So, I just learned about Bama Bound but my family definitely can not afford another $500 dollar plane ticket to Alabama and back (I’m from Washington). I’ve already visited campus a few times but simply can not afford to fly again. Is Bama Bound mandatory? How can I sign up for classes without it? I’m in the honors college BTW.
BB is required of all incoming freshmen. I do recall posts in years past about the final BB session being close enough to freshmen move-in dates to do both back to back.
Bama Bound is Mandatory for all freshman. You will need to coordinate your move in date with your Bama Bound date, if you wish to avoid another airfare.
This is from the university’s Housing page:
Move-In Signups for Fall 2016 will begin in June 2016. Details regarding the sign up process will be emailed to incoming students’ crimson email accounts. Move-In times vary by residence hall. We strongly encourage you not to make specific travel plans until you have an assignment and have selected your move-in time online.
When did you sign up for housing? If you have an early housing pick date, you could pick your residence hall, which would give you the move in date, then pick your Bama Bound date accordingly. You can always call UA Housing to ask which residence halls have which move in dates.
If you happen to be doing an Albama Action or Outdoor Action (or some other program), which will give you an earlier move in date, then you can coordinate with that particular program’s move in date. If you can afford this, I highly recommend these programs.
Yes, you’ll have to sign up for the last Bama Bound, and arrange to come then.
@mom2collegekids We will also have trouble with airfare especially if we want to come parents weekend. So in planning, I see the last Bama bound is August 12. So she would have to come in on the 11th and classes dont begin until the 17th correct? Are there activities and things for them to do during that time from the 11-16th? And we assume she would move in to her dorm that week, what would she do until she gets her form or is it possible she could move in on the 11th before the Bama bound.
Please look into Camp1831 This is something your student can do during that time frame. You can find information about it on the UA web site.
@FINKELLY August 12 and 13 should be the regular move-in days for everyone. All the kids will be there by then so she won’t be coming any earlier than she otherwise would be. She could certainly do Camp 1831 also if she wants to, but that is August 3-5 or 8-10.
Bama Bound is mandatory, but it’s too bad that it is. I have many good things to say about the university, but when it comes to considering the needs of all of the out of state students it happily admits, the mandatory Bama Bound is very old-fashioned. My son had to attend a later Bama Bound, and, when it came to registering for his classes, they make all the students sit there until one of the very friendly volunteers comes to help. Well, there were too many students per volunteer, so as my son’s registration time window got closer and closer, he just called me at the hotel, and I entered his choices online and I registered him myself. There was nothing about Bama Bound that could not have been done from our out of state home (except for staying on campus, which my son had already done by that point.)
I guess the only reason to pay for a ticket to an early Bama Bound would be if you really must have Honors classes that first semester, because by the time of my son’s Bama Bound, there were no available Honors classes at all (turns out he did not really need them, but you kinda want to try out the Honors College classes that first semester.) If you don’t get to take Honors classes that first semester, I am not sure it is that big a deal. Of course, students continue to change their registrations so some openings might come up.
If you are coming from out of state, save the money and sign up for the latest Bama Bound you can. Use that money to sign up for one of the Action programs - those are all great opportunities and you get to move in early.