<p>So I got my room last night (lakeside west) and was thrilled, of course, because I really wanted honors housing. However, I kind of assumed (ass, u, me, yeah. . .) that freshmen would room with other freshmen? I dunno, I found two of the other people in my room on facebook, and they’re both sophomores. Is it normal for freshmen to room with older kids? I mean, I can still switch out, but I guess I’m just asking whether or not this will /keep/ happening. I’d prefer to live with other freshmen.</p>
<p>Bama allowed you to choose any open spot. However, if you want to room with freshmen, then switch to a suite that only has freshmen. Use two computers, one with Facebook open and the other with housing. Check to see what students are before moving to another room. :)</p>
<p>Isn’t there an all freshman dorm this year? Or did that change?</p>
<p>Remember, though the standing of “freshmen” is arbitrary. Many kids begin at Bama with Sophomore (or junior) standing because of AP credits.</p>
<p>^^^Or use one computer with two windows open :)</p>
<p>FWIW my son, who will be a freshman, got into a suite with three sophomores. He e-mailed them and they were fine with that. The frosh-soph combo doesn’t seem to be a terribly unusual phenomenon at UA.</p>
<p>SEA_tide, a current student in his first year at Bama, has spoken eloquently on this topic before. Perhaps he will weigh in here or you can pm him. He is always responsive, informative, and gracious.</p>
<p>With kids allowed to re-contract for the same room this will be happening more and more. The only way to assure yourself of rooming with all freshman is to find a suite that is empty. </p>
<p>Last year Ridgecrest South was all freshman because it was the first year for the dorm.</p>
<p>Rooming with an upperclassman is not always a bad thing. Because he or she has gone through a year or maybe even, two, at UA, perhaps that person can be a wonderful resource for class information (including which professors are tougher than others), getting tickets to various events, where to buy certain items, what places to eat, etc. And M2CK is correct that the class standing of freshman is arbitrary. Her sons, Sea_tide and my son all came in with AP/dual enrollment credit – lots of it. If you really get along with that upperclassman roommate, maybe you will want to stay together a second year – and if he has a lot of hours and better class standing, he can pick the housing earlier next year.</p>
<p>We were pleasantly surprised with the housing experience. Initially, S was given Apr. 29 as the housing selection date, but later bumped up to Apr. 20. Upon logging in, he discovered that he was already assigned a room in Ridgecrest South North Tower. Does everyone start with an assigned room, with the assumption the room can later be changed? We thought he would need to start from zero and pick a room to get housing. He tried to look for roommate info. but did not know how to find it. Tried to follow faq on housing website but since he did not select his room, could not access roommate info. Any ideas on being able to see who else is in his suite?</p>
<p>Sophocles, I too find it odd that your son already has a room. If he was in a smaller living-learning community (ie a language house), he would be assigned a room, but such is not the case with honors. Is there a possibility he gave somebody his proxy code? Note that even though your housing selection date has not come up yet, you can still click on the “my housing application” button on myBama, select Fall2010/Spring2011 and scroll down to see who else has been assigned to the room. If you want to, you can click on the room selection tab, but it will just say that room selection is not available at this time. It was this way that I was able to see who my roommates are for next year.</p>
<p>On rooming with “freshmen” (notice quotations):
Rooming with fellow first year students can be a good thing and it can be a bad thing. The same can be said about rooming with students who’ve already been attending UA, but the good and bad things are not necessarily the same for each group. I did end up rooming with first year students this year and will next year too. To me, age is just a number. What really matters is the maturity of the person, and that does not always come with age. I’m not saying that a little immaturity now and then is bad (quite the contrary), but I expect my roommates to be respectful and to expect the same from me. </p>
<p>At UA and many other schools, the term freshman is thrown around loosely. This may be my first year at UA and I may have graduated high school last spring, but legally I cannot say I am a freshman because UA defines class standing by credits and I have enough credits to be a senior, which makes filling out applications for UA programs and outside internships confusing. So when people ask me what year I’m in, I say that it’s my first year, which often prompts questions as to why I didn’t say freshman, but at least I’m telling the truth. I seem to recall UVA doing the same thing and know that it is a choice on FAFSA. Because of credits transferring in, many first year students are not officially freshmen, but they still make good roommates and/or classmates.</p>
<p>All in all, just choose roommates and find friends based on the people themselves and how well y’all like/work/have fun together. This could mean living with a bunch of first year students or maybe not, it all depends on the persons involved. The selling point of “all-freshman” dorms and freshman learning communities is that one assumes all freshmen are going through the same difficulties and taking the same classes. While some might like that sort of thing, I know from experience that it’s not for me and plan accordingly.</p>
<p>Did your son get a confirmation email confirming his room? If not, you might want to check into that. I did read on the facebook group that a few other people were assigned rooms as well. It’s weird, but maybe they did that due to the server issues. Just make sure you have an email confirming his room.</p>
<p>I agree. Make sure your child has an email confirming his room. If not, call Housing, give the suite/bed number that he’s been assigned, and ask for an email confirmation.</p>
<p>My D also was assigned a room - Riverside North, and roommate names were listed. We don’t have an email confirmation, though, so I’ll be calling today.</p>
<p>No, he did not get an email about his room confirmation. SEA_tide, he did not give out his proxy code since he’s not actively seeking for roommates. Just wanted to know whether the suite was filled and who else had reserved. Mom2, you’re right. When I called, it looks like housing was instructed to assign rooms to late-applicant NMFs so they can be guaranteed a place. We were just worried that S would not be able to get a room in honors housing, so it was a nice surprise to see that he had been accommodated. Alabama really takes care of its NMF kids!</p>
<p>i thought it had been sort of comfirmed that all honors students were guaranteed honors housing,</p>
<p>here is something from the website:</p>
<p>The Honors College living option in Riverside West, Lakeside West, Ridgecrest North, and Ridgecrest West is available to members of the University Honors Program, International Honors Program, and/or Computer-Based Honors Program. These coed living-learning facilities form the center of the University’s tightly-knit honors community. Because of the demand for Honors Housing, <strong><em>only incoming Honors College freshmen and current residents of Honors Housing can be accommodated.</em></strong> Space does not permit Honors College participants living in other residence halls to move to Honors Housing. For more information, please visit [Honors</a> College - Home](<a href=“http://honors.ua.edu%5DHonors”>http://honors.ua.edu).</p>
<p>then found this:</p>
<p>The preferred deadline for students selecting a living-learning community, including honors housing, is March 1, 2010, and the preferred deadline for all other incoming freshmen is April 1, 2010. Students who apply after this date are not guaranteed participation in the online room selection process or campus housing.</p>
<p>^^^That paragraph about deadlines is more of a legal requirement than anything to be worried about. The honors college is very adamant that incoming honors students will get honors housing if they want it. Housing was helping with this request by assigning some NMF’s rooms, but since other honors students who may have accepted the offer before are still in the process of selecting rooms, I think they should have waited longer before assigning specific spaces. Of course, I have no idea as to how many empty spaces housing blocks from selection either.</p>