Housing questions

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Alabama
1

I had a few questions about housing before submitting a housing application next week:

  • Will I be able to submit a list of preferences for dorms on the application that I would like pending their availability?

-What are the benefits of picking honors housing versus Bryant hall since I am an engineering major? Is honors housing guaranteed for four years or just freshman year? Is honors housing worth the extra $3,000+ versus living in Burke or Paty dorms? Is Bryant Hall and Ridgecrest charged the same rate?

-Are there any other dorms besides Ridgecrest that offer honors housing? What are the main differences between the North, South, East, and West facilities? What would you recommend for an engineering major that prefers a closer dorm to classes?

-What are the differences between Burke and Paty dorms since they’re both mainly double occupancy?

-Are dorm rates consistent over the last few years or would I expect a cost bump next year?

@mom2collegekids I would really appreciate your input since you’re one of the most knowledgeable and it would be helpful for not only myself but others who have similar questions when submitting the housing application next week on October 1st.

Thank you and Roll Tide!!!

2

I heave heard that Ridgecrest will be honors next year and that there is little difference btw them. not sure about the rest!

3

JC, most of the information you ask can be found on the UA website or on previous posts, however, I can help a little. I am no expert so I hope mom2 or others chime in with information that I am wrong about or to clarify further but here goes…

If you would like a choice of dorm rooms, you have to submit your enrollment fee and housing fee as soon as possible (I don’t know if its the same as the past, but I think you can submit the housing fee beginning October 1st.) The enrollment fee is nonrefundable but the housing fee is refundable except a small fee (perhaps $25?) that they keep if you decide not to attend. The earlier your do this, the greater chance that you will be able to get the dorm of your choice. Sometime in the new year (March??) you will get an email letting you know your sign up date for your dorm. If you have one of the first dates and times, you will be set and, in fact, can “bring in” others in your room (if you are in a double, you can sign up one other, in a suite three others). You can find roommates through the UA facebook site or through roommate matching.

Whether you want to live in an honors suite, in a regular suite, in a double is entirely up to you. My kids chose to live in the honors suite, basically because they liked the idea of a room of their own but a suite with 3 others. This is an expensive option but one we gave them. This is great for my kids when then need their personal space, but in my opinion they lost out a little of a traditional dorm where rooms are kept open and floor mates tend to socialize a little more. Some people think that being with other honors students would guarantee more serious roommates (less partying) which is the case for some people, but not for others. The location of Ridgecrest can be more desireable for engineering students, but I have heard alot of students like Bryant too. I would look at the campus map, see where the engineering quad is, where food option are etc, to get an idea of location. Everything is walkable, just sometimes you have to walk a little farther to where you need to go. If you decide to go honors your first year and decide to stay on campus for year two, you can stay in honors or go to anyother dorm available. However, if you decide to do non-honors your first year, you cannot decide to stay in a honors dorm for further years. This only might be a problem if you find honor friends you would like to room with who want to live in the honors dorm. There is no guarantee after your freshman year that you will be allowed to live in the dorms no matter if you are honors or not. Housing will ask freshmen and upperclassmen already on campus in December if they would like to stay on campus and you will find out in the beginning of February if there is space for you or not.

I don’t know the difference between Burke and Paty dorms. Besides their location, you can go on the housing website and look at floorplans and pictures they post. My guess is that they are pretty similar. I think Paty might be an all men’s dorm, and Burke might have a cafetaria in it (Paty has a Raisin Cain’s, a chicken fast food place.) The UA website is a wonderful source of information.

Ridgecrest South has a different set up than the other 3 honor dorms. South has 2 bedrooms and bathrooms on both sides of the common room with the kitchen in the middle. The believe the other 3 have a common room and kitchen on one end and a long hallway with the 4 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. Again, floor plans and pictures are available on their website. When my son started UA four years ago, there were about 6 different dorms that were honor dorms, and then it changed to just the Ridgecrest buildings. It will probably stay the same next year, but there is always a chance it might change.

Dorm rooms might go up (doesn’t everything) although I noticed that the suites stayed the same price in the 4 years that my son was in it. The food costs, however, were raised quite a bit. Freshmen are required (unless they go Greek) to buy the unlimited meal plan. However, after the first year they can decide not to get a meal plan or to just get what they need. Many students decide to move off campus for cheaper housing and to make their own meals.

Hope this helps.

4

I can answer a few of these. I don’t quite know how room selections work, that information has a couple variables and is available on the UA website.

As for Honors housing vs non-honors, in the suite buildings it honestly does not make a lot of difference. I would say the suites are worth the cost, the “Traditional” buildings have a reputation as being decrepit. Paty hall especially has some notoriety. Having an individual bedroom is nice.

As for NSEW there are minor differences in some of the floorplans (avalible online) and parking situations. A couple of them have built in parking decks which are pretty nice.

As for living there next year- odds are you won’t. The VAST majority of students move off campus after year one.

5

-Will I be able to submit a list of preferences for dorms on the application that I would like pending their availability?

As noted above you will not only be able to select the dorm you want, but the exact room you want depending on availability based on the date you submit your housing deposit.

-What are the benefits of picking honors housing versus Bryant hall since I am an engineering major? Is honors housing guaranteed for four years or just freshman year? Is honors housing worth the extra $3,000+ versus living in Burke or Paty dorms? Is Bryant Hall and Ridgecrest charged the same rate?

Bryant has full sized beds, the other suite style housing options have twin sized. Bryant is also the athletic dorm, so all students on athletic scholarship live in Bryant. Bryant has it’s own cafeteria, however since it offers the athletic meals for dinner, it costs additional to eat dinner there. The main differences is in other honors housing you will live with students of different majors and can meet a bigger variety of people. Also each dorm will have a specific ‘feel’. If you visit the school, you can ask to tour Bryant, my son is an engineering student, but preferred the honors housing in another location.

On campus housing is not guaranteed past freshman year, but for the past few years it seems that most sophomores that want to stay on campus have been able to. Very few juniors/seniors live on campus. If you want to live in honors housing as a sophomore, you MUST select honors housing as a freshman. If you live in a traditional dorm as a freshman you can NOT select honors housing for later years.

Is it worth the extra $3,000? That’s really a personal preference. Some students WANT the traditional experience of a traditional dorm. For my son, an only child, it was definitely worth the extra $3,000 to have his own space he could retreat to when he wanted.

The prices for the dorms can be found on housing.ua.edu (and currently Bryant and Ridgecrest are charged the same rate)

-Are there any other dorms besides Ridgecrest that offer honors housing? What are the main differences between the North, South, East, and West facilities? What would you recommend for an engineering major that prefers a closer dorm to classes?

The honors housing seems to change a little each year. When my son started, part of Lakeside and part of Riverside were honors. Then it was moved primarily to Ridgecrest. I believe this year the upper floor(s) of Blount are also honors. They will designate which dorms will be classified as honors before students select their rooms.

Search the forum for Ridgecrest, I think all the differences have been discussed here in detail in past threads.

I think Riverside (which is where my son lived) is the closest dorm to the engineering building. It is suite style, but is not as new as the other suite style dorms. But many of the other dorms on the north side of campus are just a little farther away and have more amenities such as cafeterias/rec centers that Riverside doesn’t have, so you have to figure out what’s most important to you. Although Lakeside with it’s cafeteria is right next to Riverside there were days when my son wasn’t feeling well or the weather was bad that he hated having to go that far to eat, so if he had it to do over again, I think he would have chosen a dorm with it’s own cafeteria instead.

-Are dorm rates consistent over the last few years or would I expect a cost bump next year?

The rates can go up, but I just checked the 4 bedroom rate for Riverside and it is exactly the same $8,800/year as I paid for my son when he entered in 2012, so they seem to be pretty consistent.

6

Thank you @jrcsmom @kjcphmom and @Mandalorian for the information. In all honesty I think I will take the 4 bedroom suites versus the double occupancy because I have not had to share a room with my brother for 6 years. I can see myself getting really tired of someone in my personal space pretty quickly. I think I rather bite the $3,200 hike if I can enjoy my own personal retreat at night whether it is studying or coming home from a part-time job. Now I do have another question that @jrcsmom did brought up…if you live in Bryant are you REQUIRED to pick the athletic meal plan? Is the only benefit of that meal plan just an all out buffet? How do the other meal plans compare? I appreciate the insight!

7

All freshman are required to have the unlimited meal plan which includes all you can eat meals, as well as unlimited swipes to enter the dining halls for snacks/drinks. Upper class students can choose meal plans with a limited number of ‘swipes’ to enter the dining halls. A swipe still entitles students to all-you-can-eat for that meal once they enter the dining hall.

The dining hall at Bryant is operated by a different company and is rumored to have higher quality/better choices of food. (To be honest I’ve eaten with my son at Lakeside, Fresh Foods, and Bryant and I didn’t notice any particular reason that the food at Bryant was special and my preference was Fresh Foods at the Ferg, although my son’s preference was Bryant and he would try to eat lunch there as often as he could).

To my knowledge (but I could be mistaken) residents of Bryant are not required to have the athletic meal plan, but if you don’t, then you will either need to pay an additional amount to eat dinner there or you will have to go to a different dining hall to eat dinner, which may not be very convenient. Unless there have been very recent changes, you can eat breakfast/lunch at Bryant with the standard meal plan.

8

@jrcsmom thank you for the reply. My only concern is whether or not paying an extra $800 a year for an “upgraded” all I can eat is really worth stretching the budget. It sounds to me that this meal plan would be of a benefit and a curse for an engineering major that would like to eat…I can see myself gourging myself if I had temptations around and since I am in a pretty clean eating diet right now, I don’t want another reason to try and break that streak. I guess that brings to question of picking Bryant in the first place…I only really want to include it because of being around only engineers can help with classes but at the same time it kinda closes me off to other types of individuals and their thinking. At least with the honors dorms I can have a variety of engineering and non-engineering individuals that I can become friends with. I guess I will need to figure that out for myself over the next few days before I submit an application on October 1st.

9

JPChipotleMan,
Definitely be watching your Crimson email address for information as this year progresses. Some of the information above is up in the air as we wait to hear back from campus partners.

I’ll try to shed as much light as I can though!

Bryant is closer to the Engineering Quad than the Ridgecrest buildings. Because only a much smaller population is even eligible for Bryant, it does not fill up as quickly. So you can always keep it in mind as a backup if you decide you prefer another building, but then you would need to search for roommates who are also Engineering so that they can be pulled in.

On the housing application, you will list preference of housing style, not specific building, i.e. Honors suite-style, suite-style, traditional co-ed, etc. Bryant and Ridgecrest (and all 4-person suites) cost the same. Students who apply by Feb. 1 will go through Online Room Selection, and at that time you will be able to select the building and room, as well as pull in any confirmed and eligible roommates.

Housing is not guaranteed after the first year. We do have a percentage of returning students who apply to and are allowed to return to campus. But about 70-80% will move off campus.

We did change a key policy last year - if you do return to campus, many of the restrictions about where you can live your second year have been lifted. For example, a student can choose to live in Burke for the traditional experience, then move to a suite-style building for the second year.

Housing rates are fairly consistent year to year. A good prediction is that the rates are not likely to increase by more than 3% in one year. So you can plan for a 3% increase, then be happily surprised if they stay the same :slight_smile:

Dining halls:
Lunch at Bryant doesn’t cost any extra, only dinner. In order to eat dinner there, you need to buy the athletic upgrade (it’s about $430 more a semester to eat Bryant dinner, 5 times a week). Also, Fresh Foods dining hall has moved out of the Ferg and is now about a block away from Bryant! So there is a dinner option that is pretty convenient if you decide to not pay for the athletic upgrade.

Hope this helps!
Janine

10

@UAHousing thank you so much for the details. So essentially I will be able to list my preferences (1) Honors suite-style 2) suite-style 3) traditional co-ed) as is or is there any other specifics I must provide by October 1st? I only ask because I will be touring the campus in November and will not be able to see the dorms before I put a preference list on October 1st. My preferences are purely from what I have researched on the internet so I want to be able to get it right to the best of my ability. When it comes to room selection in February, will students be able to set up a roommate matching preference according to their personality or will all that be provided will be basic info? Will we be able to know what major each of our roommates be when it comes to selection time?

11

What is around the latest you can put in your housing deposit and still have a good chance of getting the room you would like?

12

I should add on Bryant, that is probably the best dorm on campus because of the full-size beds.

13

If you list honors first then traditional (like Tutwiler) on October 1rst but decide you want Tutwiler when it comes time to select a room how does your order of listing affect this? Is it possible to kind of change your mind when it comes to the order?

14

12: You have plenty of time to make your final decision. You might list traditional as your first choice right now..... but then when it comes time to actually select your room in the late spring, you can pick any room in any dorm that has availability (and where you meet the criteria .... only honors students can select honors housing etc). You can go in and update your housing profile (i.e., change from 1st choice being traditional to first choice being suite-style, etc.) at just about any time between Oct 1 and actual room selection dates. Good luck!

15

To me, living in Bryant would take a special kind of male who understands the atmosphere there. I have written about this elsewhere on this forum.

16

@aeromom - athletes? ^^

17

@amy9998 So you can always change what you rank first after you put in your deposit? So it really does not matter what I rank first right now? Is it more beneficial to put honors vs Tutwiler in a certain order especially for October 1(like does one of them fill faster and you will only be able to get into one if you rank it first)? Thank you!!

18

If they ask for you to list preferences now it may be so they can get an idea of how many rooms and types will be available for upperclassmen. Or it may be for roommate matching.

When it comes time to choose your actual room in the Spring, you are able to choose any of the dorms you are eligible for.

19

southernbound18: It’s been a couple of yrs since my son signed up, but it seems like the rank was more for roommate matching. As beadymom said ^^, when it comes to actually picking your dorm and room in the late spring, it makes no difference what you ranked as your first choice when you first signed up for housing in Oct/Nov/Dec. (It seems to me that you can always update your “profile” to show what your first choice of dorm type is…at least that’s the way it seemed to work in the past.) You will be fine!

20

Does anyone know if the bedrooms in ridge east and west both have doors? The floor plans seem to suggest that ine does and the other does not. Thanks!