<p>I know students are guaranteed on-campus housing their first year, but what about the following years? If a student wishes to continue to live on campus sophomore and junior years, can they? Is there enough honors housing available?</p>
<p>There are no guarantees for following years. Have a poke around this forum - there is much discussion about this over the past few years! Good luck with your decisions. </p>
<p>TNmomof1: Last summer during Bama Bound freshman orientation, we were told by UA Housing that all sophomores* who requested on-campus housing for 2014-15 did get in (if they met the application deadlines, etc). The opening of the new Presidential II residence hall in August of 2014 helped ease the crunch. (I know of some juniors in on-campus housing as well, though there are probably not a large number.)</p>
<p>*I actually don’t recall if the Housing staff member said “sophomores” or “upperclassmen”.</p>
<p>There are no guarantees. Frankly, few kids would even want to stay on campus all four years. Most are itching to move into an off-campus apt after the first year. </p>
<p>For the school to guarantee housing, it would need a LOT more rooms, but then that would be too risky because many don’t want to stay on campus, so the school could end up with a lot of empty beds.</p>
<p>I think the school has roughly 9000 beds. </p>
<p>Thank you for the comments. My daughter will only be 17 when she starts college next fall. I was hoping that she could live on campus at least two years. I guess we’ll have to wait and see and hope something is available. I’m almost positive the two senior students we met with during our Honors College visit both said they lived on campus. </p>
<p>My son also started at 17. He moved off campus this year, his 2nd year. It was a savings for us vs. the dorms. I don’t know of any sophomores who requested campus housing that didn’t get it. </p>
<p>Have you seen this link for off campus housing? <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-alabama/1709872-new-off-campus-student-housing-options.html”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-alabama/1709872-new-off-campus-student-housing-options.html</a></p>
<p>Our ds wants to live on campus his soph yr, but back when I was in school, I would have definitely preferred something like these. I wanted off campus.</p>
<p>Mom2aphysicsgeek: it looks like there are plenty of options off campus. I would like for her to stay on campus at least through her soph year if possible. Do you think housing will be available for your son to stay on campus his soph year?</p>
<p>I would check directly with UA Housing, but I believe that the Housing Crunch for non-freshmen eased up after the opening of Presidential II I believe that it was reported that all upperclassmen, who put in their housing requests on time, were eventually accommodated.
Although most upperclassmen prefer to live off campus, there are certainly those who like to stay on campus. Sometimes, they even switch to a two bedroom suite or a single if available. Just FYI, that those two options ( if available) are more expensive.</p>
<p>He seems unconcerned about the possibility that they might not get to stay on campus. I don’t know if that is wishful thinking or not. </p>
<p>Although there are no guarantees, I think there’s a decent chance that your daughter will be able to get campus housing as a sophomore. Elimination of the housing scholarship that was part of the NMF package (I suspect the seniors who told you they were living on campus have housing scholarships) will likely result in a few hundred upperclassmen who otherwise would have lived on campus moving out of the dorms - the last of the students with those housing scholarships will be seniors next year. The opening of Presidential II definitely eased the housing crunch. But even in the year before Presidential II opened, my D was able to live on campus as a sophomore. There were other sophomores who did NOT get on-campus housing, but the kids who signed up immediately when the housing application opened were able to stay on campus.</p>
<p>Yes, you must sign up as soon as the application is available.</p>
<p>@TNMomof1 Take it from a very stressed Mom who freaked out when the NMF scholarship changed and I realized my son’s class would not be guaranteed housing, the worry is for naught. The students form bonds and some know by September of first year who they wish to live with; others don’t care to think before second semester. My son found 2 separate groups who were looking for a 4th to move off campus. He liked the complex one group was considering and signed a lease in December of his first year. I was freaked out. It has all worked out better than if he remained on campus. Rest assured, there are plenty of places to live on and off campus. You do not need to let housing be a deciding factor at this stage.</p>
<p>@TNmomof1 </p>
<p>Don’t worry. Bama has a good number of young freshman. I know a sophomore who started Bama at 16 and she’s off-campus this year…and she’s graduating next year - early.</p>
<p>That said, some sophs do stay on campus. Sign up for housing as soon as you can as a returning student. And, it may also help to then contact Housing and ask for consideration because of her age.</p>
<p>But seriously, she will likely want to move off campus after frosh year with some friends she’s made that first year. </p>
<p>My DD was 17 when she started this year. She has signed a lease for an apartment next year. Her main reason for moving is that she wants a kitchen to be able to cook all her meals. The dorm food is good but she wants to cook certain foods that aren’t offered every day.</p>
<p>Not a ton of upperclassman live on campus. As others have mentioned, most people want to move off. The dorms are expensive an lack amenities compared to the nice apartment complexes around town. </p>
<p>Freshman get priority over upperclassmen in terms of housing, so it’s likely to get stuck somewhere bad.</p>
<p>Disagree entirely: IF a returning student gets accepted to recontract and return to housing on campus (i.e., beyond Fr year), they actually pick their rooms BEFORE any other incoming freshman (they can return to their same exact room if they wish!), so it is very UNlikely that an older student would “get stuck somewhere bad.”</p>
<p>Aeromom is right about room choice. The way it works is freshman has guaranteed housing, upcoming sophomores have first chance in the lottery for getting a room on campus, then upcoming juniors etc. However, once students who have a room choose it starts with the upcoming seniors, then juniors, then sophomores so upperclassmen definitely decide where they want to stay and won’t get stuck. They will, however, get “stuck” with underclassmen if they don’t fill up the rooms in their suite. This year my 3rd year son on housing scholarship chose to stay in his suite with a friend, but two random freshmen took the other rooms. Although I think the freshmen moms might have been more concerned than us, the four get along wonderfully. Next year if my son decides to stay in a four room suite, I hope it works out as well.</p>
<p>Thanks for all of the comments. I’m probably worrying too much. I think I’ll send an email to housing this week and see what they have to say about it. If DD can’t stay on campus, it’s good to know there are plenty of options available nearby. </p>
<p>@Mandalorian is wrong.</p>
<p>A frosh requesting to stay on campus for soph year would NOT get “stuck somewhere bad” if the request is accepted.</p>
<p>Madalorian: Do you just make stuff up? in a previous thread you claimed that Tuscaloosa is frequently 110 degrees in the summer! lol The highest recorded temp in Tuscaloosa was 104, and that was about 30 years ago! You also claimed that there is no point to being in the Honors College if you’re not going to be in Honors housing… that is simply not true. Having priority registration is a big deal, likely a bigger deal than living in Honors. </p>
<p>If you’re going to provide responses to people’s questions, please try to be at least a little accurate. And frankly, because you’re a student, there are some people who would wrongly assume that a student would know more about such things than parents would…and in the case of your answers…that assumption would be quite wrong.</p>