<p>The housing email is confusing even after following the links given in the email. Can someone clarify?</p>
<p>Situation is that the $25-based Residence Hall application sent in mid-December. Email says that (if admitted) contract offers link will be made available on Feb 12. </p>
<p>Now, when are the housing allotment decisions made? Is there any advantage/disadvantage in filling out the contracts early, say on Feb 12 versus April 2 when "other" decisions come out? </p>
<p>Also does one pay the $200 pre-payment rent at the time of filling the contract, or at the time the rooms are assigned? If the latter, what date does that happen? Thanks!</p>
<p>I think they START letting people choose housing February 12 based upon when they submitted the housing deposit. So, for example, if I submitted mine a month before you did (and I did), I would get to choose before you, but after someone who sent it earlier. Frankly, I would go ahead and do the contract ASAP because they run out of housing. </p>
<p>Does anyone know what is the earliest anyone could have submitted the housing deposit? We got the e-mail about housing in mid-November and immediately submitted the deposit. However, my daughter just barely made the November 1 application deadline. Did people who applied earlier get the housing e-mail earlier (and are they now ahead of my daughter in line) or was mid-November the earliest? Daughter got accepted to IA and really wants to be in the Beaty dorm.</p>
<p>Apply for UF admittance ASAP and about a week or less later you can submit your housing application and pay $25. The date you submit your housing application and pay the $25 gets you in line for picking your housing. This date is the important date for your housing priority. My daughter submitted her application at the very end of August and was given the earliest date for a freshman for choosing her dorm and room. I think it was at the beginning of April. </p>
<p>After being admitted, housing contracts are offered starting sometime in February. You have to sign the contract and pay the $200 prerent payment. For housing priority it doesn’t matter when you submit this as long as it’s done by the due date.</p>
<p>Sometime after signing your housing contract, you will be given a date when you can login to their housing system and choose a dorm and room. I think this starts the beginning of April for freshmen. Every couple of days more students are able to choose. The online system is pretty cool. You can pick your dorm, see layouts of the rooms for most dorms, and pick the specific room you want and add a roomate. You can change your mind up until a certain date, but as time goes on, rooms will fill up and there won’t be many choices. </p>
<p>If you submitted your $25 deposit late in the cycle, find a friend to room with that submitted their $25 earlier and they will get an earlier dorm choice date and can include you! </p>
<p>Keep in mind that upperclassmen will have selected their housing before the freshmen start.</p>
<p>I don’t know what they do for IA. I think they reserved one tower of Beaty for IA last year.</p>
<p>Thats about right, my son submitted 25 deposit early Sept and was around number 200. But his roommate had even earlier. He was able to pick the dorm and room they wanted while my son was at practice and my son had 24 hours to accept.</p>
<p>Housing is really good about updating availability. You should try to secure a roommate as early as possible and then pick a dorm and room based on the lowest number.</p>
<p>This year, all IA are in beaty east, so they only had to pick a room, the dorm was being held for them.</p>
<p>The process is not that complicated. My s and friends knew exactly what to do and they all took care of it and are all living together and their numbers ranged from 150-1000.</p>
<p>I’m worried about IA because it says they saved 300 slots for IA, but there are supposed to be 500 students. Do that many people not want a dorm? Do that many people live in Gainesville? Or will it be like The Hunger Games? If my daughter is going to be in IA, it sounds cool ONLY if she gets to be in the IA dorm.</p>
<p>I have another question about housing – I’m reading their website now and just want to make sure I’m on the same page as them. If I fill out the housing contract ASAP yet end up not attending UF, I cancel the contract. Yes? And I don’t receive the $200 payment back. Also yes? I likely won’t know what school I’m attending until late April (If I get into American, my father’s GI Bill and Yellow Ribbon program come through, <em>and</em> most of my credits transfer, I will be attending there. It’ll take a lot of emailing back and forth) and want to make sure that if I do end up attending UF I have a spot on campus – I applied for housing early Nov.</p>
<p>I don’t know about UF, but I checked out this same question with USF (my daughter’s fallback school, because I was going to pay her housing deposit while waiting for UF), and you can definitely cancel there and get the deposit back. It’s probably the same with UF.</p>
<p>It’s basic contract law that a party has the duty to mitigate damages when they other party cancels or breaches. That means that if they can rent that room to someone else and not lose any money on it, they should have no problem with letting you out of your contract. Depending on what the housing contract says, you might not get the deposit back (It could be something called liquidated damages, where you pay a small amount instead of having to figure out actual damages if you cancel), but there is no way they could force you to fulfill the whole contract when they have a waiting list for housing every year.</p>
<p>I don’t believe you can get your $200 back from UF. But if you don’t go there you can get out of the contract. UCF and FSU give most of the deposit back.</p>
<p>When you first applied once UF received your application in good order you received the e-mail from housing for you to send in the $25…that holds you spot in line. Applications were taken in August so those who applied early AND RETURNED the $25 early are first in line. If you applied in late October you will be at the end of the line. Housing goes quick! You will soon receive a housing application and they ask for a $200 deposit…complete that and return…this does not change your place in line as long as you return it on time. You will be notified the date you can sign in to pick your room. If you have a friend that you want to room with you can “hold” a place for them in the room you choose as long as you have their UF ID…so if you were early in August for your $25 deposit and they were late in October you can choose the room and hold their spot as long as you have their ID #!<br>
My daughter found her room mate on Facebook under the UF Class of 2016 on the day that she signed up for her room…her roommate had a late sign up date and they did not know each other…they communicated on FB and everything worked out really well. Daughter was in Summer B which is GREAT!!! they roomed together then and also are currently roommates and will be moving to an apartment this fall with 2 other girls they met in Summer B!</p>