Honors Housing Selection - No Roommates

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Alabama
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<p>My son will be a freshman at Alabama in the fall and will be registering for honors housing next Thursday, 4/19. He doesn’t much care if he finds a roommate prior to registering - he is fine with going “cold turkey” into a suite with three people he doesn’t know. Given that -will his choices be limited next Thursday if he is just looking for one room? In the past have any of the honors suite dorms been closed by the third day? He has the earliest time Thursday but there are two full days of selection before him. </p>

<p>Also - Alabama doesn’t have anything you fill out with roommate preferences does it? What kind of music you like, sports, morning/night person, drinker/non-drinker, etc? I remember there was something like this my older son filled out when he went to college (different school) to help match roommates if you didn’t know anybody (he was just randomly requesting housing and the university was matching him). However thaat was a traditional dorm room where you are sharing a room. It probably isn’t as much of an issue if you are in a suite with your own bedroom. Just wondering if, on selection night, he would know anything about the other 2-3 people already in his suite before he choses.</p>

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<p>There is a roommate Finder as well at UA, but be prepared to sift through hundreds. It is a tough process, everyone sounds great. Lol My D is in the last day of room selection, I believe April 26th, so I hope to gosh your son won’t have an issue because then my D won’t have a chance at all. (I do believe there is room for everyone in the honors dorm though, please someone tell me there is!) There is also a 2016 UA facebook page that has others looking for roommates. Hoping we find some girls… yikes. Good luck</p>

3

<p>It will be much easier to get a room if you are going into it by yourself. So my opinion is that you should get the dorm that you want. Fingers crossed!</p>

<p>I do not know if there is a roommate matching survey. I don’t remember one from last year.</p>

<p>Your S will get an email with the emails of his roommates at some point after he selects his dorm. I kinda remember my D having access to the girls names as soon as the selection was over for the day. Can’t remember exactly. So your S could email the others afterwards to coordinate who brings what. </p>

<p>Hope that helps and Roll Tide!</p>

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<p>Other than the Facebook page or the roommate finder for the UA the only thing he will see is the names of the students in the other rooms in the suites. He could use those to search FB after room selection. I’m betting he won’t have an issue finding an Honors room. They do hold out rooms for different selection times. He may need to be flexible as far as which dorm if he doesn’t get his first choice. Good luck!</p>

<p>Sorry, this post crossed with the one above.</p>

5

<p>Also - Alabama doesn’t have anything you fill out with roommate preferences does it? What kind of music you like, sports, morning/night person, drinker/non-drinker, etc? I remember there was something like this my older son filled out when he went to college (different school) to help match roommates if you didn’t know anybody (he was just randomly requesting housing and the university was matching him). However thaat was a traditional dorm room where you are sharing a room. It probably isn’t as much of an issue if you are in a suite with your own bedroom. Just wondering if, on selection night, he would know anything about the other 2-3 people already in his suite before he choses.</p>

<p>There is something, but this is certainly an area where the Bama Housing rep that posts here could provide more info and possibly pass on the hint that this is an area of desired improvement. </p>

<p>Possible questions (to be filled out by student…NOT THE PARENT…lol)</p>

<p>(multiple choice answers)</p>

<p>How messy are you? </p>

<p>Do you need quiet time at night for studying and sleeping?</p>

<p>What time do you prefer to go to bed on school nights?</p>

<p>What hours will you likely be doing homework in your dorm room?</p>

<p>Do you need quiet time on weekends? If so, by what time?</p>

<p>how often would you go to parties?</p>

<p>Will you likely pledge?</p>

<p>Are you the type to attend sports events? If so, how often?</p>

<p>How often would you use the rec center?</p>

<p>If doing intramural sports, which ones? </p>

<p>What are your hobbies…check all that apply…(then a big list)</p>

<p>Music preferences …check all that apply</p>

<p>Will you be in honors?</p>

<p>Do you prefer honors housing?</p>

<p>What is your major?</p>

<p>Do you prefer roommates that have the same/similar major?</p>

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<p>One improvement that could be made is for this database from the UA roommate finder to allow students to search for only new files. If it hasn’t changed from last year you had to go through the entire database each week when it updated to find the new people’s records. My D finally made a spread sheet of her own so she could keep up with it easier. She found it time consuming to go through the hundreds of entries to search for new additions. Just a thought. And I wholeheartedly agree, parents should be hands off in completing this.</p>

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<p>I guess I made it sound like I was the one sifting through by myself. Nope, my daughter just asked if I could sit with her and go through them. I absolutely agree that this is up to them. It’s just tough, and I love the mc2k’s list!! It would narrow it down tons. Not sure if my D will be able to find roommates prior to her last date of selection. Oh well, we keep saying everything will work out like it is supposed to. :-)</p>

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<p>No, I understood. We did the same thing as far as helping our D sift through the list. I don’t see anything at all wrong with that. The problem is when parents fill out the data for their child and it doesn’t really jive with reality. I really wouldn’t sweat it if she doesn’t find a roommate before selection time. I think you an often do just as well with potluck. You’re right, it can be a tough process to find a roommate and I don’t think there is one magic bullet for finding one. The thing is, most of the kids are in the same boat and feel exactly the same way, so going random often works just as well. Next year, she’ll know people in real life and it will be easier. Best of luck to all in room selection and roommate selection!</p>

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<p>I knew no one going down to college over thirty years ago and the girls I met on my floor the first night of orientation week are STILL some of my closest friends 33 years later. So I have told my son that potluck can work just fine - everyone is in the same boat and you find your way.</p>

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<p>I think as a single your son will have no problem finding a room. Heck DS has had an empty room in his honors suite all semester. Random has worked fairly well, just make sure he jumps right on it if issues arise before things get out of hand.</p>

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<p>My daughter will most likely do the “random” thing too. I figure her chances of getting compatible roomies is just as good either way. Like ILmom, I’m still friends with my random roommate from over 20 years ago. Best of luck to all of us!</p>

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<p>Just a suggestion that I read elsewhere on this board. If you are a single or double going in random, please try to find a room that already has people in it as opposed to taking a completely open room. This will keep more rooms open for those who are hoping to pull in 2 or 3 roommates.</p>

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<p>Does anyone know if the RMF profiles stay online for any length of time after room selection? Like, over the summer, so that kids can get in touch with each other if they want to?</p>

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<p>The link on myBama that lists ones housing assignment also lists the names and emails of the suitemates. Students will also get a letter in July detailing this information. I don’t know how long the roommate finder profiles stay up. Remember also that good roommates don’t have to be best friends or even have the same interests.</p>

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<p>Mom2CK: 2 years ago when my D was looking for roomies, there was a Facebook page with a survey very similar to the one you listed. I was surprised how honest the kids were but it really helped my daughter to find 3 great roommates. Although they went their separate ways the second year they had a great experience! I remember the first five questions were:</p>

<p>Male/Female:
Honors?
Do you party?
Pledging?
Religious preference:</p>

<p>This really helped my daughter narrow down her choices as kids often wrote more than yes/no answers. Sure am hoping there will be something like this available when my son comes along next year!</p>

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<p>Because all of our students are selecting their own space, we do not match students for them. They can find their own roommates if they choose to, and then go into room selection together.</p>

<p>I think there are several good suggestions on this thread, and I’m going to bring them up for next year’s room selection process. Always room to improve!</p>

<p>A note about the capacity of Honors housing: hopefully the streamlined process of one set of room selection dates will allow students who wish to find Honors housing to select those spaces more easily (instead of students who want to choose something else, but picked an honors space “just in case”). We have also increased the capacity of Honors housing this year by a good amount, so there are more honors spaces.</p>

<p>If any of your students go through room selection and find that they want an honors space, but cannot find one, please call our main office at 205.348.6676. We’ll want to make sure that we keep a list of students so that as things change a little over the summer, we can accommodate those students as quickly as possible.</p>

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

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<p>Because all of our students are selecting their own space, we do not match students for them. They can find their own roommates if they choose to, and then go into room selection together.</p>

<p>I don’t think people are asking for the school to put certain matched kids in a room.</p>

<p>I think people are asking if there could be a better questionnaire system (maybe done in Feb/Mar) that would “spit out” a potential list of roomies that students could use to contact and find matches.</p>

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<p>I’ve been telling my son that he needs to take on reprogramming the current Roommate Finder as a research project in the fall. It’s a good start, but could use some improvement.</p>

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<p>^^^</p>

<p>Great idea! </p>

<p>Seriously. When kids apply to housing, there could be something at that point that brings them to the questionnaire. If the student already has his roomies, then he can skip.</p>

<p>I think UAHousing misunderstood. no one is expecting UA to just take the data and put kids together…no.</p>

<p>People want something more like an online dating thing…you put in info, and it shows you potential “matches” and it’s up to YOU to find out if that match might work as a roomie.</p>

<p>Kind of an eharmonydorm.com</p>

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<p>What they have now with the roommate finder isn’t bad…I think my son basically found all his roommates there. It’s just not all that user friendly. </p>

<p>Roommate Finder does ask a few questions (smoker/non-smoker, level of tidyness, major, desired dorm, etc.) plus it includes a section for additional information about yourself and what type of roommate you are looking for. It’s not as useful if the kids don’t fill in the additional information section. You can get a glimpse of their personality from what they write.</p>