i thought I had taken notes but after student does the Honors College application, did I read something about housing deposits even though student hasn’t made final decision yet?
S is a Presidential Scholar and will visit first time on Capstone Scholars Day. He’s still waiting on a few more college decisions which will go til mid March. I noticed most colleges you have to let them know of attendance or not by 1 May. Is that UA too?
Housing selection is based upon the date one places their housing deposit and housing application fee. Deposit early enough and you get to choose the exact room and oftentimes the exact bedroom. Students depositing after a certain date, February 1st for this year’s applicants, may have their rooms assigned by UA housing based on their building preferences.
The housing deposit must be made after the enrollment deposit. The combined cost is $550, of which $275 is refundable should the student decide not to attend UA before May 1st; only $175 is refundable if they decide not to attend UA by June 1st.
Officially, UA accepts enrollment deposits until May 1st and occasionally after that in the case of special circumstances. Enrollment and housing deposits are waived for certain low income students. I believe the requirement for the waiver is that the student qualifies for free or reduced price lunch.
Some families wonder if paying a deposit before one decides which school attend is a good idea. In the grand scheme of things, $275 is not a lot of money compared to the thousands of dollars one is spending. $275 is roughly 3 nights at a nice hotel, 2 months of lattes, or two textbooks (sometimes 1.5 textbooks).
If your son wants an Honors dorm and/or choosing his dorm or roommates, then he needs to submit his deposits soon.
Those that wait, often complain that they didn’t get their choice.
OK thank you for the insight…I’ll talk to my son about it.
@mom2collegekids
So even if I’m not sure about going to UA I should put in my deposit now so that I can get a good choice on housing if I do decide to go? I’m visiting in February so I won’t be sure about going to Bama until then.
Speaking of visiting, I’m looking to set up a visit to stay in an honors dorm to see if that’s the right place for me and really get a feel for what it would be like to be a student at Bama, since I live in such a completely different place (Ann Arbor). Do you know how I should go about this other than just contacting my regional recruiter and/or the Honors College?
Last year UA priority for electronic housing selection was done with three days of access - the students who got their housing application in certain first days had earlier access; had to have payment in before Feb 1 to participate with electronic housing selection. After that, housing assigns the students who have their housing deposits in.
Early bird gets the worm. If you have already done the UA enrollment deposit, and housing choice is important (like getting into honors housing), get housing application/deposit in. Last year if you decided not to come, the housing deposit had refund if timely information back to UA about not attending.
@SOSConcern thank you
Things at UA do change from year to year, but if you have housing questions/concerns, they do answer their phone. I found them helpful in reassuring me (like what to expect when getting electronic access, etc).
UA tends not to do many “spend the night in a dorm”-type visits for prospective students due to liability issues. If you have a friend or a friend of a friend who’s willing to host you, that’s fine, but you’re doing so as a guest of that student. UA does give tours of certain dorms and you might find a student who’s willing to show you their room, but the latter is not guaranteed.