference.
Yes, there were students who did not get into Honors Housing this year. They ran short of space. Also, there were students who wanted to stay on campus that could not. </p>
<p>Housing will have more bed spaces next year with the opening of Phase II of the Presidential Village, but I am assuming that the freshman class size will increase again, just as it has in the past years and that housing may allow some additional upperclassmen to stay on campus. We will just have to see how this plays out. Personally, I would not be surprised to see part if not all of Presidential Village become designated as Honors Housing since these will be the “newest buildings” but perhaps that will depend upon when the new rec center is completed. This is just my opinion.</p>
<p>So which dorms, specifically, were designated honors for Fall 2013 admits? And do we know yet which dorms will be for Fall 2014? When we toured March 2013 (school year 2012-2013), I believe Honors dorm arrangement was Ridgecrest East & West and the North tower of Ridgecrest South.</p>
<p>All of the Ridgecrest buildings were designated as Honors Housing for this year.</p>
<p>Off topic - robotbldmom - were your kids involved in FIRST? Just guessing from your screen name.</p>
<p>^^^No, not at all…it does stem from childhood interests. :)</p>
<p>In choosing housing, which building is the nicest? RC South, East , or West? Or does it matter? And is it better to have a corner room? And what floors?</p>
<p>Ridgecrest South is the newer of the Ridgecrest buildings, so some prefer it. The difference in the age of the buildings isn’t significant. Others prefer Ridgecrest East or West because of the differences in the layout. In a four person suite, the two bedrooms and a bath are on each end of a suite in both towers of RCS divided by the living room/kitchenette area. In RCE and RCW, the bedrooms and baths are on the same end, side by side. It is purely personal preference. There is a parking deck beneath RCS, but all residents of Ridgecrest buildings can park there if they have a parking permit. There is also surface parking for the buildings.</p>
<p>I do know that RCS has a few “classroom” areas where the HC plans to hold some classes this year. That’s nice, but the buildings are literally directly across from each other, so it wouldn’t be a reason to choose one over the other.</p>
<p>The rooms in both towers of RCS are basically the same, except there is an offset in the B and C rooms that, in my opinion, can limit how the furniture is arranged more than an A or D room. A and D rooms are the farthest away from the living area in the RCS building. Again, it is really personal preference.</p>
<p>In RCS, there are two towers, North and South. The laundry rooms and community kitchens are located on the second and fourth floors of each tower. There are five floors in each tower. Note that there are differences in a few of the layouts of two person suites, but I believe all of the four person suites are the same. The two person suites are more expensive.</p>
<p>The Housing website provides much of the information you will need to help in ranking your preferences. Many ask to see a layout of the building so they know which way the room will face. You won’t find that information available for security purposes. My best advice is to deposit early, seek roommates early, and don’t limit yourself to thinking all is lost if you do not get your first choice of rooms.</p>
<p>My son lived in Riverside West for three years, same room. It was on the same floor as the laundry room and was at the end of the hall. It was a great room. Lots of counter space in the kitchen. Very quiet. He had the D room, but the C room I thought had a great floor plan and allowed for furniture to be put together to make a large work space. But the A and B rooms were also large, and both boys in those rooms had lots of electronics in those rooms, as well as clothes, etc.</p>
<p>Son lived in both Ridgecrest East and West during the last two summers, and we did not care for those facilities over Riverside. The room size seemed the same, but the kitchen counter space was much larger. The bedroom/living room/bathroom layout were the same as Riverside, though. </p>
<p>Son’s roommate this summer in Ridgecrest East made great use of the regular kitchen, which Riverside does not have, so if you do like to bake and make fried chicken, Ridgecrest may be the place for you, but again, kitchen space in the actual suite itself I find was much smaller.</p>
<p>Son is in Ridgecrest South this year. He’s only been there a week, so can’t say how different it will be. He is no longer on a floor with either the laundry or the kitchen, so I wonder if I’ll hear complaints about that. But he is in an end suite again, and while a very far walk from the elevator, he is very close to the stairs. This is nice, since he’ll have to go up and down for his laundry, though he’ll still have a far walk to the laundry room, but he can use the stairs over the elevator to go to class, which I hope leads to some weight loss this year.</p>
<p>As for the suite itself in Ridgecrest South, the kitchen counter has much more space than the East/West. He can actually put a dish drying rack down this year. There is less furniture in the living room, but I like this. The furniture in the past years was used as a dumping ground, so maybe they’ll actually get to enjoy the living area this year.</p>
<p>As for the rooms, son is again in D, but it does look like the C room is bigger, but yes, it does have the jutting out of the wall that may be a hindrance for furniture arrangement. The bed is higher than Riverside, and rather than adjusting it, son is leaving it be. He’s tall and is fine with it. He was able to put all three furniture pieces together on one wall in his room, which I was thrilled about.</p>
<p>Also, the closets in Ridgecrest South open out, where we had the sliding doors in Riverside. I frankly can’t remember the closets in Ridgecrest East/West, since he was just there in the summers and I focused more on that small kitchen. Just a pet peeve of mine.</p>
<p>I do remember last summer, when he was in Ridgecrest West/East, the building being in bad shape, but this summer, the building was fine, though I think it was the other building. I expected Ridgecrest South to be in bad shape, as I had heard they had had vandalism problems in the past, but it seemed in good shape. Perhaps repairs had been done.</p>
<p>As I don’t live there myself, I can’t tell you which building is better or worse, but hopefully, given the descriptions of the three/four different buildings son has lived in, it can help you when choosing housing. </p>
<p>Had Riverside remained honors, son would have definitely stayed in his same room for a fourth year. And even he himself was willing to stay there as a nonhonors dorm, but his roommates and friends elected to move to an honors dorm, so that’s why he made the move. </p>
<p>As for parking, even though son can park in the Ridgecrest garage, he often parks in the Blount parking lot. At Riverside, there was parking construction, so the last year, he actually parked at the Ferg, but his car sat idle except for the twice monthly grocery run. By the time you get to Bama, the Riverside parking garage should be completed, so parking shouldn’t be an issue for you.</p>
<p>I paid S’s deposit on Oct 2nd or 3rd last year and we got Day 2 - 1st slot. There were still rooms at various Honors Dorms. There were a few 4 person rooms left, but no doubles. Many of the rooms already had people assigned to them so if you want to pick all your roommates, be sure to pay your deposit on Day 1.</p>