@mountainmomof3 My S19 is also looking at Ridgecrest as a NMF/honors student (though he hasn’t 100% committed to Bama yet, leaning in that direction) and may be looking to stay on campus all 4 years as well. We are in MI, and he doesn’t really know anyone either. He is also rather anti-FB, but I may try to convince him to check out the student page. He is hoping to find guys not planning to rush, as we had also heard the advice mentioned upthread. Thanks @Roo17 for saying it’s still early, makes me feel a bit better!
@brentwoodmom, the FB groups are great, but the people who post there are generally outliers. Do not let what goes on there give you the impression that this is what the average family has done - it is NOT.
My son hadn’t even accepted his offer of admission at this stage of his senior year. It will all work out, I promise. It may require requesting a different housing assignment, but UA is very good at accommodating patient and POLITE students.
My son let the school assign his roommate, and while he wasn’t crazy about him (on paper) and his dorm placement, we were able to get my son switched to a better situation over the summer, and he had a wonderful freshman year.
Housing was much more scarce back then, before they built the new freshman dorm, but be prepared to have to give up something in terms of the ultimate goal. When my son was offered a new assignment, he had to choose between honors housing or a suite-style assignment. He went with honors and ended up on an honors overflow floor in Blount Hall, the liberal arts living learning community, which in retrospect was the ideal assignment for him, even though he was coming in as an engineer. There were lots of Honors College women in that dorm, which was great, because my son did not want to be stuck in an all-male or all-STEM living situation. The friends he made there remained his friends for the next four years. Most have graduated now, but his current off-campus roommate is another friend from Blount also there for a fifth year after a co-op.
I’m sure my panicked posts from 2014 are still here somewhere if you want to read them. 