Freshman Deposit and Honors Housing

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Alabama
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<p>My son is still completely undecided as to what college he wants to attend next year. The good news is that he has been accepted by 6 schools so far, including the UA Honors College. He is still waiting to hear from 5 additional schools, and I expect that he will end up accepted at all of his 11 choices. Unfortunately having so many excellent options seems to have made it more difficult for him to decide on his top choice, or even to be able to prioritize between his choices.</p>

<p>We plan to visit Tuscaloosa in about a month and I expect he will come away loving the school and making it one of his top choices. We live in MD and have a neighbor literally across the street who is a Sophomore at UA and absolutely loved it. My son plans to speak with her over Christmas break to hear her feedback and experiences at Alabama.</p>

<p>I do not want to push him into a decision prematurely, but at the same time I want him to have the best experience possible at whatever school he chooses. I consider getting into good dorms freshman year a high priority and want to make sure he will be able to get into Honors housing if UA is his choice. </p>

<p>My question for the forum is this: Does it make sense for me to pay the freshman enrollment deposit ($200 non-refundable) and housing deposit (refundable) now just to make sure he is high enough in the housing choice process to get into a good dorm? I’m willing to risk the $200 if it is important to get in the list now, but if it’s OK to wait until the end of January after the tour I can do that as well. When is the realistic deadline to be able to get into good Honors housing?</p>

<p>Thanks for your feedback. I’ve looked through this forum for advise and also looked at the UA website and it still isn’t clear to me when the realistic cutoff for getting the deposit in will be this year.</p>

2

<p>All of the honors housing is good, and next year it’s all Ridgecrest, so all in pretty much the same area. There were kids who deposited later than January last year who got honors housing. What you might not have is the ability to get your first choice, or the ability to choose roommates and be able to get a full suite with friends. (Then again, he could get pulled in by a roommate with a better pick time). </p>

<p>We deposited in October even though D didn’t decide on Bama until March (she did know it was in her top 2 or 3, though). She ended up being pulled in by a roomie with an even earlier pick time. </p>

<p>FYI, the visit doesn’t always seal the deal - my D visited as a junior and still didn’t decide until March of senior year. She would tell you today that it was an excellent decision. I guess whether to deposit depends on your financial situation and how close to the top of the 11 schools Bama is.</p>

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<p>Unless he has some friends that he is already planning on rooming with January should be fine. Our son ended up with one of the last time slots for housing last year and while there were no honors dorm rooms with 4 slots available when we logged on there were plenty of rooms with 1 or 2 beds open. Since he is very easy going he didn’t care of he knew any of his roommates or not.</p>

<p>Beyond that we saw rooms open and close on a regular basis through the early summer as others either released their rooms to attend elsewhere or to move off campus so there is always the opportunity go move ot a different room.</p>

<p>If you wanted/needed a room with 3 or 4 beds to reserve for friends then I would give different advice.</p>

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<p>Great, thanks for the advice. He would likely be the only person from his HS attending Bama and won’t have any friends to room with so single beds should be fine.</p>

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<p>JM - If Bama remains high on his list as things become a bit clearer you might want to steer him towards the Bama class of 17 FB page. I know the class of 16 page was quite active. It might give him an opportunity to meet someone with similiar interests that he would like to room with. Combining the FB page with the roommate finder gives a reasonable chance of finding at least one person to start out with.</p>

<p>Good luck as you go through the final stages of the selection process. It can become quite stressful, just remember that it will all work out in the end. (As long as Bama is the final choice :wink: )</p>

<p>If you have any more questions come on back to the Bama forum, it is amazing how many folks are out here just waiting to help.</p>

<p>Roll Tide !!</p>

6

<p>After you schedule your campus tour (do that soon!!!) send the honors college an email so that they can arrange the rest of your day…</p>

<p>set up the campus tour online…try for an early morning time! Don’t bother with the “info session”, you’ll get that info here pretty much on the Alabama forum on College Confidential which you can see is VERY active.*</p>

<p>[University</a> of Alabama - College Confidential](<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-alabama/]University”>University of Alabama - College Confidential Forums)</p>

<p>In the email include:</p>

<p>Student’s name and contact info</p>

<p>Date and time of the Campus tour that you’ve reserved.</p>

<p>GPA and test scores (include NMSF status)</p>

<p>Likely majors*</p>

<p>Career interests (including med, law, etc)</p>

<p>Anything particular that you want to see. *If you have an interest in seeing the new Science and Engineering Complex, let them know.</p>

<p>Honors Recruitment
Allison Verhine
Coordinator
269 Nott Hall
205-348-5534
<a href=“mailto:allison.verhine@ua.edu”>allison.verhine@ua.edu</a></p>

<p>Susan Alley
Assistant Coordinator
270 Nott Hall
205-348-5599
<a href=“mailto:susan.alley@ua.edu”>susan.alley@ua.edu</a></p>

<p>Allison and her assistant will arrange the rest of the day…meeting with faculty related to major, honors college faculty, touring honors dorms, etc.</p>

<p>Sometimes mail goes to their SPAM folders, so call them if you haven’t heard back within a few business days. These ladies do an excellent job and work very hard</p>

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<p>We got an email on December 7th from our local recruiter, Cindy Wright, which included the following information about housing deposits. </p>

<p>“This year the University of Alabama has a January 1st priority registration if you want to select your own housing option. If you pay your freshman enrollment deposit and complete the housing contract prior to January 1st, you will be guaranteed the opportunity to select your dorm, room, and roommate. Students completing their housing contracts after January 1st are guaranteed a dorm room, however Housing and Residential Life may determine where the student lives. For those of you who have completed your housing contract, dorm selection will be announced in the spring – watch your myBAMA email account for updates.” </p>

<p>This was a generic email, not in response to any question on our part, so I assume that other recruiters have sent something similar out as well. </p>

<p>Note that the procedure described for this year is both different and earlier than it has been in prior years, so some of the advice on this thread may not apply to this year. I have a child who is a current sophomore at UA – we did not deposit until March and she still was able to select in one of the early rounds and had her choice of all possible honors dorms, but I am not sure that, given the information in Cindy’s email, I would feel comfortable waiting past January 1st if choice of dorm is really crucial to the decision to attend.</p>

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<p>^^ That sounds like a significant change for the student who wants to pick his or her room/roommates. Not such a big deal for a kid who wants a room in an honors dorm but doesn’t care about roommates (and ALL the Ridgecrests are great!). However, I would contact housing to make sure they’ll automatically be assigning honors kids to honors housing if they want it but deposit after January 1.</p>

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<p>Wow, that is a big change. I guess I will contact housing to understand the impact of waiting past the 1 Jan deadline on entry into Honors housing.</p>

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<p>Room selection for freshmen entering 2013-2014</p>

<p>[Student</a> Affairs | Housing & Residential Communities](<a href=“http://housing.ua.edu/new_students/selection_schedule.cfm]Student”>http://housing.ua.edu/new_students/selection_schedule.cfm)</p>

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<p>Hi there!
I’d like to shed a little bit of light on a few of the comments posted in this thread.</p>

<p>Yes, the January 1 deadline is a change to our policy, but hopefully will help us communicate more realistic expectations for our students. What we’ve found over the past couple of years is that students who apply much after January realistically will not find enough space for themselves AND any potential roommates in the same room. Then these students feel misled that they were told they could pick roommates and couldn’t get enough space. This change will help us communicate to students who apply after January 1 that it’s possible that they won’t get the opportunity to pull in a roommate.</p>

<p>But fear not! All is not lost on January 2!!</p>

<p>The housing application will change after the Jan. 1 deadline to allow those student who apply later to give Housing some preferences:

  • there will be up to 3 fields to indicate roommate preferences with name and CWID if you already know who you’d like to live with, but missed the Jan 1. deadline.
  • there will be a place to rank your housing preferences by housing style: Traditional, Apartment, Suite-Style or Honors Housing.</p>

<p>We will NOT automatically place all Honors student into Honors Housing as many of them choose to live in other communities. If your student wants to live in Honors Housing, they will need to select Honors as their first choice housing preference. Please note: Student who apply for housing on January 2 or later do not need to be accepted into Honors prior to applying for Housing. They just need to be admitted to Honors College before we begin freshman room selection later in the spring (I’d say sometime in April).</p>

<p>Hope this helps!
Janine Gascoigne</p>

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<p>Thanks for posting the official policy Janine. I’ll have to wait at least until after we tour UA in Jan to decide whether to place a deposit or not and take our chances that he will get placed in Honors housing. He won’t be trying to room with any particular roommate so I hope his chances are good.</p>

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<p>Would it be possible to provide a particular portion of an Honors Dorm for girls intending to go through Recruitment?</p>

<p>Then they’d be able to walk to the sororities and back for their meals and meeting and such…</p>

<p>Just wondering…</p>

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<p>I have to second MemphisGuy about having your son join the 2017 Facebook page. My D joined and has already connected with several. She posted in the roommate section and had many responses. She seemed to really click with other young lady and they have already planned their dorm decor, girls. They plan on meeting Preview weekend.</p>

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<p>there will be no shortage of girls in the honors dorms going through recruitment. in fact, most every girl there will be, since recruitment move-in is a week before regular move in.</p>

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<p>That’s right. I forgot about that…they’ll all meet then.</p>

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<p>Honors dorms are quite a ways from the sorority houses in terms of walking to/fro. During week prior to school, I believe they all ride Crimson Ride buses together to their various activities.</p>

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<p>My daughter is not on Facebook and probably won’t be at the preview weekend since she’s likely not interested in joining a sorority. But she has found the roommate finder somewhat helpful in finding like-minded girls for potential roommates. But with having an individual bedroom in a super suite with a residence hall full of other Honors kids, even going random or having Housing pick her roommates wouldn’t be all that bad (yes, I’m sure there are horror stories, but that’s part of learning and living as a college student). And nothing like my college dorm days (4 guys to a small room/2 sets of bunkbeds/bathroom at the other end of the floor/“kitchen” consisting of a hot plate and a mini-frig next to the bathroom in a broom closet).</p>

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<p>Ua housing question follow up…if an admiited student to honors does not sign up until feb for housing, will they be guaranteed to have honors housing at ridge rest…of course, I understand that they cannot pick room or roommates but will they gave a honors housing guarantee…
Daughter really likes suites at UA.</p>

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<p>Not sure what UA Housing will reply with about your specific question Calmom…but keep in mind that there are suite-style dorms at other non-honors housing locations: Presidential, Lakeside, Riverside. Nothing is bad at UA!</p>