<p>So I received an email with info regarding my housing information (I decided to go random because I could not find anyone in honors) and I find out that not only I did not get into honors-housing (which I was told by the recruitment guy who I talked to when I toured that I would get) but I did not even get into suite-style dorms. I have been assigned to a double room in Paty and honestly I could not be angrier right now. Does anyone know if there is any way I can change that and finish in a suite-style dorm at least?
Thank you so much.</p>
<p>Okay, first off I know that you are disappointed but we need some info to help you. Did you meet the deadlines for housing deposits? There is a big difference between choosing a random roommate and choosing your room. </p>
<p>If you applied for housing before Feb 1 2014, then you would have been able to pick your room based on availability. the earlier you applied, the earlier your time slot for picking a room would have been.</p>
<p>See the except below:
Housing Application Process - Incoming Freshmen
Application
Fall 2014 - Once you have been admitted to UA and paid the Freshman Enrollment Deposit, you should apply for housing (beginning October 1, 2013 at noon CDT). Access to online room selection is based primarily on housing application date, so the earlier you apply for housing, the more room choices you will have! Students who apply for housing between October 1, 2013 and February 1, 2014, will be able to select their own room online during room selection in the spring. Students who apply for housing between February 2 and April 1, 2014, may be able to select their own spaces or may be assigned by HRC staff. HRC will determine the method that will result in the fastest assignment for students, as we determine demand for housing. Students are encouraged to meet the preferred housing application deadline of April 1, in order to maintain the possibility of participation in room selection. Updated information on room selection and the housing assignment process will be e-mailed to students at their crimson e-mail addresses. Students who apply for housing after April 1 will be assigned by HRC staff. Freshmen with a medical need that affects their housing should submit their request, along with medical documentation from a physician, by March 1, 2014. HRC may not be able to accommodate requests made after that date.</p>
<p>SO what date did you make your Housing Deposit? It seems to me from your question that you deposited late and was assigned randomly. This is exactly why we encourage prospective students to deposit early if they MUST have suite style housing. However, some people cannot deposit early or do not want to. and therefore risk NOT getting the housing choice they want.</p>
<p>If “the recruitment guy” told you that you would get suite style housing, he was just probably answering your general housing question during recruitment. he is not responsible for your deposit timing choice. Did you not read all the emails that were sent regarding housing and deadlines?</p>
<p>Now, after having said all this for future students to be aware (there are multiple threads discussing this very subject).
You can try to politely inquire via a phone call or email to housing asking if this housing situation can be changed. There are many excellent suite options that are non-Honors including the brand new Presidential building due to open in August. If you request non-Honors suites as a possible first choice switch and then Honors suites as a second choice, perhaps you will stand a shot. You can tell them your preference but I am sure that they can only place you if there is availability. Please, be nice on the phone and in the email, yes express your disappointment, but not your anger. </p>
<p>Good Luck!</p>
<p>The early housing deadlines would be a problem for students who are still considering other colleges until May 1.</p>
<p>I made my deposit in mid-March, but the thing that is annoying me is the fact that the recruitment guy told me that applying that date I would get into honors-housing and that was one of the reasons why I decided to go to UA. </p>
<p>^^If your recruitment guy told you that, contact him and tell him how disappointed you are. Maybe he can help. At a minimum he might refrain from telling future students what he told you. </p>
<p>siliconvalleymom… true, the early housing deadline was not ideal. I was not thrilled at all to be depositing on OCTOBER 2, 2013, for fall of 2014 when my son was still considering many options. (He paid half the cost actually.) However, given the huge merit scholarship, we figured there was at least a 50% chance he would attend UA. We “took the plunge” and now are glad we did. He got into the dorm he wanted, the floor he wanted, and got to select his exact room. (Not a suite-style dorm, by the way.) </p>
<p>ibiza11 - I hope you are able to get changes made later this summer!</p>
<p>Housing and Residential Communities is never able to guarantee that any student will receive a particular type of housing, as we do not know exactly how many incoming students will apply, and how many will want a certain type of housing. As noted, assignments are made generally in application date order, with consideration of preferences, as space allows. There is an online form on the HRC web site, which allows students to request an assignment change. There is no guarantee that we can accommodate a request, but we’ll consider them through the summer, as space allows. It is better to go ahead and submit the online request than to call HRC, as we are not able to make any changes right now. The form can be found at housing.ua.edu, under Assignments.</p>
<p>Alicia Browne</p>
<p>Alicia, it was very nice of you to respond to this OP. They should follow your advice, and hope for the best. By the way " recruitment guys" do not give the campus tours, campus tours are usually done by students. Even though these student tour guides are extremely knowledgeable, I would always check the information firsthand. If you want Housing answers, check the Housing website or send an email.</p>
<p>Alicia, does this mean that all the honors housing is now at capacity?</p>
<p>We were also told by our recruiter last fall that the Honors College usually reserves enough housing for all incoming honors students, even though they’ll have to leave it to the Housing office to assign the actual roommates and location if the student doesn’t make a deposit before 2/1 (something that’s very difficult to do for students still awaiting April 1 decisions).</p>
<p>We weren’t even shown any of the older traditional-style dorms when we toured, aside from a brief walk past Tut, and our tour guide was not a student, she was a very impressive alumna and worked in the welcome center. Like the OP, my son was very attracted to the idea of being able to live in one of the suite-style dormitories we visited on the official tour, especially one with fellow honors students. </p>
<p>We’re still waiting on my son’s housing assignment, but Paty would be one of the last places I’d expect to hear about an honors student being assigned. Isn’t that the all-male dorm with the hard-partying rep?</p>
<p>@ibiza11, do you know if your roommate is also an honors student? </p>
<p>Do not give up - four years ago we had the same situation; with even less suite opportunities now available. Keep checking back; I was able to find out that housing changes were updated and released in afternoon (see if housing will let you know) and we were able to get son into honors suite I think early in June. There are changes made over the summer, a couple of years later my friend’s son got his first choice week before move-in. Best of Luck. </p>
<p>Again, it has been discussed here (see past threads) about depositing early, double deposits etc. However, the best anyone can tell you is that if you WANT and NEED to be in an Honors Suite Style Residence, then you MUST deposit early and before the deadline.</p>
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<p>?? I dont think the Honors College reserves any Housing. I dont think the HC has anything really to do with housing assignments. </p>
<p>There are defined Honors Halls that have a set number of beds. The school doesn’t see how many incoming honors frosh there are, and then determine which halls are honors to accommodate some reserved number. </p>
<p>Those words that you mention seem like an odd choice of words that I have never heard of before, so I wonder if you misheard. There is a defined number of Honors beds (don’t know the current number) and Bama housing knows not all desire honors housing…heck, some are Ttown locals and will be commuting.</p>
<p>I don’t know how it would even be possible for the HC to ‘reserve’ honors housing for all incoming honors frosh. HOW WOULD THE HC even know how many incoming honors frosh there are until after May 1st? What if that number on May 1st exceeds the number of honors beds? It seems like about 1/3 of the incoming frosh have test scores that qualify for the Honors College. If so, i don’t think there are that many honors beds…plus beds needed for jrs and srs with housing scholarships.</p>
<p>Being an incoming freshman of the HC allows that member to qualify for honors housing. it isn’t a guarantee. perhaps, bama housing needs to coordinate with admissions to make sure that everyone is on the same page with the verbiage that is told to prospective students.</p>
<p>In the past, Housing used to reserve enough honors housing for incoming NMFs, don’t know if that is still the case.</p>
<p>In any case, there will likely be some shifting around, and often unhappily-placed students can choose something else later in the summer. </p>
<p>also, if Housing realizes it doesnt have enough housing, it will likely contract with places like The Lofts to move some of the Upperclass NMFs with housing scholarships to those locations to free up more beds.</p>
<p>@UAHousing
Alicia…Is Bama going to contract with an off-campus housing venue to move some of the upper-classmen with housing scholarships off-campus to free up more honors beds?</p>
<p>also, can you coordinate with Admissions, perhaps provide verbiage, to make sure that all tour guides and recruiters provide clear language in regards to housing options to prospective students. Also, perhaps the wording also needs to be included in the folder that is given to touring guests.</p>
<p>also…how many honors beds are there?</p>
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<p>Yes, I understand that, @robotbldmom. My son was one of those kids who signed the Common App pledge last fall NOT to deposit anywhere he didn’t plan to attend, so we decided we would just have to wait out his decisions, the last of which he received at the end of March. He’s not a “loophole” kind of kid, so we decided just to stick with the most binding interpretation of that commitment. His word actually means something to him, which I greatly admire. I may feel differently in a few months if he ends up playing beer pong for hours on end in his underwear instead of hitting the books! ;-)</p>
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<p>@mom2collegekids, I’m not trying to get anybody in trouble, because people make mistakes, but this is a direct quote from our local recruiter from last fall. I had contacted her specifically to get advice on how to handle the housing situation because of our Common App conundrum:</p>
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[emphasis added mine]</p>
<p>There are so many things kids are sweating in the fall of their senior year. Bama was my son’s “super-safety.” It was barely on his radar at that point, and he’d only applied because I strongly encouraged him to, so he’d have an appealing alternative to our state flagship if the other schools he was applying to didn’t work out for one reason or another. Our recruiter’s response to my query was reassuring enough that we decided not to spend a lot of time worrying about something that was out of our hands at that point. We made the same decision about our flagship too, FWIW, as he was accepted at both schools early last fall.</p>
<p>The other thing I feel is worth noting (and, again, I want to make it clear that I’m not faulting anybody!) is that the tour we went on just after spring break ended on campus was led by a university employee and she specifically asked the folks on our particular bus how many of the students were juniors, seniors, etc. EVERY SINGLE KID on our particular tour was an accepted senior who’d come to campus to help make their final decision. Some were honors, some were not, but we were still given a tour of one of the beautiful new suite-style dorms, and the implication was that these would be available to our kids. I’m sure those new dorms are a very powerful tool in recruiting impressionable 17- and 18-year-olds! They certainly helped influence my son’s decision.</p>
<p>Thanks for everybody’s help. We’re still waiting to hear where he’s been assigned, and we’ll get him on a the housing waitlist if he’s not happy with what he ends up with. Personally, I’m more concerned with the type of students he’s housed with than how luxurious his accommodations are. My freshman dorm was a dump–and I survived! But my roommate was a premed who went to bed at 10:00pm every night. :-D</p>
<p>I would like to see UA add a tour of a more traditional dorm to its itinerary. </p>
<p>^^^</p>
<p>well, I would contact that person about your situation and include the quote…and see if she can do anything to help your son get an honors dorm because of her poorly chosen words.</p>
<p>I do NOT think the HC reserves any number, after all, the “reserved number” would be the number of empty honors beds that Bama Housing has after it has determined how many upper-division students can be in them. So, if housing has decided that 200 upper-classmen with housing scholarships are being allowed to be in honors housing the following year, then the 'reserved number" would be X - 200. </p>
<p>I think the upper-classmen select housing before May 1st, and if that is correct then the number of honors freshman would still be unknown.</p>
<p>I wish you had provided that quote months ago because we could have pointed out how it doesn’t really make sense given the number of frosh who have an ACT 28+ who would be eligible for honors…roughly 1/3 of the frosh.</p>
<p>I also with the Common App would clarify that pledge. It has to do with double-depositing - a “no no” after May 1st.</p>
<p>@LucieTheLakie - I can guarantee you that living in RCS does NOT mean your suite will be beer pong free.</p>
<p>There are many honors kids who choose to live in non-honors housing. There are also non-honors students who are not the partying type. I would not assume a potential non-honors RM is a late-night, smoking, drinking rebel-neck rowdy, </p>
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<p>@mom2collegekids I did and we discussed it at great length in January! And I actually feel a lot better in general after re-reading that thread: <a href=“Confused about Housing Deadlines - #16 by LucieTheLakie - University of Alabama - College Confidential Forums”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-alabama/1608261-confused-about-housing-deadlines-p2.html</a></p>
<p>@Class2012Mom I realize not all the dorms are bastions of hard partying, but Paty has a bit of a reputation from what I gather. Hopefully, that’s more urban myth than reality, but I can certainly understand why the OP was upset if he was expecting something comparable to an honors suite. This is a student description of Paty:</p>
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<p><a href=“https://■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■/question/index?qid=20091124143700AACu2Eu”>https://■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■/question/index?qid=20091124143700AACu2Eu</a></p>
<p>And my kid has MAJOR allergies. It sounds like the dorm has had some renovations done since this was posted, but nonetheless, if it’s in as bad shape as these student accounts maintain, that could be a problem:</p>
<p><a href=“Capstone Comments: "Tear Down this Hall"”>http://capstonecomments.blogspot.com/2009/10/tear-down-this-hall.html</a></p>
<p>Since your son has serious allergies, maybe appealing to Housing with that issue will help with placing. </p>
<p>a doctor’s note may be needed.</p>
<p>Some of the college decisions has information at multi-levels within and outside of the university.</p>
<p>The thing that sticks out on housing is that at UA, if you decide to go somewhere else (if you withdraw your housing application before May 1) 100% of the $275 deposit is returned, and May 2 to June 1, $175 is returned.</p>
<p>I can understand not wanting to put deposits down everywhere, but this is a small amount for having the preferred housing option at UA.</p>
<p>I think maybe OP is a little mad at him/herself for trusting the info - and I think UA will get the word out to have the message be clear and not promise things that are not true.</p>
<p>My hope is that OP continue to try to see about a better housing option/opportunity, and do not let this cloud your experience at UA. Everyone runs into hiccups in life. Also a blessing that with scholarship or funds available, you can afford the better housing options at UA.</p>