<p>I understand that there are honors specific housing options. Which honors program do you have to be involved with to be part of honors housing? How and when do you apply for honors housing? Also, how do the honors dorms differ from the general university housing options?</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>I think you just have to be admitted to the Honors College to live in them. You apply it honors housing with the regular housing application, you just indicate that you want an honors-style dorm. Apply as early as possible- I applied late and ended up getting Blount which is a hughe downgrade. The honors dorms are bigger and give you your own little bedroom. They’re super nice for dorms. </p>
<p>You need to be in the University Honors Program. There’s a separate application (for the honors program, not for honors housing), but it’s simple and admission is based on stats - if you have the stats, you’ll be admitted. As the prior poster suggested, apply for housing early. In order to put down your refundable housing deposit, you first need to make your non-refundable enrollment deposit. The earlier you make your housing deposit, the better housing selection date you’ll have. Then, when it’s your housing selection date (assuming you’ve applied early enough to be able to select your own room), you select a room in your honors dorm of choice. </p>
<p>Currently the honors dorms are Ridgecrest South, West and East. They are suite style dorms with single bedrooms, a bath you share with one other person, a living area and a kitchenette. They’re very similar to other suite style dorms (Riverside, Lakeside, Presidential), but the residents will all be honors students. They are different from the University’s traditional style dorms, where you share a bedroom and common bathrooms are down the hall. They’re also the priciest dorms.</p>
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”Early” in this case means from November to the end of January . . . and end of January is the absolute latest. After that, you lose the option to participate in room selection at the beginning of May.</p>
<p>Housing selection in the past has been the first to deposit receives first time selection to choose your r dorm and room. Admitted students can deposit earlier than November – two years ago I believe it opened October 1, not sure about 2013. </p>
<p>^^^^ For Fall of 2013, students could apply for housing as early as October 1st. If you take care of it in early to mid-October, you will get into Honors housing if you wish to live there (and you are in the Honors College and can afford it).</p>
<p>Sorry about that! As someone who is chronically late (for everything!), I guess I pay more attention to when things end than to when they start. 
I do know, though, that signing up in January does not preclude honors housing . . . even for students who wait until close to the end of the month. Single rooms remain available.</p>
<p>It’s a lot like getting theatre tickets - if you’re going alone, getting a last-minute seat is usually not a problem. If you and friends want a block of seats (or a block of rooms) together, it’s best to order early.</p>
<p>Thank you for all the help! </p>
<p>^^^ Very true what dodgersmom said… you can grab an Honors spot (one Honors bedroom) easily if you make your deposit/pay enrollment fee in January. You might not get your #1 choice of floor or room, and you will very likely have to “fill in” a suite that already has 2 or 3 people assigned to it (when the room selection actually occurs in early May). Yes, you would be able to see the “housing profiles” of those potential suite-mates…you wouldn’t be choosing totally blind! Best wishes!</p>
<p>FYI, it is possible to bootstrap with another Honors student who has a high priority deposit date to share a suite. So, it is possible to room with friends or other students whom one chooses rather than go with placement by Housing.</p>
<p>Yes, the term UA folks use is “pulling in.” </p>
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<p><a href=“http://housing.ua.edu/new_students/general_faq.cfm#question19”>http://housing.ua.edu/new_students/general_faq.cfm#question19</a></p>
<p>@parkridgesenior If you don’t submit enrollment and housing deposit early or get pulled in by another student, you might still get into Honors housing with late enrollment if space is available. </p>
<p>As you are applying to schools and narrowing down your college decision, if UA is on your short list go ahead and submit an enrollment deposit and housing deposit if honors housing is important to you. For DD’s experience, UA wasn’t on her radar until Jan 1. She applied, was accepted, accepted into Honors, and received a scholarship before the end of the month but we didn’t realize that at UA, students had as much input & control over housing selection based upon date of payment of housing deposit. At the other schools she was considering, housing was primarily random unless in a living learning community and housing assignments were not available until June/July. When she finally accepted the last week of March, she received the last day and time of the housing selection process, which is the first week of May. Fortunately, she found roommates via FB honors students group and one of those girls had the first housing selection time slot! Had I known how the housing process worked, she would have accepted in January because being in Honors housing was very important to her and one of her top 5 reasons for selecting UA. </p>
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<p>This is true - it’s always possible and there have been students this year who got into honors housing even with a late deposit. But it’s also possible that you won’t, and there are students this year in that situation as well. If honors housing is important to you, or you want to be able to live with particular roommates or in a particular building, you would be well advised to make the deposit early. It used to be that everyone who wanted honors housing eventually got honors housing, but that doesn’t seem to be the case anymore as the honors college grows. </p>
<p>Thank you everyone for the help!</p>