<p>My son is an OOS student who is in the honors program. He has told me that he would like to try the traditional style dorms for two reasons. One he wants to meet a lot of different types of people and thinks it will be easier to meet them that way. Also, he feels like this is what a true college experience should include.</p>
<p>Any advise on which of the traditional dorms is best. He is a biology major so location might also factor in.</p>
<p>I would love to know any information about them from a student’s perspective</p>
<p>The older style dorms certainly have been dwarfed by the construction of the suite-style dorms in this past decade. Do not underestimate how old they are. Most of them were built during the post-WW2 enrollment boom and have had only minimal renovations.</p>
<p>My recommendation would be Burke Hall. It’s on the corner of Bryant Drive and Hackberry Lane, so it’s fairly close the science buildings. It has gone through fairly extensive renovations. Plus, it has its own dining hall and an on-site restaurant.</p>
<p>Remind your son that once he leaves honors housing, he can’t come back. So, unless he’s sure that he’ll never want to return, he might want to wait until a later school year.</p>
<p>Of course, if he just wants to return to suites style, he can always try to get into Lakeside East.</p>
<p>I think it has something to do with their ability to project how many honors dorms will be available to upper class students and incoming frosh.</p>
<p>That is fine if he wants suites then he will move to the regular ones. he likes having a wide variety and type of friends so I am sure he would be fine with that</p>
<p>I’d also recommend Burke or maybe even Paty (all male) if your son is set on living in a “traditional” dorm. There is the argument that people living in traditional dorms meet more people and I can see some truth in that. For me, I wanted the quieter atmosphere and amenities of an honors dorm. I’m not opposed to living in traditional dorms (and am even trying to be an RA in one), but for my freshman year, I wanted an honors dorm. Note that more OOS students, especially those in honors, tend to live in the super suite dorms.</p>
<p>College is what you make of it. If you want to do something, consider your options, choose what seems best for you, and don’t look back. UA allows me to have the college experience I want and, to a great degree, on my terms. I’m happy with that. If your son wants to live in a traditional dorm, more power to him. If however, he’s just doing this because he feels he has to have a “traditional” college experience, even though he would rather do something else, then it is time to sit down and have a talk with him. </p>
<p>*I’m defining a traditional college experience here as 4 years of college, the first 2 of which are core courses, usually commencing the fall after high school graduation. During this time, the student lives in a double or triple dorm room with a bathroom “down the hall.”</p>
<p>Congratulations on your son choosing UA. Also, welcome to CC and feel free to ask any questions you may have. Roll Tide!</p>
<p>No his brother is in “regular” dorms out here in California so he knows the pros and cons and he really feels this is his best option…Seems like the pro to Paty is it near the Honors dorms where he will probably tend to meet more people in his classes and Burke is coed and near the quad, science buildings and has a restaurant.</p>
<p>Does one of them have more of a rep for being a "party’ dorm, do you know?</p>
<p>Well, add an “r” to Paty and you have party, lol. The amount of parties depends on the people who are living in the dorm at the time. Large dorm parties are pretty uncommon as they are really difficult to control and somewhat easy to spot. If your son wants to party or not party, he’ll find people who share his interests. Is he planning on joining a frat?</p>
<p>I’m not sure at the moment which residence hall I would recommend. Burke has some traditional suites where 4 or so people share a bathroom so your son could get “the best of both worlds” so to speak. With Paty, the Biology Building is an easier walk, IMHO, mainly because you don’t have to cross University Blvd. Either way, there is a bus that would go to the Transit Hub which is right next to the Biology Building.</p>
<p>The presence of the super suite dorms means that there are less traditional dorms than you would find on a similar-sized campus elsewhere. This also has to do with the fact that the growth in the student population is very recent. As much as I would like to automatically say that such and such a dorm would be perfect for your son, that’s easier said than done. Has your son visited campus or checked out the residence hall photos at [Housing</a> & Residential Communities - The University of Alabama](<a href=“http://housing.ua.edu/hallslist.cfm]Housing”>http://housing.ua.edu/hallslist.cfm) ? Also, would he prefer living in an all male dorm?</p>
<p>*he isnt the partying type. He is social but he is also pretty conservative. *</p>
<p>My only concern is that unless your son can hand-pick his roommate and know that it’s someone who won’t sexile him or keep him awake at night being noisy…then he could end up with a situation from he11. But, if he is hand-picking his roommate, then fine. </p>
<p>well my son comes from a large family so he is used to noise and his brother was a pretty messy roommate. besides dealing with these types of situations makes you a better and stronger person. If it goes bad, he can always switch to the regular suites later…so are Paty and Burke to only traditional dorms.</p>
<p>Oh good. I remember when I was came to Capstone Scholar’s Day, our tour included the dorms. Witt had not arrived yet; the school and campus was radically different. The honor dorm (singular) was New Hall. Anyway, the tour included Paty since it was the engineering dorm ,and it was awful. In one of the bathrooms, the shower stalls were missing.</p>
<p>In many parts of the business world, renovations are performed to continue operating an asset for the small amount of time before said asset can be sold or otherwise disposed of. This may be for safety/operational reasons, revenue protection, and/or complaint mitigation. The asset may then be transferred to another party who would continue to operate the asset, but such would be difficult with a residence hall at this point in UA’s history. Paty is not the most luxurious residence hall on campus and like any residence hall, there will be parts that students may not like. Still, the thought of things being missing from dorms is not reassuring, especially since this was during a tour for talented prospective students.</p>
<p>Feeno, you’ve been at UA a long time. Was this back in Mason’s or Sorenson’s presidency?</p>
<p>^^^As a sidebar to this thread (not to hijack it), when we met with Dr. Witt on March 1 he said the primary reason he chose to leave the University of Texas system and take over the helm at UA was because of the legislature’s firm commitment to actualize the amazing academic and physical transformation we’re seeing at Bama. In an often disingenuous world, it’s nice to see a promise being fulfilled.</p>
<p>Did your son look at any of the Living Learning Communities?</p>
<p>DD decided on UA a bit late, but we did meet a few folks in the Blount Undergraduate Inititive. May be something to look at they have their own dorm & programming…</p>
<p>There are also other living learning communities…</p>