hi, my son just came back from freshman orientation and viewed his dorm - mary burke east. we were not happy
with it, small and not clean, any information regarding this dorm? thanks
I will say that my D was in a not so great dorm (most Freshman dorms at big state schools aren’t so great I understand) and she wound up really enjoying it. There was a “we are all in this together” feeling that bonded them.
Also -your roommate doesn’t have to be your friend -just someone that you can live with.
thank you.
While Burke is not a suite style it is still my favorite dorm. I was hoping to be placed their but I got an FA position in another dorm. Basically the perks of Burke would be the cost, food and atmosphere. While he won’t have his own bedroom, it will force him to be social. I rarely spent time in my own bedroom. I mainly hung out with my friends in the living room. The cost of living traditional is much cheaper. There’s a dining hall in the building so he won’t have to leave to eat which is huge when it’s raining. Also the atmosphere is my favorite part of Burke. It’ll be a good mix of US and internationals. You’ll hear people talking about their home countries and cooking authentic international cuisine. While Burke rarely ranks high on people’s list due to the fact it’s not suite style, I think it’s one of the best dorms on campus if not the best. I have friends who lived there and enjoyed it. I understand he’s probably upset he didn’t get a nice new dorm with his own room, but there are so many positives to Burke. It’s also located closer to the quad.
Might I inquire when you deposited for housing? Was a suite style residence hall your son’s first choice? I ask this because we always caution parents to make the housing deposit early if their student wants/needs a particular type of room and residence hall. Unfortunately, if you deposited late, then your choices were limited. However, if you are still willing to pay for a suite style residence hall, call housing and ask about availability. If you say that you only want Honors “suite style” Housing, that may limit your chances. instead ask for any type of suite style residence hall. Just remember that the residence cost for the suite style individual bedroom is more expensive than the traditional dorms.
hello, that is so encouraging to hear! I will let my son read your note…it was hard to hear the kids at orientation tell him that Burke was one of the worst dorms to attend. It is what you make of it…thank you again!
If he does want to switch, he can put in a room change request. However considering there’s a wait list for students needing dorms, my assumption is he won’t be able to move until they all get housing. I would encourage him to look at the positives and remind him he will probably only sleep there.
hello, yes we paid the deposit the last day of January, one day before the deadline for housing. What we realized that everything is on the web and not coming to you via the postal mail with instructions on what to do. It is a learning curve for all of us. Also we called housing on Wednesday morning and asked to be switched to a new dorm, but we were told the change room request closed on Tuesday and we have to wait until August 14th to submit a request to change dorms. We might be pleasantly surprised that my son might like Burke east.
that is not one of the worst dorms. It’s actually quite popular because it has a dining hall right inside and other amenities.
I’m not sure what you mean by saying that you saw the dorm…do you mean that you saw the actual room that he’ll be in? if so, how? Was anyone living in it at that point?
Usually, people can request to “change dorms” during this month. Many frosh (parents) request a roommate change when the roommate is a senior.
there are VERY few seniors in dorms, so is that an RA?
During the summer, the dust settles and Housing can move kids around if needed.
the dorms are used in the summer for summer school, band camps, cheer camps, music camps, eng’g camps, etc, so any thing “dirty” may just be dirty at the moment and is scheduled to be cleaned soon.
If you have an issue with a dirty room (and that sort of thing does happen), then contact Bama Housing. You can also send a pm here on CC to @UAHousing <= her name is Janine
A girl from our local HS was assigned to Burke 2 years ago. She had wanted the suite-style dorms but decided to go to Bama in April and was at the bottom of the barrel for housing selection. I was frankly surprised she got Burke, because I view it as the best of the “traditional” style dorms. Long story short - she loved it. She hit it off with her roommate, the location was convenient and the Burke dining hall is right there. She was offered the opportunity to move to a super-suite a couple weeks into the year and turned it down.
I’d also encourage him to talk to fellow classmates living in Burke. If he joins the class of 2019 Facebook page people are starting group messages for different dorms. I saw one for Burke!
All great advice from @bamagirl18 Although, it seems that students want the suite style dorms, some students mention (after living in that style residence house), that it was not a very social atmosphere. Think of it like individual apartments. So unless your roommates are in, you probably won’t see anyone. Each roommate will keep their own schedule and you may not even see them for days. Other students like that more private atmosphere, including a private bedroom but there are those who wished they had chosen differently.
Additional info: He didn’t apply for housing until the last day in January and only had
a small window of selections to pick from. A Senior selected to be his roommate.
To make matters worse, the kids that were in orientation were telling him that is one of the worst dorms to live in. Is this true?
I merged the thread form the Parent’s Forum into this one, in case you hadn’t figured that out already. Policy is usually to have one thread per topic, and this is the better place for this one.
Now for my two cents: College students have been surviving and even thriving in minimalist college dorms for years. I realize that kids have gotten used to having their own rooms as the wealth of this country has continued to grow coupled with people having smaller families. But of course even in most suite-style dorms you have a roommate. I know you were not specifically saying you expected him to have a single (although you would be amazed at how many are shocked when they find out they cannot get one), I am just saying that students have adapted to crappy dorms and random roommates for many decades. Besides, depending on the personality of the senior roommate he is getting, it could be a nice balance between having a roommate so established at Bama that he is hardly ever in the room, but at the same time a nice occasional resource for information. Of course if he is an RA that is a bit of a different picture. At most schools I follow closely RA’s get single rooms, but perhaps that is not the case at Bama.
I would also throw in that for many students the dorm ends up being a place to sleep shower and not much more than that. Sometimes their circle of friends comes from the dorm they are in, often not. Instead they start hanging out with people they meet in class, in clubs they join, and through random encounters where they just hit it off with someone, then meet that person’s friends, and so on. So socializing and studying can be mostly outside the dorm and their room. A lot depends on how outgoing he is. Time will tell. Best of luck to him, I am sure it will turn out to be a great freshman year and 4 years for him.
your two cents were very valuable and insightful!..thanks for moving the first post from parent forum to the correct area, new to college confidential.
thank you, it is great to read your note regarding burke dorm, quite a different response from orientation day!
thank you for your response. we actually went inside the mary burke east dorm and viewed the traditional double room. we’ll just have to wait and see what happens, he can submit a change room request form on August 14th.
@sonnycap My son lived in Burke East third floor last year. The dorm is a little dark. We too went and looked at Burke in person during Bama Bound and I was a little overwhelmed. We actually got to see our sones exact room. It looked dirty and needed cleaning desperately and paint. I tried very hard not to let it bother me since I knew Bama does ever thing well. Sure enough when the day came to move our son into Burke East. From the time we pulled up to the curb to we had him all unloaded it was great. When I stepped back into that dorm room that looked dirty, dark and just plan icky during Bama Bound now during move in look so different. It was now clean, fresh and even looked brighter. It was still an older dorm. But it was great. My son loved living in Burke, Having the dinning hall just down stairs and on game days he was so near all the excitement. Trust Bama knows how to get it done. Roll Tide!
thank you, your initial visit and description of Burke East matched ours. We can only hope that on move-in day, the excitement of entering college for the first time will override all past thoughts. Where is your son living this year?
@sonnycap Or son will be living off campus at East Edge Apartments this coming year.