<p>RTR, that is what I’m thinking now. Just scared me a bit. Thanks!</p>
<p>Yes, it is for incoming freshmen. Sorry for any confusion!</p>
<p>Cautious ‘hello’ to all from a newbie dad.</p>
<p>My son (“S”?) got April 2, 6:00. Not honors. Can anyone share experience with a clueless dad? Am I supposed to have a list of top 3 in hand, then just start clicking, refreshing, and yelling at the googlemachine until I’m done? My son’s an only child, so I think apartment style is a reasonable stepping-stone choice for the transition.</p>
<p>Bill, UA housing will have a video tutorial explaining the process. </p>
<p>When you log onto the housing site at your assigned time, you will only see selections available to your student. You will choose one of those selections. No yelling required.</p>
<p>^ My DS is in Honors but sounds pretty much the way I envision the process going for me! Hope for the best , but plan for the worst.</p>
<p>Just a tidbit from our DS experience this past fall as incoming Freshman. He was honors, but through facebook selected 3 friends that were not to live with. With our daughter 4 years ago going into honors it had been a piece of cake to find a spot for 4 so we thought the same would be true for him. It was not. He had the second window of time, and when we went in all suite style options except Presidential were gone for 4. Which Presidential is wonderful and he does love, but a ways away and parking a major issue right now.<br>
All of that to say, have a plan B. Either splitting up into 2’s or alternative choices at the ready. Especially if you are trying to place 4 folks.
We had neither and there was a lot of texting and phone calls going on.
Since DS was the earliest he was the one trying to pull the others in and was in a panic.<br>
It has worked out great, but it was a bit chaotic and could have been avoided if we had had a plan B to execute on. Best of luck to all and by the way…Housing is great to help with any quirky stuff if it comes up. Good luck and RTR.</p>
<p>if we have the 1st slot- will they be able to get a suite for 4 together- that is shocking to me that in the 2nd slot there weren’t any full suites available!</p>
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<p>I don’t think anyone can answer that question with any degree of certainty for you. I can tell you that last year my S had first day/time and needed to pull in 3 others. He did get a room but we were very quick. Within 10 - 15 minutes of the opening time, all honors rooms with 4 slots were taken. Now it appears things are being done differently this year - for instance, time slots every 15 minutes as opposed to last year’s on the hour - so perhaps there are less students in each slot? I would caution you to have a plan, a back-up plan and a worst-case plan for selection day to cover all scenarios.</p>
<p>You definitely need to have a back-up plan. Have alternate dorms written down in order of preference and have alternate plans if 4 openings are not available in the same suite. In previous years, the person “pulling a roommate in”, could only pull into their own dorm (own suite), so if 4 roommates need to split then that could be a problem. The roommate with the next earliest pick time would then have to pull in the other person. </p>
<p>Is this confusing?? Sorry let me clarify -for example: four roommates want the same suite in Ridgecrest South (first choice), but it is not available. however a 4 person suite is available in another residence hall. So the person with the proxy codes pulls in all the roommates into the second residence hall. Done. All four roommates are now in their second choice.</p>
<p>Other scenario: There are no suites with four openings in any preferred choice, so the roommate (with earliest selection time and proxies) pulls in one roommate only, depending on previously discussed options as to which roommate he is pulling in. The other two roommates will then have to wait and pick housing based on which of them has the earlier selection slot. Hopefully, at that point, two openings are available in a suite of their choice. If not, they then have to split and pick their own space depending on their own selection time.</p>
<p>Whether your student is picking for someone else or someone is picking for them, make sure that they have discussed all the scenarios. It would be terrible to think that you are rooming with three people and then be left out if a four person suite cannot be found. Discuss all options beforehand, and try to be as fair as possible: such as four people spitting into two suites.</p>
<p>I don’t know if UA Housing will allow the use of proxy codes and pulling in roommates this year. If they do, you don’t know how many spaces will be available in each suite or in which residence hall.</p>
<p>**Remember that if you want to have Honors Housing in the future years, you must select Honors Housing your first year.</p>
<p>Wow. Hard to imagine that with a slot at seven the four-room Honors dorms will likely be gone!!!</p>
<p>Really???</p>
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<p>I would not count on having a 4 room suite with 4 open spaces with a 7:00 time selection. It’s not that all the rooms will be gone, but it may be that there are no completely empty rooms.</p>
<p>Will it just be the 4 room suites in the honors dorms that are gone by 7 or should we expect all 4 room suites to be gone? My D has a 7:00 time. Not sure if any of her roommates have an earlier time. She is honors but they are not planning on living in ridgecrest.</p>
<p>MSUBAMAMom, I don’t think anyone knows the answer to that. Last year, the time slots were different (on the hour). It seems like this year things are being done differently, with slots every 15 minutes. Perhaps there are less students in each time slot (that’s my theory, but I’m only wildly guessing with no facts to back it up).</p>
<p>Here’s the thread from last year which will give you an idea of what went when. Most of the posters here were looking for honors housing so not sure how much non-honors posts there were. You’ll see that one posted stated that at 4 minutes after the first time slot opened there were no completely empty 4 person suites in RCS-N. That’s why everyone is cautioning to have a back-up plan - an alternate dorm, splitting roommates, etc. </p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-alabama/1322837-room-selection-day.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-alabama/1322837-room-selection-day.html</a></p>
<p>^^^I think that is the very point that many are trying to make here: you just don’t know how it will work this year, so be prepared with alternate plans. </p>
<p>My speculation is that since housing is staggering the slots they may also be opening spaces in a staggered manner as well. However, don’t panic, once you have a room(space) assigned you can always change later to another open room(space). Well, at least that was how it was in the past. Students could jockey to get to their final choice.</p>
<p>There were plenty of 4 room honors suites available in the second time slot last year, but they were not in RCS-N. Lakeside, Riverside and Ridgecrest West all had open suites. If you don’t have the 1st time slot and you don’t get pulled in, you’ll need to decide if being in RCS-N or picking all your roommates is more important.</p>
<p>Oh, that sounds okay then. I think DD cares more about roommates than the particular Honors dorm…</p>
<p>Not sure where to post this but I thought I might get an answer in this thread. I have the April 2 7:00 housing selection. I am just trying to room with one other girl in Ridgecrest S-N. How do I know that the other people in a given room are girls? I don’t want to accidentally out us in a room with two guys and then be moved somewhere else when they realize. Thanks!</p>
<p>bamababy , you will only see the rooms for girls available. The rooms for boys will not show up as an option for you so you don’t have to worry about mistakenly getting put in a room of boys.</p>
<p>Bamababy, when you choose a room you will see who is already in there. You will also be able to tell if they are freshmen or upperclassmen. They posted either “grade” level, (soph, jr, sr) or graduation year next to the name.</p>
<p>Anyone remember exactly which residences will be Honors for fall 2013 - btw my D got 6:15 Apr 2. Appears we got a very good time.</p>