Housing Help

<p>I was accepted to Bama awhile ago with a full scholarship, so it is definitely an option for me. However, I’m still waiting to hear back from over half of my schools and I won’t know where else I got in until after April 1st. Unfortunately, this is the priority deadline for housing. </p>

<p>I don’t want to miss my chance to get housing at Bama, since I may go there, but I also don’t want to pay the deposit until I know for sure where I’m going. </p>

<p>Can anyone offer any insight on this?</p>

<p>Rapunzel, you will get housing as an incoming Freshman at UA. </p>

<p>The earlier that you apply for housing, the more options you will have in housing. Students who apply for housing between October 1 and January 1 will be able to select their own residence hall rooms, beginning in spring 2013. </p>

<p>Students who apply for housing between January 2 and April 1 may be able to select their own rooms online OR may be assigned their room by Housing. The method of assignment will depend on availability.</p>

<p>Students who apply for housing after April 1, 2013, will be assigned by HRC staff.</p>

<p>rapunzel, have you visited the university?</p>

<p>seccat: Thank you! But if I apply for housing after April 1, am I going to be stuck with a bad dorm? Also, I’m waiting for acceptance into Honors, so how will that work out for housing?</p>

<p>lattelady: My older brother goes there, so I did visit once for Bama Bound, but I didn’t have a lot of interest in Bama at the time, since it was almost 3 years ago. I want to go there and visit as a prospective student, but we are OOS and I have a lot of other places that I need to visit before I even come close to deciding. </p>

<p>It’s such a pain not knowing where I got in until April! I don’t know how we are supposed to make a decision when I have no clue if I will get in to/get aid for my top schools.</p>

<p>rapunzel, </p>

<p>If you are accepted into Honors than Honors housing will be one of the choices available to you. I don’t think any of us can know if there will be rooms left in Honors housing after April 1.</p>

<p>You say you received a full scholarship. Are you NMF? I believe they save rooms for NMF in the Honors dorm and you should receive one if you are NMF. </p>

<p>I do know that my sophomore S decided to attend Alabama in March and there were no rooms in Honors housing available in April when he went to select a room. </p>

<p>However, once you are assigned a room, you are allowed to move to another room in another dorm if one becomes available. Rooms do become available as students who have been holding a room decide to move off campus, do not return to campus, or decide not to attend UA.</p>

<p>We noticed a lot of rooms became available towards the end of May as the June 1 deadline to get your housing deposit refunded approached. </p>

<p>My S initially did not have a room in the suites. (Neither honors or non-honors) Eventually, however, he was able to find a room in the honors dorms before the end of May.</p>

<p>It does add a measure of stress to not be assigned to Honors housing initially but in the end it worked out for us. I do believe rooms will open up again in May as that June 1 deadline approaches. But you will be competing for rooms with other people.</p>

<p>When you say “full scholarship,” do you mean NMF with housing scholarship? I know in the past UA has saved some rooms in the honors dorms for NMFs who don’t decide on Bama until late. And there is no “bad” honors dorm. Also, if you have a full scholarship, you must have the stats for honors, so admission to the honors college will be automatic; if you’ve applied, you’ll be accepted.</p>

<p>There’s a guy from my D’s HS who applied for housing late, and he ended up in Highlands, which wouldn’t have been his first choice (or close to his first choice). But he wasn’t honors eligible. I’ve seen posts on this forum about kids who applied for housing in the spring who got honors housing. Maybe not immediately, and there might have been some angst involved, but they eventually got an honors room. Kids change their minds and spots open up.</p>

<p>Just looked it up, we made our deposits on April 5 last year (and last year that still entitled S to select his room during the final selection time and he was not placed by housing, that rule may be different this year). I wasn’t willing to make a firm commitment until we had received all the official financial aid awards from all schools S had been accepted to.</p>

<p>Last year by the final selection time all dorm rooms - honors and non-honors, suites and traditional were all full and son was in a slight panic. I told him that housing had sent our messages urging patience and that housing was guaranteed for freshman, so not to worry. It took a few tries, but on his third attempt, there were several rooms that had become open in the honor’s suites and he was able to select one.</p>

<p>If he’d preselected roommates there is very little chance they could have found a room together at that point, but finding a single room for him was not too difficult. </p>

<p>As others have mentioned after selecting a room, he could have opted to change to a different room during the summer and many rooms do open for various reasons, but once he selected a room, he was just glad to be done with it and didn’t spend any more time looking.</p>

<p>So, if you wait until April and housing places you somewhere you are not happy with, you should have plenty of opportunity to look for a more preferred room during the early summer.</p>

<p>I am not NMF (one point away…), but I had the stats to qualify for one of their automatic merit scholarships. Full tuition, not room & board. </p>

<p>I put my Honors application on the back burner for awhile so I could focus on the full time job that was applying to 23 schools. So I haven’t submitted yet, but I probably will tonight or tomorrow.</p>