What are the differences between these residence halls? I know both are honors and suite style. I can’t find very many besides the fact that south offers 2 or 4 person suites and east/west only has 4. Is one Dorm better than the other? Which is closer to the buildings that someone majoring in Chemistry would have classes in?
I’m a current sophomore and I’ve lived in both. They are about equal distances. Ridgecrest South is much larger and is a little more lively. The rooms in Ridgecrest East and West are larger especially the living room. I personally love East and West because it was smaller, I felt I could get to know everyone easier. I like how in ridgecrest south the beds loft higher. And the bathrooms in south have larger showers. It really depends on what you want. Would you rather a quieter, less party atmosphere with larger rooms? Or would you rather be in a fairly lively dorm, smaller rooms, but more social?
One other difference is South has the common room in the middle with two bedrooms/one bath on either side. East and West have the common room on the end, with all four bedrooms and 2 bathrooms down the same hallway. My sons actually preferred the bedrooms all on one end, especially for noise purposes and the fact that it made the common room seem larger.
These differences can easily be seen by looking at UA’s Housing website and clicking on either of the two buildings.
http://housing.ua.edu/halls/
There are floor plans and so forth on there.
East/West have bigger rooms and living areas, and South has bigger showers. They are all in the same area, but if we’re being picky West is furthest, East and South about same with East closer to Lakeside Dining.
I’m trying to remember which building has the quirky shaped shower stall. West or South?
Also be wary of getting a room by the elevator or worse the garbage room where the chute is.
West has triangular showers.
My daughter chose West because she liked the floorplan better - larger common areas, storage closet and bedrooms all on one side. It’s also smaller than RCS, and at the time she lived there there were more upperclassmen than freshmen, so it was a bit calmer, too. I’m not sure if that’s still the case.
In Ridgecrest South what floors are the best? Is there a way to tell which rooms have which views or more details about the rooms? Is the only website for this information what we see on UA housing?
No, before room selection, we will also add a different kind of floor plans inside the housing application. It will show the room numbers inside the buildings, and where they are in reference to community bathrooms, elevators, kitchens, stairwells, laundry rooms, etc.
We only release these plans inside the housing application because current residents have expressed concern in previous years about how much information about “where they live now” is available on the internet.
For instance, one year, there were parents posting which male or female rooms were still available during room selection online in real-time. We got several concerned phone calls from current residents upset that anyone on the internet now knew that there were women in that room. So please don’t share that kind of information online during room selection, even if it seems helpful to other incoming parents and students.
Your student will also receive an email in their Crimson account when these plans are made available.
Hope this helps,
Janine
@UAHousing About when will the plans be available. My children do not check their account everyday. We would be lucky if it is once a week.
@CyclonesGrad - don’t know if your kids noticed but the floor plans are now on the housing account.
I pointed them to them. Thanks. They have roommates chosen that they want to live with and are not stuck on having honors housing.
My daughter has one roommate who has a first day choice (daughter has third day) so she will probably will get into South. My son has roommates with third day choices (he has third day choice) so they may end up in Presidential so they can live together.
I do not really care if they are in Honors or not. There was no such thing in my day and I lived in the dorms all four years.
@CyclonesGrad if last year is any indication, by the third day, most of Presidential’s four person suites will be full as well. You might want your son and his roommates to think about if they need to split into two twos to get into a suite, which two go together, and whether you go Honors or not. Remember, Housing sign ups times are not exclusive to Honors prior to Non honors, so there are many kids jumping into Presidential at the same time the Honors kids are selecting RCS,East orWest.
How fast does RCS usually fill up? Should all first day students get in?
First day pick? I think your chances are good.
It is a little tougher to say this year vs. last year since there seem to be fewer days over which the housing choices are made (May 3,5,10,17) compared to last year (when it seems like there were more days and therefore likely fewer students choosing housing each day).
If you do the math, this year there are 4 days and a total of 22 time slots during which students choose housing.
Now take total Bama freshman enrollment of around 7211 (taken from 2015 numbers) and divide by 22 = approximately 328 students choosing during each time slot. [may actually be lower than this - but go with it].
Now, not all students will qualify for or want honors housing - take the kid who likes Pady (? :-? )or wants to be in dorms reserved for certain majors like Friedman for business or Bryant for engineering - then figure paradoxically that many high stats honors kids may have waited to pay their deposits until after Feb 1 (waiting until all their college decisions came in April 1 before choosing Bama - and believe me, this seems to be common) and therefore have little choice in housing - so even if you have the last time slot on day 1, only 1600ish students picked housing ahead of you.
Still, there is no guarantee.
Bottom line: have a good “plan B.”
I love me a great run-on sentence!
YES, have a good Plan B! 
http://housing.ua.edu/new_students/selection_schedule.cfm
I am super grateful I got the 2nd time slot but still I had no idea how competitive it was to get the first time slot. I was off by like 20 minutes 
@atomicPACMAN07 yeah - you had to deposit in the first 15 min to get time slot #1 - we missed it by 2 min.
@southernbound18; all first day students should get into RCS I would think based on our experience last year. Note–RCS is broken up into two towers, South and North. South fills first just because some kids don’t realize there is a North. So aim for RCN and you’ll have a better chance. Pick out 5-10 suites that would work for your situation, and you should be fine.