<p>So we just got an e-mail "offering" to let my son apply for housing now, even before he learns whether or not he is accepted.</p>
<p>Along with it came a fear mongering 'Tale of Two Gators", which he was told to read before proceeding, showing the misery he may sow for himself by failing to apply for housing now or waiting until he's accepted or decides to enroll. </p>
<p>Oh yes, we will have to submit a $25 non-refundable application fee. $25 bucks just to apply for non gauranteed housing preferences. Non refundable whether or not he gets in or gets his housing choice. Either that or run the risk of being stuffed into a triple room with roommates who he will hate. Did the author of this work for a subprime mortgage broker before coming to work for UF?</p>
<p>Heck, I know tuition has gone up and all, but this seems like a pretty sleezy way of getting a few extra bucks from applicants.</p>
<p>The early application is essential to reserve a spot on the housing list. If your son gets accepted but did not already make the reservation, he will probably have to live off campus. The earlier you apply for housing, the higher your "lottery" number, which determines how likely it is that you will get your first housing choice or not. Definitely worth the $25! :)</p>
<p>This is the way it's been for years. If there is any chance at all that you may choose UF and want to live on campus, pay the $25 and reserve a spot. There is not enough housing to go around. Look at it this way- other colleges charge $25 more just to APPLY period. At least you have the option of saving $25 if you know you want to live off-campus.</p>
<p>All that doesn't make it right. The @#$% application doesn't even ask any information about your preferences for housing, other than do you have some physical handicap (at which point I wouldn't be surprised if the application fee went up to $50.) </p>
<p>So what is the point, other than to take $25 from you for a place on line? I'd much rather they be straight up front and ask $55 to apply if you're OOS.</p>
<p>I have to agree with mhc48's assessment of the nonrefundable housing application fee for students that haven't even been accepted to the university.
I find it disappointing that UF stoops to such a tactic in this age where the computers are doing the "paperwork". I don't think $25 is going to break anyone on this message board, but what about the lack of principle here?! Approx 22% of UF students live on campus, compared to 15% at FSU and 12% at USF. However, FSU and USF only require a refundable housing deposit once an applicant is actually accepted and applying for housing.
What would motivate UF to require this fee and as a yearly practice? According to the numbers game thread, UF had 24,000 applicants for 2007 & let's say hypothetically 85% of those paid this fee. The math shows that figure would bring $510,000 to UF. Of course we don't have access to the actual number of applicants who give in to the psychological pressure and pay the fee or where those funds go; but regardless of that, this UF practice wreaks and is shameful.
I am amazed with the educated people on this thread that don't see this as dishonorable on the part of UF! If it was an ethical practice, one would think the other large universities in the state would do the same especially since their on campus housing is not as plentiful as UF's.
I would love to see Bill O'Reilly do an investigation on this...</p>
<p>I agree that its kind of unfair but overall its not that much compared to other schools. To apply to UF its $30 and to apply for a housing priority date is $25. Thats $55 total. Most of the schools I applied to cost $60/70 and up in application fees. UF is on the cheaper end. </p>
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The math shows that figure would bring $510,000 to UF.
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<p>Correction to what you said. The money does not go to UF. It goes to the Dept of Housing. The housing dept is like it own entity like the UAA and CLAS (thats why they are $2 million in debt; UF is not paying that). They make all their money from dorms rental fees and assorted app fees. They get no money from the university. Most of the money is used to pay for dorm upgrades, maintenance fees, and salaries. For example last summer housing completed the upgrades in the mallory-yulee-reid area at that cost $2 million to complete in additional to the $1.5 million from the year before.</p>
<p>Kaitlinc, it's not a matter of whether my son should or should not live off campus (although at this point how would he or I know how viable that is ? Or the costs? Or the availablity? We have enough on our hands researching colleges and filling out applications without also looking into potential housing at a potential school he may potentially get into). And I think the University knows this.</p>
<p>Have you seen the letter? First it starts off saying that you should apply for housing "AS SOON AS POSSIBLE" then tells you to, before you even apply to first read two attachments. The first is "A Tale of Two Gators" where one boy applies for housing immediately and the other waits to apply until he is admitted. The first gets the room he wanted and becomes lifelong friends with his room mates. The second gets a lousy room and, it is implied, can't stand the roommates in the unsightly triple he is stuck in. Pure fear mongering directed a a potential freshman who is already in a precarious uncertain state of mind, who knows nothing about college life in general, or life at FU in particular, or campus or the housing. It honestly starts everything off on the wrong foot and think it's reprehsible. </p>
<p>Not to mention the fact that even if you do apply early and plunk down the nonrefundable $25, you still don't know your spot on line and aren't guaranteed ANYTHING.</p>
<p>And besides, WHY does the University have to do it this way in the first place? What is the rationale if not to scare people into paying an extra $25?? And lets be honest, it doesn't cost the University $25 for that form. It contains no usuable information, and more importantly, no one in Housing is going to look at it at this point. No one is going to actually assign a dorm room to a kid who hasn't been admitted. It's blatantly a $25 fee extorted by making kids or parents apprehensive. </p>
<p>Why not just put aside x number of places for Freshman and simply not assign them until students have been granted acceptance. Then everyone gets a fair shot. It won't hurt the University, they will still fill up all those places. It won't hurt already attending students. This procedure hurts most the people who possibly can afford it least. Those who may already be applying to a number of schools at $25 -55 a pop (plus cost of SAT or ACT score reports) for whom the extra $25 may never be used if their child is not admitted. And so think maybe I should wait.</p>
<p>Geez, just charge $55 for the application, and allocate that money to housing. I'd be fine with that. It would be upfront and honest and wouldn't gratuitously add just one more bit of unease and discomfort to the process.</p>
<p>My kids applied to other colleges that required several hundred dollar deposits to reserve housing. The deposits were refundable after students made their final decisions, but on hindsight, I'd rather have just paid $25 and let it go if they decided to go elsewhere (especially since the applications fees at these other schools were higher as well), than have a thousand dollars cash tied up from November through May. It also required us to write letters/fill out forms in May to get the money back. Worth eating $25 not to have to deal with all that.</p>
<p>I couldn't agree more with mhc48's statements.
Thank you ASMAJ for enlightening me in the destination of these funds. But regardless of which pot the money falls in, do you actually believe the practice of psychologically leaning on these applicants is ethically sound? The acceptance rate for 2007, if the numbers game is correct, was 32%. Should kids and/or their parents be paying for dorm renovations, RA's, maintenance, etc. when the majority will not live in these dorms?! I don't have a problem with paying for dormitory fees when my dd is attending or will be atttending a univ. I see a lack of principle and agree that it is absolutely reprehensible what is occurring here on a yearly basis. My dd has applied to numerous universities (in and out of Florida). UF is the first I have seen to resort to this sort of ploy and it has left me a bit cynical concerning how business is done in Gainesville at UF.</p>
<p>Here's one thing you could do... call housing at UF and tell them exactly what you have told us- the part about it being a ploy, reprehensible, questionable ethics, that is wreaks, is shameful, dishonorable, unethical, lacks principles, and is a harbinger of the way business is conducted in Gainesville. Then give them your daughter's application number, and ask them if they can waive the fee. I'll betcha they'll do it.</p>
<p>Here's one thing you could do---doubleplay...........quit being so arrogant and trying to impress us with your math skills and how much money you had tied up..I agree with mhc48.</p>
<p>I don't think it is the right thing to do the way it was presented, especially with the "Tale of Two Gators." However, I was just at the UCF open house where we were told that once you are accepted, there is a NON-refundable $200 deposit for housing. IMO, that is worse than UF.</p>
<p>You pay the $25 dollars for the same reason you pay an extra $5 dollars when you call and get a student football ticket and when ticketmaster and fandango charge you extra for ordering online. </p>
<p>Its convientent and though they save money with not having to use paper, etc, they still have to pay for the system itself. </p>
<p>I know some friends who waited untill after they knew they were coming here to pay the money. The results vary from person to person, some didnt get housing and some did but it wasnt there first choice.</p>
<p>When my son was applying to schools, the ONE THING that fell through the cracks was the $25 deposit. Not that we didn't want housing, we just didn't dot that i and cross that t. We sent in the deposit as soon as we figured it out, but it was too late. He didn't get on-campus housing. At the time, it didn't seem like a disaster. We found him a nice student apartment with good bus service, etc.</p>
<p>But 20/20 hindsight. MUCH easier not to get involved on campus, decide not to go to class, etc., etc., if you are off campus. Son was in the Honors College. Could have had Honors housing if we had done it right. Ended up having a bad freshman year, and a worse sophomore year. Now, as a junior, he's gotten his act together, and things are looking way up, but I REALLY wish I could go back in time and pay the $25.</p>
<p>I'm sure lots of kids do great off-campus. But I think our son's off-campus situation definitely was a factor in his lack of success his first two years.</p>
<p>When son #2 was applying, on-campus, honors housing was at the top of our list, priority-wise. Live and learn.</p>
<p>I went ahead and paid the money, but I've got to say, the fact that there is so little on campus housing ~ especially for freshman ~ gives me pause about the school. Off campus housing may be okay for upperclassman, who often want it. But, unless it's a commuter school, and/or the student lives in the immediate area, freshman should be required to live on campus and the University should have housing available for them.</p>
<p>In addition, last night at dinner, I also heard from a parent of a freshman that not only are a number of classes very very large but that her daughter has to take one class on video/computer in her dorm room. Does anyone know how common that is, and what the average class size is for underclassmen?</p>