Has your student been successful in retaining honors housing after Freshman year? How hard is it to remain on campus after Soph year? How close/safe is off campus housing? Thanks so much for all of the great info 
We sweated that question when son was a freshman, but our boys were in non-honors housing…he got re contracted for So year and again Jr year, but didnt opt for on-campus housing Jr year. This just as presidential 2 was coming on stream, so now there is plenty of housing imo. Off campus has its areas to be careful about, but I find it thoroughly safe.
My son was able to get honors housing his first three years. Like aeromom’s son, he chose to move off campus his junior year, however.
My son went from the dorms to apt and will be back to the dorms this year. He liked the convenience of living on campus.
THANKS 
Is the off-campus housing generally within an easy and safe walk? Is there shuttle service?
Let me add that I have an incoming honors freshman…he barely was able to get Honors Housing (and we paid before the February deadline)…he snagged the very last suite in Ridgecrest West for him and his three suitemates and we were told at Bama Bound chances are VERY slim to get ANY on campus housing for sophomore year and beyond, probably less than 20% chance. Why you ask? Well the #s of honors students admitted this year and total freshman class will be more than last year and continues to grow every year. A few years ago only Ridgecrest South was Honors housing…now it has expanded to East and West…don’t know where they could put overflow if it continues to grow like this…just a thought. We also found out that the Engineering program has grown to about 5,000 and with only 5 advisors (that’s 1 advisor per 1,000 students)…those stats scare me. I hope everything isn’t growing faster than they can accommodate!
Oh and the Housing Dept does a fine job of connecting you with off campus housing…which is also growing. There are many off campus apartment complexes with nice amenities and many more are adding shuttle service to campus. There is some within walking distance as well. It was recommended to freshman NOT to panic and sign leases this October as now I am seeing so many back out of housing contracts they made back in October for a variety of reasons…housing is fairly plentiful and the complexes rent out by room not by apartment…they just have to maintain the same gender in the rest of the rooms in an apartment if someone drops out. Plus there are houses close to campus where students also rent rooms in the more traditional way.
Well, we were told two days ago that there are about 7,000 beds on campus…around 6,000 or so will be taken by freshmen…more will be taken by athletes and required housing for RAs and such…and the leftover goes to anyone who puts their name in the hopper I think it is in January they told us…you do the math:-) I have talked to a few freshmen parents whose kids have a non freshman as the fourth person in their honors suites…one is a senior who moved back onto campus to finish up…the rest are RAs…so I’m not sure how many non freshmen are signed up for Honors dorms next year, but I don’t think it’s very many…again, this year there will be more honors freshmen…and I suspect next year as well…and no new housing is being built so…
Thanks everyone! This sounds like it could be a problem. I would really prefer a college that guarantees three or four years of housing.
Well, I don’t get their math. While there is no guarantee, from the vast majority of people who post here, they have been able to stay (IF they wanted to) for subsequent years. I remember a crunch for Fall 2013, but that was before Pres II sprang up, and my S STILL got in as a So that year.
Very few universities are going to guarantee you on-campus housing unless it is part of their program - i.e., mandatory (a few Christian-based and a few very rural colleges come to mind).
Some universities do not even guarantee housing for freshmen, UA is doing a fine job of managing wanted housing versus needed housing. If your student complies with all deadlines and signs up the moment the housing option becomes available, I think there is a good chance to get housing as a sophomore. Many students do NOT want to remain on campus after their freshman year, there are cheaper options which have various amenities off campus. Investigate your options early if that is your student’s choice.
The surrounding area to UA is so much better than many universities I visited. No matter where your student moves, exercising caution and common sense is the norm (even on campus).
I agree with @aeromom as far as most colleges do NOT guarantee housing after the first year…I think out of the seven my son looked at only one guaranteed housing a second year then all bets off the next two years. In talking with current student ambassadors at BB this past week at UA, most said that “almost all” students want to be off campus after freshman year. Granted, I am just going by what they told us when we asked…and I see the #s rising in the Honors College but no new housing is being built. There were plenty of upset parents whose children got into Paty (traditional style dorms for boys) and Tut (same for girls) who were upset their kids couldn’t get into honors housing…there just is not enough room for all honors students even in freshman year. And again if you look at other colleges and universities I think you’d be hard pressed to find any guarantees in that area…not just at UA.
As others have suggested, it’s unlikely you’re going to find any public university that guarantees housing beyond freshman year. If you want guaranteed housing, look at privates, and small ones at that.
That being said, most UA students who want to stay on campus after freshman year (and they are in the minority from what I understand) are usually able to get something on campus as long as they meet all the early deadlines.
There is an abundance of off-campus housing, including several fully-furnished complexes. Most have shuttles and some are within walking distance. Others are further out. As with most things, you pay more to be closer in.
Let’s be frank there really is not much difference between Honors Housing (suite style) and Non-Honors (suite style) housing. There is the name. Many Honors students choose traditional dorms for rushing or for less expensive housing costs. Many Honors Students choose Non-Honors so they can room with the students of their choice. If you choose compatible roommates, the building should not matter that much.
There used to be a caveat that if you did not choose Honors Housing the first year, then you could not choose Honors Housing later on. I don’t know if that exception still exists.
I think one of the problems this year was trying to get a 4 bedroom suite. Seems there were some kids who had all roommates picked and then needed the 4 beds.
Some of the kids on the FB page were even complaining about how many rooms only had one student in them when they were looking so couldn’t take those rooms.
DS had one accepted roommate who never did contact him, so son looked for dorm rooms w/ 2 open beds, but if he couldn’t find one he liked was prepared to just find one for himself.
I am glad we paid the fee early as he got to choose on the second sign up day. Ended up w/ second choice dorm and with 2 other guys who “look” very nice. They all happen to be OOS, 10+ hours drive as well.
And I can see the convenience of dorming, but when researching UA, I was glad to see of all the off campus housing available. So I found it reassuring there would be so many options available to him going forward.
When my 2012 high school graduated signed up for housing for Fall 2012/Spring 2013, there were more choices for honors dorms. He actually ended up at Riverside West and would have stayed there the next year except UA decided to make the Ridgecrest complex the only honor housing. Staying in a honors dorm really didn’t make a difference to him (suites are pretty much the same) but the only reason he moved to Ridgecrest was because he has a housing scholarship and staying in honors gave him more flexibility in his junior/senior years to maybe room with another upper classman. The reason I brought this up is that if honors housing “runs out”, in the future they can make another dorm(s) honors.
This son was guaranteed housing all four years (something they don’t do anymore except for athletes and maybe another minor group, however, except for his sophomore year, everyone he knows who WANTED to stay on campus was able to. My other son was a freshman last year. He and all his friends had no problem getting dorms next year. Hopefully this will continue.
My oldest son originally signed up with his roommate to stay in the same suite as this year. Housing wanted to try to free up more space for freshman groups of 4 so they actually moved these two into another occupied suite. I heard housing consolidated quite a few of these upperclassman so suites would be available. My son didn’t think so as he liked his room/location, but I think that this was a good move on housing’s part. With all the challenges that they face (especially growing freshman enrollment), I think they do an excellent job.
Don’t underestimate the extent to which your son/daughter will become independent and morph into an adult during his/her first year of college. You might like the idea of them spending four years on campus, but they will likely have other ideas. This will probably happen much sooner than you think! Tuscaloosa has plenty of student accommodation so you don’t have to worry that they will find somewhere to live.
Ridgecrest South has never been the only honors housing option. It opened in 2009 and was less than 50% honors housing until UA housing decided to convert all of the Ridgecrest residence halls into honors housing.
It used to be that anyone living in Honors Housing who was still in the Honors College was guaranteed housing as long as they submitted their application on time. That changed as Presidential I was being built. It seems now that there is less of a housing crunch as Presidential II becomes fully occupied.
I lived on campus for all four years due to the convenience. I had many options to live off campus, but chose to stay. There is plenty of off-campus housing, some of which are closer to certain parts of campus than many of the residence halls. Individual leases are common, but are not offered at all complexes.
I’m not a huge proponent of freshman-only housing as there is a lot to be learned from living with upperclassmen. That said, it’s a hard sell to get upperclassmen to live with freshmen and being around them as they adjust to college life.
I have been in touch with tons of families from the class who just finished their freshman year. Everyone that I am aware of who wanted to stay on campus got a room, and they were placed before incoming freshmen selected rooms. Although I would have loved for my son to stay on campus for his second year, it was overall less expensive to go off campus versus staying in the suite-style dorms (and he has a very nice apt with his own bdrm and bthrm - 1 mile off campus and there is a shuttle). He wanted to try the “off campus apartment lifestyle”, but I am sure he will miss the convenience of being on campus!
The UA has opened two brand spanking new super suite dorms recently, Presidential I opened last fall and Presidential 2 opened this fall. Although these are not honor specific, you’ll find HC students living all over campus. As Seatide says, RCS has never been the only honors dorm. UA Housing reassigned buildings in the recent past and made all the Ridgecrest buildings Honors. I also agree with what others have said about not being hung up on Honors designated housing and also realizing that many students prefer to move off campus in subsequent years.