On campus dorms vs private dorms off campus

my son has been accepted to the geosystems engineering and hydrogeology major at university of texas. we are from out of state and he did not pay his 50.00 housing deposit until early february.
does he have even decent chances of getting any on campus dorms that people want(san jac, duren, moore-hill,etc) or should we start investigating castillian, towers and other off campus dorms.
also, are there any dorms both on or off campus that help out of state kids feel a little less intimidated by so many in state students. thanks for any suggestions. He will need to study a lot and is not a huge partier but wants to meet people and have some fun too

Can’t help you much with dorms but I can tell you that my OOS son felt very welcomed at UT. He couldn’t believe how friendly everyone, including strangers, were! Different than the northeast, for sure.

I paid my $50 deposit in February and got my housing contract in mid-March. Yea, your son has a chance to get dorms on campus if he’s a freshman since they prioritize freshman.

@rustyspoon Your son will probably not get a room in San Jac or Duren, but Moore-Hill might be available during his room selection. Castillian and Towers will not fill up for a while so you don’t need to be worried about getting spots there. Good luck to your son. Hook 'em!

thank you so much for the information.

I was in the exact situation. I got my contract March 15th and decided to go do a housing tour last week. I found that for the price, The Castilian has much nicer accommodations for a nominal price difference (even less if you count having unlimited meals at Castilian) and went ahead and signed the lease the day after visiting.

Same situation as @utguy2018. Went and toured campus and dorms with my son a couple weeks ago and decided on Castilian because it was a one stop shop. The UT housing situation just seemed so up in the air, so now I can finally rest easy knowing he has a room secured when it’s time for him to leave the nest. After all the renovations, it looked nicer than anything on campus for just about the same cost. Plus meal plan doesn’t have the possibility of running out like with the dining dollars.

Last note: we checked out Castilian, Towers, Dobie while in town. Towers was first in the running when we were browsing online because of price but seeing it with our own eyes changed everything - made the lower pricing much more understandable. Not to mention, the pricing reflects the housing without the required meal plan cost of $300 per month. I would definitely recommend seeing the buildings in real life rather than making a decision blind based off of the websites. Hope this helps!

@utguy2018 thanks for the info. when you signed your lease did you get a single or double or room that four guys can be in. did you have to provide roommate info or can you still fill that in later.

@jc1647 thank you for response. this helps. are you guys from out of state too? the housing process is really stressful

@rustyspoon No problem! The only rooms available now are the Double Suites. On the tour, I was told that I’d have decent chances on a waitlist if I wanted to wait for a single. In fact, I believe they said I could sign for a double and then grab a single if one became available. There are fields for roommate preferences and a few short personality questions in the lease for them to pair you up and I’m unsure if you can add or change afterwards.