<p>My son is planning to attend UA in the fall of 2015. </p>
<p>We are planning to pay enrollment fee and housing deposit this weekend. We have several questions. Actually, it is mostly me. He told me that while he, of course, would want to live in the suite of one of the newer dorms, since he is not paying, I can make a decision for him.</p>
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<li><p>Do we understand it correctly that he does not have to select his dorm at this time?</p></li>
<li><p>We are not sure at this time if we will be able to splurge on the nicer, newer dorms. Out of older, cheaper dorms which ones are better?
Some information about him:
We live in Midwest.
He will be attending Business School.
It is important to him to not feel lonely, so he would prefer to become friends with his future room-mates. He is likeable, and not socially awkward.
He will have to make sure to keep his GPA up to keep his scholarship, so it will be nice to be in the environment that is conducive to this.</p></li>
<li><p>Out of newer dorms which one is the best?</p></li>
<li><p>The above questions assume that he does not get into Honors College. If he does, is it a good idea to live at the Honors Housing? What is the best HC dorm? I think Blount is the only Honors dorm that is older (and cheaper). Would you recommend it?</p></li>
<li><p>Do students ride bikes around the campus? Is there a safe bike parking option if he wants to do this? </p></li>
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<li>No he does not have to pick the dorm building when you put the deposit down. However the sooner you put your housing deposit down the higher up on the pick list/date you will get. So if he does decided on the newer norms he may get into one. The longer you wait the harder it is to get the newer dorms. </li>
<li>My son lives in Burke East, he could have gotten into newer dorm but decided on Burke. He is doing fine. </li>
<li>Someone else will chime in I am sure.</li>
<li>Back to Burke, My son isa Freshman in Honors and Engineering Colleges and Stem MBA program all his suite mate in Burke are Honors one is Stem student with my son. Lots of Honors kids in all dorms not just newer ones.</li>
<li>My son took his car to campus since we are from Texas we wanted him to have a way to get home fast if need be and also to drive into T-town to go to an Allergy doctor. However he rides his bike all over campus and uses it on a daily basses to get around fast. Biking parking has been an issue in the past I have heard however my son has not mentioned any issues.
Hope this helps a little.
Roll Tide!</li>
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<li><p>You are not able to select a specific dorm at this time, but depositing now will allow him to select the exact room he wants, not just the specific building.</p></li>
<li><p>Friedman Hall, no contest. It has the best location on campus and is only open to business students. CBA worked hard to choose the best locations on campus for its buildings and they are all together. He is literally across the street from his business classes and a very nice library which is open until midnight. A great supermarket is only a 90 second walk away.</p></li>
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<p>3-4. If he has the grades and test scores, he will be accepted into the Honors College. All the honors dorms are great.</p>
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<li>Biking is popular, though the campus is also very walkable.</li>
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<p>I don’t think he is interested in Greek Life. In fact, I don’t think he even knows what it is. Neither do I because I commuted from home when I went to college. </p>
<p>If he has a choice between Friedman and Honors dorm, which one should we choose?</p>
<p>Is Friedman more or less close to dining hall (the big one)? I am not sure he will have the money to buy food at supermarket. </p>
<p>Burke Dining Hall does not provide as many choices as the other big one (I forget the name of it now). Is it still adequate? We eat more or less healthy at home - usually no pizza, pasta, deep fried stuff, etc. I don’t want to send him new clothes in October.</p>
<p>With the exception of the Bryant Athletic Dining Hall, all of the dining halls serve the same types of food on a slightly modified rotation with a few items which are somewhat exclusive to each dining hall. Healthy food is available and there are lots of vegetarian options. Burke has just as many food options as Fresh Foods and Lakeside.</p>
<p>The freshman 15 is not a worry for those who eat moderately and exercise on a fairly regular basis.</p>
<ol>
<li>No</li>
<li>Friedman</li>
<li>I’m partial to the older style “newer” dorms, so I’d say Ridgecrest East or West. It’s a matter of personal preference, though.</li>
<li>I don’t think it’s necessary to live in Honors housing, but if I was going to choose a suite-style dorm, I would choose one that’s in the Honors community. Blount is mainly for students in the Blount program, although I think there’s been overflow from honors in there for the last few years.</li>
<li>I’ve seen lots of bikes on campus, but my D hasn’t had one, so I’m not sure about bike parking.<br></li>
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<p>Hi! I am a honors college female living in Burke West and loving it. Having the dining hall downstairs is so convenient. The location of Burke is also much more central to where most of my freshman level classes are held. I wouldn’t worry about him being located close to the Business School at this point, he will most likely not be taking many classes there his freshman year. </p>
<p>Hi! My son is currently a freshman. He lives in Paty Hall - which is one of the older, traditional dorms. Honestly, we were concerned because we had heard lots of negative reviews of Paty. However, financially this is what we were willing to pay for the first year. My son’s biggest concern was if the bathrooms were clean - that was the first thing he checked when he moved in. The cleaning staff does an excellent job in making sure they are clean every day. Yes, it’s an old building, but he has had no complaints so far. He is also a Business major and it is very convenient to his classes at the Business school and his CS class in on the bottom floor of Paty Hall. Lakeside Dining is next door and as some one mentioned they serve a variety of foods. </p>
<p>The more I thought about it today, the more I realized how expensive the newer dorms are! It is like $1000 a month for a room, not even an apartment. I think it is a bit excessive even if money were no object. If, right now, he was working full time and renting his own place, I doubt he would have chosen one for a $1000 a month.</p>
<p>He will have to choose the cheaper dorm. We will need to make sure that the room is for even number of students - to avoid the problem of “odd man out”. I find it odd that some suits have an arrangement with one or two double rooms and a single. Would not the person with a single feel isolated?</p>
<p>Can anyone chime in about roommate selection process? Based on what I see here, it probably matters more who your roommates are than the actual dorm itself. In the coming months, can he try to “team” up with other students that seem like a good fit, before selecting where to dorm (after agreeing that they will be looking for cheaper dorm)? My son is very easy going, so if he finds other kids he will like, I think he will just go with the flow. </p>
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<p>That would be my first concern too! I have a hard time using public restrooms … (warning TMI ahead ) even in most dire situations. It is probably not a big problem for my son though. If I did not insist that he cleans at least ones a week - his room and bathroom would be such a pigsty. </p>
<p>By the way, I have a much younger brother who started college this year at our local flagship. During move-in day my mom found a girl’s thong under the bed. While it provided a conversation fodder for everyone involved, it was pretty disgusting too. Apparently whoever cleaned that room did not do a very good job.</p>
<p>Make sure to send students with a pair of flip-flops that can be worn in the showers…sometimes even in the suites this could be necessary (I have heard!) </p>
<p>There are several ways your student can get to know other students - the housing website allows them to put in info about themselves and can match that way; there is usually a FB page for incoming freshman (and a separate one for parents) and many meet that way; and <em>sometimes</em> moms on CC can see that their sons would be a perfect match and the boys don’t care where they end up. Luckily for us, we found such an arrangement! DS was undecided until April of senior year and I was not willing to put down the non-refundable enrollment deposit. He was able to be pulled into one of the Honors suites even without the early deposit. So it is possible to get a great room even without depositing early. Three months into their first year, the four boys and in the suite are getting along wonderfully! :)</p>
<p>Regarding bicycles, DS rides his bicycle all the time. I was looking at it today (he brought it home to do minor repairs over fall break) and it has lots of scratches. I would NOT recommend taking a nice bike to ride around campus. The bikes must get jammed into the bike racks outside of classrooms. DS has two bikes at campus - his nice mountain bike that he keeps in the hall closet of Ridgecrest East (he’s taken it to the trails several times), and his cheap campus bike that he leaves locked in the racks outside. I was asking him today if lots of people ride bikes, and he said he was surprised at the number of people that did NOT ride bikes. His classes are scattered and only has 10 minutes between. I don’t see how he would make it to his classes in time without the bike. He goes from opposite corners of the quad to the engineering complex. Many miles on that cheap bike!!</p>
<p>Lakeside Dining is closest to many of the dorms on the North end of campus (Ridgecrest, Riverside, Lakeside, Presidential, Blount, Paty). DS eats there a lot for evening meals, but will usually go to Fresh Foods for lunch. He likes it better and it is closer to his classes. I don’t know that he has eaten at Burke or Bryant at all. For him, Burke is too far way from both dorm and classes.</p>
<p>He actually does not have a bike anymore. He grew out of it right into a car. We discussed (not) having a car on campus and he said that he was planning to ride a bike. I was planning to figure out how to buy a used one in Alabama. It is not cost-effective to ship one from our home state. I have seen threads about bike thefts, so the plan was to get an ugly one and spray paint it with the Auburn team colors (just kidding ). </p>
<p>He is not really an on-line kind of guy, so I will have to push him to peruse the facebook page. </p>
<p>Which one is for parents? Is it bamaparents or something else?</p>
<p>UA has a bike rental program where that costs about $10 / mo. to rent a no frills cruiser bike. Good thing is that you can bring it back every month to exchange for a tuned-up bike. It’s a very popular program. You can find out more about it during orientation.</p>
<p>I know when we were at orientation the officer giving his spiel mentioned that they have a bike auction twice a year. Unfortunately I didn’t hear when and can’t find it on the website. However, this might be a way to get a cheap bike to ride on campus.</p>
<p>Well, this Saturday we did it - paid enrollment deposit and housing deposit.</p>
<p>I am kind of freaking out about first year logistics. </p>
<p>The need to attend BamaBound wrecks havoc on my son’s summer employment plan. He will only be able to start full time job second week of June and looks like he will have to stop working Mid-August. Add to it several days needed to attend freshman orientation and I am not sure if he will be desirable candidate for summer employment. Does anyone know if BamaBound has August dates very close to move-in day? Is it required to attend BamaBound?</p>
<p>Additionally, I assume many kids enter with at least a year worth of transferable credits. What do they do with the extra year? My son probably does not want to graduate early. He will only be 20 years old if he does. </p>
<p>P.S. I think I like $10 per month bike rental option the most. No need to worry about summer storage when it is time to move out.</p>
) even in most dire situations. It is probably not a big problem for my son though. If I did not insist that he cleans at least ones a week - his room and bathroom would be such a pigsty. </p>
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