<p>My son is a freshman with the 8:30 slot on 4/2. He has a friend who will be rooming with him and met another student at scholars event who has a friend from his hometown. Is it realistic to think that he will be able to get a room for all 4 with that timeslot? If not, suggestions? </p>
<p>If they split up and he chooses a room that already has 2 students, will those students likely be uppperclassmen? Not sure how I feel about that. He is honors student but his friend isnt, so he’s looking at Riverside, Lakeside and Presidential.</p>
<p>Last, what are thoughts on Presidential and construction noise? Thanks!!</p>
<p>I wouldn’t worry too much about the construction noise from the second Presidential bldg. First of all, the work is done mostly M-F while kids are on campus in classes. Secondly, by the time Aug rolls around, most of the remaining work will be “inside work” or work that isn’t that noisy. </p>
<p>I’m in Ttown today, so I’ll try to drive by the new construction to see how far along they are. Then, given that they will be working on it between now and Aug (another 5 months), the bldg should be pretty far along by the time school starts.</p>
<p>I haven’t seen what the expected completion date is. All I know is that it will be available by Fall 2014. I suspect that it will be done long before that but since it couldn’t be ready by Fall 2013, a whole year wait had to happen.</p>
<p>I’m sure this question has been covered in previous threads, but the UA website is a little vague on this matter – S applied for housing after Jan 1 (he filled out everything in mid-January). The website says that housing office will assign him a room, and I’m guessing it will obviously depend on availability. He applied for honors housing as his first choice, but given that everyone who applied prior to Jan 2 will get to choose their housing first, does he have a shot at actually be assigned honors housing? Since the entire Ridgecrest complex will now be devoted to honors use, we’re assuming there will be a lot of beds available, and he’s just going “pot luck” in terms of roommates (he’s OOS, and doesn’t know anyone locally attending) – does he have a legitimate chance of living in an honors room?</p>
<p>Are there any disadvantages for honors students to be living in non-honors dorms? I realize that once you choose a non-honors dorm you cannot apply for an honors dorm in subsequent years. Do students have to walk longer distances to classes, will they miss out being close to other honors students? Also are there any established patterns on how much studying and partying goes on in honors vs non-honors housing?</p>
<p>Yes assigned rooms are new this year – housing will be issuing room assignments for those entering freshman who were not able to commit to the University of Alabama by January 1st.</p>
<p>From the housing website – I could be misinterpreting the process as described, but here’s why we thought they would assign him a room:</p>
<p>“Incoming freshmen who apply for housing January 2 and after will be assigned by the Housing and Residential Communities assignment staff. This method of assignment will allow students to receive their assignments in the most timely and efficient manner.”</p>
<p>He doesn’t really care too much where they place him – his basic criteria basically includes being reasonably close to a pool :)</p>
<p>We just want to confirm whether (or not) he gets any feedback in the actual choice of a room, or if we just wait to see what they give him.</p>
<p>Will those students who committed after January 1st be issued a proxy code, so that they could be pulled in by a roommate who picks earlier, or do they have to just depend on housing to randomly put them in a room, whether they have prospective roommates or not?</p>
<p>When will these students get their housing assignments?</p>
<p>Good question – I think we’re wondering the same thing (S doesn’t have any particular roommates, I guess we will be depending on housing, based on what he specified, and what his major is). I hope he does get placed in honors housing (with ALL Ridgecrest available, that has to add up at least 1,500 beds?), and maybe they’ll stick him with fellow eng. majors – maybe.
What’s a proxy number? – Sorry, I’ve been woefully inattentive to the process this time around.</p>
<p>Ok…I just drove by Presidential. I don’t think those in the existing Presidential would be bothered. However, those in Riverside NORTH might be affected (but again, the workers would be there when kids are mostly in class).</p>
<p>The campus looks very nice. The TULIPS are BLOOMING! So pretty.</p>
<p>Also, in the lake by Marrs Spring, there are floating flower rings. </p>
<p>BTW…does anyone know what that new construction is that is east of Old Hackberry Road? Is that the new center, don’t remember the name, that was given a grant last year?</p>
<p>M2CK - is that across the street from Riverside East? The kids there told me it was going to be a new parking structure (used to be a regular parking lot).</p>
<p>We were at the TS Day last Monday and here is what I understood about Honors Housing from the questions that people asked. Keep in mind, I am JAM (just a mom) and so this info is not guaranteed, but it is what I remember from what they said:
* If you are an Honors Student and paid your deposit and requested Honors housing you will get it. There is a cut off date for that, but we had not yet passed it last Monday and I didn’t pay attention to when it was as we have put a deposit down.
* If you put it down before Jan 1 then you get to pick your room in the dorms.
* If you put it down after that, then you were asked questions about your rooming preferences (dorm, late night person, partier, ETC) that they would use for matching and would place you in a room. Not real sure how this will work since, for example, my son put his deposit down earlier and did not fill out this sheet. So if there are rooms left in his suite, how would they know what he is like?
*Even if you put it down after January 1, you have a proxy code (I am pretty sure these came in an email after you paid the deposit) and so could be pulled into a suite by another student who does have the ability to pick a specific room.</p>
<p>Hope I hit all the questions. If not ask again and I will see if I can remember.</p>
<p>Audellmom, a proxy code is a code that is given to each student to sign up for housing. You should be able to find it on your mybama account. This is the code that you would use if you were choosing a room/bed on your given sign-up date. If you had a sign up day earlier than a friend but you wanted to bring in that friend into your suite, you would use your proxy code to choose your room/bed and then use their proxy code to choose their room and bed (you could possible put in 3 people in your room using your proxy code.) If your son finds someone to room with who has a sign-up day, they probably can “pull” your son into their suite after signing themselves up. Saying this, I am not 100% sure that those who register after January 1st are definitely getting proxy codes…perhaps Housing who is assigning them rooms won’t be using these. The only way to be sure is to check his mybama account to see if a code is there and/or contact housing.</p>
<p>^^^The Poster above was posting at the same time. She seems to have more up-to-date information than I do. Good luck.</p>
<p>So Honors housing isn’t guaranteed for incoming honors freshman? That could be a deal breaker.</p>
<p>bama can’t “guarantee” honors housing, but in past years, all that have wanted it seem to be able to get it as long as they apply on time. Even those who applied LATE were able to get honors housing once spots opened after May 1 (after some deposited kids decided to go elsewhere. Also, Bama usually reserves some honors beds for NMF applicants, so those unused beds become available after May as well.</p>
<p>As a parent what can I do to ensure that my D does not fall into bad company? Are there some dorms that we should avoid?</p>
<p>lol…you expect assurances? No one can ensure that your D doesnt’ decide to make friends with “bad company.” The safer bets would be the honors dorms, but there are no guarantees. Besides, your D isn’t only going to make friends with kids in her dorm.</p>
<p>That said, have your child participate in OA or AA…very likely going to meet some really nice kids.</p>
<p>Thank you to everyone for the information – I’ll have to go to his MyBama account and see what I can round up (e.g. the proxy number) getting any info from my S is like getting blood from a turnip.</p>
<p>We’ll hope that housing assigns him an honors bed.</p>
<p>M2CK - is that across the street from Riverside East? The kids there told me it was going to be a new parking structure (used to be a regular parking lot).</p>
<p>Yes. Maybe it is a parking structure. It looks like it will have some kind of dome? Maybe that’s where the stairs/elevator will be.</p>