<p>DS is attending Bama this fall with the National Merit scholarship. We thought it covered any on campus housing in full. He picked Riverside East and after going back and forth a few times he picked a double suite instead of a quad suite.</p>
<p>All was fine until we noticed that they are charging him $475 more for the housing this semester then they are crediting him from his scholarship. He called down to the school today and was told that the doubles cost more then the quads and that the scholarship only covers up to the price of a quad.</p>
<p>Has anyone had experience with that and know if that is true or not? We can’t find anywhere in his paperwork where is says a double would be more. All we can find is that only on campus housing is covered. If he knew it was going to cost him close to $1000 this year there is no way he would have picked a double!</p>
<p>the housing scholarship only covers up to a quad in honors…unless HOUSING puts you in a double.</p>
<p>Your son can call to try to get put in a quad.</p>
<p>If Bama didn’t charge more for the doubles, too many NMFs would want one. Same goes for The Bluff…if you choose a 2 bedroom, you’re charged an upcharge.</p>
<ul>
<li>Regular room rate is defined as the **largest room option **in a particular dorm. Example: Riverside, Lakeside and Ridgecrest have four-person suites. The cost associated with the four-person suite would be the value of the housing scholarship in this circumstance.</li>
</ul>
<p>The UA scholarship page clearly states that the largest room type per dorm is covered by the scholarship. Hopefully your son can be moved.
My DD is hoping to have a double next year. It would still be cheaper than an apartment or the sorority house. She and a pledge sister are on NM scholarships and will be rooming together.
DD leaves tomorrow for recruitment work week. She can’t move into her dorm until the 13th, so is “camping out” at the house until then.</p>
<p>We read that but it I do not remember reading anywhere that the double cost more then the quad and when he picked his room there was no mention of it that we saw. Maybe it said so someplace but it looks about as clear as mud to me.</p>
<p>He is happy with his roommate and moving in this Sat so he’ll stick with his room. Just disappointed with the surprise (to us) $950 charge is all.</p>
<p>I’m in a double instead of a triple at the Bluff, but to me the upcharge is totally worth it to get in the awesome apartments and off campus. Only sad thing is that commuter parking is awful.</p>
<p>How much does it ultimately cost to live at the Bluff if you’re on scholarship? I’ll be classified as a junior after this year, and I don’t really want to live with three other people the whole time I’m in college…</p>
<p>The cost for a double in the Bluff (one semester) is 4900. My NMS housing scholarship covers $4575. So its really not that much. Plus I save some money when I purchase a commuter parking permit since those cost considerably less than living on campus parking permits. Also, not having a meal plan more than makes up the difference.</p>
<p>Cool, thanks. I’ll certainly look into that.</p>
<p>LadyD- I’m in the North Tower of Ridgecrest South for this year.</p>
<p>momreads - I know I’d still have to live with someone, but having one or two roommates in an apartment where we have our own bathrooms, more space, and a full kitchen seems undeniably better than living with three other kids in a dorm every single year… It’d be great if the housing scholarship could be a stipend for off-campus housing, but since that’s not happening I’d like to have some experience living in a slightly more “real world” environment than a dorm.</p>
<p>It’d be great if the housing scholarship could be a stipend for off-campus housing,</p>
<p>Even if it were, it would be for much less than the cost of a 4 bedroom suite or 3 bedroom at The Bluff. It would be about $4500 per year…not the $9k that currently covers a 3 BR at The Bluff.</p>
<p>i get a little crazy reading about people who want the school to pay for off campus living (which they do offer, by the way, at the bluffs). does any other school do that? even so, you know going into it that this is what they offer. full tuition and four years paid for in some of the nicest dorms (or even a nice off campus apartment) in the nation.</p>
<p>for cripes sake, you are getting four years of college fully funded! accept what they offer, be glad and don’t complain and ask for something else.</p>
<p>i have seen threads like this over and over here, and they just irritate me. waah, UA is only paying for my tuition and housing … who will pay for my books? i think any student, even from the poorest family, can/should come up with SOME of the costs of going to college.</p>
<p>they have all the freedom that anyone has. if someone wants to pay for me to live in a dorm for four years, i still have the option to choose something else, at my expense.</p>
<p>to me it kind of seems like an entitlement thing. sure, it would be nice if you could live whereever you want on university scholarship, but, as it stands, that is not the case.</p>
<p>*Quote:
Originally posted by mom2collegekids
It would be about $4500 per year </p>
<p>=============
How do you figure that? *</p>
<p>I based that guess on the appox amount that Auburn gives for it’s NMF housing stipend…and Bama’s position that it won’t give you the “cash difference” if you choose a standard double.</p>
<p>The dorms that the scholarship kids get are so nice, especially when compared to other dorms at other schools. What a great deal these scholarship kids get from UA, including living for free in a dorm where they don’t have to share a bedroom, only have to share a bathroom with one other person, have a living room, a kitchen, parking right under the building, a short walk to classes, a short walk to groceries, and a short walk to the Strip. Its a very, very good deal, especially when one thinks about what so many others don’t get, including so many others at UA.</p>
<p>I think we have to look at the messages we send to our kids in terms of what they ‘have’ to have to be comfortable.</p>
<p>The happiest people are those who ‘want what they have.’ </p>
<p>I discourage my son from seeking off-campus housing, etc… until he finishes school…and I’m thinking masters. He is learning to invest and save his money and will be able to choose whatever he wants before we know it - after graduation.</p>
<p>He lives in UA and has the tools he needs to study and pursue a couple of his interests outside of academia. </p>
<p>I want him worrying less about where he’s living than interacting and experiencing what ever is offered.</p>