<p>So, the UC housing application opened today at 4pm, and I was on it at 4pm and one second. Applied, paid and will scan in the signature page tomorrow morning. My impressions of the online application are not favorable. First, the ominous warning that the application must be completed in a single online session indicates poor design with data saved in a flat file format one "page at a time as opposed to a true database-based application that allows you to use several online sessions to complete and update your information prior to submitting the required portions of the app.</p>
<p>Critically, my daughter was not able to enter her housing preferences...isn't that the main function of the first-come first-serve application process? Was it something we did wrong? Has anyone else out there run into the lack of an ability to be able to enter room preferences? Not a good experience with the housing IT function here. I hope that it isn't indicative of poor university administrative functionality overall. </p>
<p>I was under the impression that incoming 2014 freshmen can’t “lock in” housing options until the May 1 deadline to confirm admission – otherwise the school would be coercing (instead of just persuading) admitees to decide early. On the other hand, if there really are benefits in housing selection (or otherwise) to committing before May 1, that would be good to know for my son. I’ve assumed we are safe biding our time for now.</p>
<p>You’re absolutely right Mflash, but that’s the way it is. At UC, housing choice is first-come, first-serve, and it opened February 3rd. We’re hoping for some merit aid in the form of Cincinnatus, but won’t really know that till March. If UC is high on your list, losing the deposit is worth it, if you don’t get the kind of aid you want, or need. That was my thinking in applying ASAP anyway.</p>
<p>Oh, and as far as being able to update your room preferences is concerned, since many missed the one chance they have when they’re submitting the application for the first time, they’ll be providing a link to “update your housing preferences” in early march, prior to the first round of assignments. They say your place in the assignment queue will be based on when the application was initially submitted, however.</p>
<p>Unless they’ve changed the application since I applied last year, you should be allowed to enter your preferences for the dorms. I had the same worries about how the application boded for the rest of the university too, but it’s been nearly a year and I haven’t experienced or heard of anyone experiencing any of those issues I was worried about. I think the housing application is difficult when it first opens up because there are SO many people on it at the same time who are all trying to get their first choice of dorm. Last year I applied on the first day and it took forever to get through, but when I went back to work on it at a later date, it ran pretty well. </p>
<p>Also, there is definitely a benefit to committing and applying for housing earlier. UC’s freshman class this year was the largest in school history, and because of that, many freshmen who applied late (I’m sure close to or after the priority deadline) were not able to get into university housing fall semester because they ran out of space! This might not be the case this upcoming year, because the incoming class might not be as big and because they bought out some units at University Park Apartments to try to make sure it doesn’t happen again, but I would err on the side of caution when it comes to applying. If you apply relatively early and not more towards the deadline, you shouldn’t have any issues at all, but I would definitely not wait until the last minute if you have a particular dorm in mind (for example, certain dorms like Turner fill up REALLY quickly because of Honors students and athletes who are able to apply early, and Morgens and Schneider which accommodate upperclassmen who apply a month before) or if commuting is not a possibility just to be safe!</p>
<p>when we did my daughter’s housing application yesterday it gave us the option to click on room preferences. it let us choose building, floor, floor type and room size…it does not let you choose room number and bed preference. she is in DAAP ID so she chose Daniels DAAP floor 7, Daniels DAAP floor 8, Daniels DAAP quad, Daniels DAAP double, then Daniels General Quad, Daniels General Double.</p>