<p>has arrived and we can’t find a single room for one person or two in honors.</p>
<p>mom - wanna cal someone!??!</p>
<p>: )</p>
<p>Doesn’t your daughter have a room?</p>
<p>I will call tomorrow. they’re closed now. </p>
<p>Did you look in Riverside North?</p>
<p>she does have a room, but she found a roommate that seems like a good fit.</p>
<p>the other girl had a room with two spots, but then she never got to the spot where she could pull katie in. ended with an error.</p>
<p>it let the other girl in and katie is in her original room.</p>
<p>thing is … if you search, there are NO ROOMS available even for 1 person!</p>
<p>and they aren’t really close. i called them. the answers i seem to get from them are too bad so sad. grr.</p>
<p>i surely didn’t expect there to be NO ROOMS or NO HONORS ROOMS. maybe not in the building you want or maybe not 2 spots … but none at all … not what i expected at all.</p>
<p>I just checked room selection to see if my son’s roommates are still the same, and they are. Indeed, there are only single spaces available in Paty. Of course, I have a son, but I know there are honors kids out there who aren’t picking until today. Do they have to stay in Paty?</p>
<p>I’m surprised at this, too. Two weeks ago they said that they still had beds available in honors. </p>
<p>What time did you look today? Is it possible that there were some beds available at 8am, but they were taken within minutes?</p>
<p>When did your D submit her deposits? </p>
<p>I wonder if Bama is going to try to provide some incentives to have more older kids to move to The Bluff?</p>
<p>selection opened at 4 and we were on at 4.</p>
<p>at one point i had the perfect room on my screen, then when i clicked it it disappeared and logged me off.</p>
<p>we did deposits around april 15.</p>
<p>S in same boat. Very disappointed with process. Main reason he dropped the NY schools from consideration, didn’t want to deal with housing issues. Had 2 possible roommates but now can’t even find honors nor engineering housing for 1.</p>
<p>I am watching this situation very carefully. As I mentioned before, we visited Alabama over Easter and my son who is a junior is ready to sign on the dotted line now. The housing was one aspect that we all really liked. Now, if he cannot get that great housing that everyone touted about, that would be a deal breaker. I don’t mind if you think you are going to get regular style dorms from the beginning, but this is like a switch and bait. Come on Bama, get his straightened out so the kids and parents aren’t stressing so much.</p>
<p>This might be one of the repercussions of so many students being accepted into honors. The school can only hold so many kids. Good luck to all.</p>
<p>I truly believe that this situation with honors housing will be resolved. As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, my son had a opening in his honors suite last year around this time. In early June, when all the housing is opened to students, he logged on one morning to find out that the opening had been filled by a young man who was non-honors. He was a great kid and roommate. In fact, there were several non-honors students in honors last year.</p>
<p>I know that last fall and again, this spring, there were several open spots in honors housing. In fact, my son’s girlfriend had two vacant rooms in her suite at the conclusion of the first semester (two roommates chose to attend other colleges in the spring). She had one friend relocate to one of those rooms, but the other remained open all semester. One of my son’s friends was able to move from one suite to another in Lakeside West at the start of the second semester – again, there were vacant rooms.</p>
<p>Those of you who have students considering Alabama, I offer a suggestion. Apply early and pay the housing deposit (you will have a majority of that deposit refunded if need be). We did that – my son got his acceptance on Halloween, 2008. We paid the housing deposit in early January. He thought he would never attend Alabama, but it was nice that his folks wanted to cover all their bases. </p>
<p>But again, I am confident that the situation will be resolved.</p>
<p>I agree with momreads. We read early on to pay the housing deposit if you think Alabama may be an option. I believe you have until July 1 to get all but $50 refunded from the housing deposit if you cancel. For us it was worth the risk, although it was not risk at all, because after we visited at the end of Jan, it was UA 100%. We are OOS and D has had a room in honors housing since mid-march. She has 3 suitemates, all freshman, all from OOS. They have all been talking, getting to know one another and planning the decor. We had no problems with the system and I think as long as you are willing to risk the $50, pay the housing deposit as soon as you are accepted, and you should not have any hassles.</p>
<p>you risk more than 50 because you have to pay the enrollment deposit before you can pay the housing deposit. you lose the whole enrollment deposit.</p>
<p>for us, it wasn’t a matter of my DD not wanting to go there. it just was not financially an option unless she got in state tuition or better. that didn’t happen until late in the game.</p>
<p>but i kind of agree that they should have a better system in place for taking care of the honors kids. the housing is a big pull and to have this much stress over it is off-putting. and i don’t know about you guys, but i haven’t had the same southern hospitality coming from anyone in the housing office. </p>
<p>if freshman are required to live in dorms (and they are) then they should also be able to get a dorm room stress-free! IMO</p>
<p>Now, if he cannot get that great housing that everyone touted about, that would be a deal breaker. I don’t mind if you think you are going to get regular style dorms from the beginning, but this is like a switch and bait.</p>
<p>This isn’t bait and switch. People have to understand that they are gambling when they pay later in the process. If you want to be sure to have the rooms of your choice, then pay earlier. If it means paying a few extra hundred bucks to avoid the hassle, it’s worth it, especially when many of these kids are already getting thousands off in tuition. </p>
<p>While I’m surprised that right now there isn’t any honors beds left, I’m also surprised at the reactions by some here. You can’t pay so much later than most of the other kids and then be surprised that you can’t get what you want. People can’t have it both ways…wait to pay and then expect an easy process. Those who paid earlier, paid for the convenience of an easier process and more choices. </p>
<p>*if freshman are required to live in dorms (and they are) then they should also be able to get a dorm room stress-free! IMO *</p>
<p>They can get rooms, but they have never been guaranteed honors (that has been discussed many times on this forum - no guarantee for honors dorms). And the “stress-free” aspect is asking too much. Those who are in the process at the end, can’t possibly have an easy process. That is an impossible request because at that point, there won’t be much left.</p>
<p>I totally feel for you MikeW - and while there may not have been a guarantee of Honors housing, every time we asked that question - and we did ask it of Jami several times, we were told that there was surplus Honors housing enough so non-Honors had always been moved in to some of the rooms later.
Maybe the response to Honors has been overwhelming this year - I don’t know. I do think that if they should take these cases (as yours) individually now and check themselves for Honors rooms for you, or possibly convert another floor in a super suite dorm to Honors if there is enough overflow to warrant it.
There’s a May 1 deadline for a reason, should not be a penalty for waiting until then. Room selection begins way too early forcing so many who are still on the fence to commit then possibly pull out later causing this mess.</p>
<p>PLEASE let us know when this gets resolved!</p>
<p>There’s a May 1 deadline for a reason, should not be a penalty for waiting until then. Room selection begins way too early forcing so many who are still on the fence to commit then possibly pull out later causing this mess.</p>
<p>Then you’re expecting Bama to do something that other schools aren’t doing. There are many people on CC who’ve had to pay housing deposits early at a few colleges while their children were deciding.</p>
<p>Bama has no choice but to give “first picks” to those who commit early. </p>
<p>and we did ask it of Jami several times, we were told that there was surplus Honors housing enough so non-Honors had always been moved in to some of the rooms later.</p>
<p>That has been true in the past. However, Jami doesn’t work in housing, so she may not have had the latest info. I wasn’t even given the best info 2 weeks ago when housing told me that they still had beds available in Riverside North, unless somehow those beds filled during that 2 week period.</p>
<p>My heart goes out to all of you struggling with this situation. We lost a few hundred dollars in non-refundable housing deposits that we had to plunk down at other schools in order to hold a place in line for housing, but as has been mentioned in this thread not everyone can afford to risk even that in today’s economy. I can totally understand how stressful that must feel.</p>
<p>My only suggestion is to echo what has been expressed by the wise veterans on CC: execute a systematic plan and check for available slots 2-3 times a day, if possible. Maybe assemble a sizable team of friends and family who rotate the responsibility and check online hourly (if allowed). Please keep us posted on this saga and if there’s any way I can be of assistance feel free to PM me.</p>
<p>I guess maybe we are unique, but we didn’t pick UA for the housing. We picked it because we were impressed with the honors college and my son really liked the class he sat in on in the bio dept. </p>
<p>We are also unique in that my son doesn’t want to live with all honors kids. He said college is about meeting new types of people…he has been in the honors group all through high school. </p>
<p>I can understand being disappointed if you can’t get the housing you want, but sometimes it is good to move out of your comfort zone. </p>
<p>My son is going to live in Burke this year and he is excited about the “dorm experience”. i spent months trying to sell him on the positives of honors housing, but he wanted to save the extra money for grad school!</p>
<p>Sometimes we parents get a little over excited about these things, and the kids are going to have an awesome experience where ever they end up. I hope things work out for those who were disappointed with the options, but if not our kids can still have an excellent college experience, and learning to live in a small space with a stranger, well that can really build character too!</p>
<p>M2CK: If honors housing is going to continue to be a big reason why students select Alabama, that is a good thing. But, that means that the Honors College may need to consider raising the requirements to be in honors – such as an SAT score of 1280 or higher (grandfathering those in the program who do not have that score) in the very near future.</p>
<p>I fully understand that UA is not the only college in this situation, the whole deposit early for housing thing is a mess at every college DS was considering. I did like at a few schools he applied to, where housing priority was assigned based on when you applied. I don’t like that a NMF can apply today and get priority housing over someone who made the decision by the May 1 deadline. There has to be some incentive given to those who do things on time.</p>
<p>I’ll also volunteer if you need someone to periodically check for open rooms for your daughter/son. PM me codes and we can get it done!</p>
<p>I like that idea of it being based on when you apply. That makes a lot of sense. I wonder why more schools don’t do that? As far as the NMF I understand why they would get a room assigned automatically because UA really wants to build up its ranking and status and to do this they need to provide incentives to the top kids. I doubt there are so many of them that it is going to really affect the general population that much.</p>
<p>*But, that means that the Honors College may need to consider raising the requirements to be in honors – such as an SAT score of 1280 or higher *</p>
<p>Bama has to be very careful about moving any honors req’ts up. Many URMs would not qualify for honors if they moved the number up. The last thing Bama needs is criticism that their honors program is nearly lily white.</p>
<p>Instead, Bama will likely have to make Lakeside East or the entire Ridgecrest South an honors dorm in the future.</p>