<p>Janine - </p>
<p>Since you are answering our questions today (thank you!!), can you give us an idea of what percentage of students and/or grade level that wanted to live on campus could not? Just a rough estimate would be helpful.</p>
<p>Good question, Class2012Mom! I am so thankful that my S (a rising sophomore) is able to live on campus again next year, but I am thinking that my S’s chances of returning to campus for his junior year are slim. I would really like to know about what % of “non housing scholarship” students were able to return to campus if they wanted… Thanks, Janine! :)</p>
<p>I guess we could do the unscientific survey and ask if anyone here on CC applied for on-campus housing and was not notified that they can recontract.</p>
<p>I will feel very badly for anyone who wanted housing and did not get it today.</p>
<p>I am still waiting to hear from my son. He is a second year student with junior year standing. I know Tuesdays are busy so I am hoping he just hasn’t checked his email yet. Keep my fingers crossed until I get the phone call.</p>
<p>^^ My fingers are crossed for you, hookiefan!</p>
<p>I’m thinking positive thoughts for you, hokie! If your son gets housing, that would mean that any first year student who applied for housing by the deadline must be able to recontract, right? I think that would be great news for incoming students who are worried about housing in future years, especially with Presidential II slated to come on board in Fall 2014.</p>
<p>Just heard from DD… Two of her roommates did not get housing for next year. They are rising Sophomores. DD and her fourth roomie have housing scholarships so it was not an issue for them. The roommate hunt now begins again…</p>
<p>My friend and I are both rising sophomores and both applied for recontracting for next year. I applied the minute the application opened, and he applied 2.5 hours after. I got it, as did all my friends who applied at that time. And he didn’t, only waiting a couple hours.</p>
<p>Oh no, Missread! Do you have any idea if they applied at the earliest opportunity on Jan 2? And would this mean that no rising juniors (other than those with housing scholarships) get to recontract?</p>
<p>Edited to say… just saw bamabound27’s post. Wow. Two hours made a difference.</p>
<p>Missread, any idea when the two girls who didn’t get housing applied? I know a lot of the CC kids who are able to recontract applied early on January 2. Is it safe to assume that if there are rising sophs who didn’t get housing, then there are no rising juniors or seniors (other than those with housing scholarships and RAs) who will get housing?</p>
<p>Edited to add: Just saw Bamabound27’s post. I guess that means no juniors and seniors and no one who applied after mid-morning on January 2 got housing. Wow.</p>
<p>I agree… Wow. PVII needs to be opening Fall of '13. Now they have to find two girls who are in for next year that will fit with them… They really want to stay in the same room in RCS-N. They’re terrified of being stuck with “loud, alcoholic freshmen.” Haha!</p>
<p>I’m a bit stunned, too. Wonder if there is any kind of a waiting list for kids who were close to the cut off. I can’t imagine 100% of all who chose to return to campus will do so.</p>
<p>One of my son’s friends, whom he had hoped to room with, did not get housing…He is a rising soph. Not sure of when he applied for housing. :(</p>
<p>DS was not offered econtracting. Back to the drawing board. Dang it</p>
<p>I really think UA housing needs to respond here, this could be a serious dealbreaker for incoming out of state (especially) freshman parents. I know people don’t like us to sound nervous about this, but we need to not forget that the housing at bama is one of the big things ‘sold’ to us when we visit and factored very much into the decision. The whole concept of the honors housing/living learning community may be something that shouldn’t be sold so heavily if it really doesn’t exist, and from what I am reading it really doesn’t. Honors kids don’t have any kind of edge on housing, except they can opt for super expensive suites the first year…and then there appears a real possibility the will need to fend for themselves finding off campus housing, in an area they are not familiar, and with no transportation and needing to deal with it only several months of arriving in Tuscaloosa. Not good…</p>
<p>While I agree that the Honor’s LLC is really just the ability to stay in NICE super-expensive suites and know that all the other surrounding students are also honor’s students (although that doesn’t predict behavior of 18 year olds away from home for the first time), it is not a typical LLC in that the students don’t take classes on-site or take classes together for that additional bonding experience.</p>
<p>But I disagree with some of the other statements:</p>
<p>“they will need to fend for themselves finding off campus housing” - well there are several resources available on campus - a list of ‘approved’ housing complexes that meet minimum safety and security guidelines set by the school, several off-campus housing fairs during the year where students can get information…but the statement also implies that it’s bad to have them fend for themselves - don’t we want our college aged students to start taking on some of these repsonsibilities? My son took the initiative to schedule appointments and look at complexes, ask questions while he was there that he would know I wanted answers to such as the utility utilization, and find out what needed to be done to get a lease signed since he was still 18…I’m proud of him! And I’m glad that he knows how to handle that when he’ll need to find housing during internships or after graduation and won’t need me to ‘hold his hand’</p>
<p>‘in an area they are not familiar with’ - have you ever moved to a new town/city? How long does it take you to find your way around… 2 weeks? Maybe a month? Tuscaloosa isn’t that big - these kids learn the area pretty quickly, and most of the housing geared towards students is within a couple mile radius of campus, it’s not like they are venturing off 10 or 20 miles away</p>
<p>‘and with no transportation’ - I know the complex my son signed at has a shuttle to campus and I doubt it’s the only one, there are others within walking distance to campus, and of course the other option is to select a roommate with a car…if none of those are options, I’m not sure what the public transporation system is like, but living near a college town I know it has a very good bus system and I suspect that may be an option in Tuscaloosa as well</p>
<p>There is only so much space on campus, so many rooms for students, and having a rising ‘2nd year student’, to me it’s much more important that those rooms go to freshmen. It’s better to have freshmen in a pseudo-supervised environment with RAs and housing officials, it is better to have freshmen in an environment where they can more easily meet other students, it is better to have freshmen on campus until they get acclamated to the environment and college life… I really don’t think it should be a ‘serious dealbreaker’ to have a 19-20 year old student actually have to live in an apartment complex designed for students, with other students, that is all of 2 miles from campus (and I’m a OOS mom of a freshman (well first year) student)</p>
<p>I realize that it may all work out fine, I mean it has to, right? However when we chose Bama a big piece of it was the housing. So you can argue all you want they should be fine and mature and be able to figure this out, but without a car, 1200 miles away from home, as a parent I will not feel comfortable with insecurity about housing options. I have had more than a few private messages about seedy neighborhoods and bad units, I am not sure my then 18 year old will be savvy enough to make good decisions about off campus housing without help, so I guess you can feel good that you have done a better job in raising your child than I in this regard. I would feel much bertter if I thought it would be junior year for them to mke that next leap. If he were at a school not so far away, we could probably give him some help, and I think that is all I am trying to say. The uncertaintly over housing after freshman year will be a bigger consideration for, at least some, parents from far away with no connections or knowledge of the area.</p>
<p>And perhaps I am just in a bad mood today, but it does seem like no one is willing to give a response to how widespread the issue is. How do we know that there are viable off campus choices, as it seems likely that as on-campus housing availabiltiy shrinks so will off campus eventually. </p>
<p>And honestly I can’t just hope he has a friend with a car.</p>
<p>Most colleges that I researched did not guarantee housing for non-freshman. I don’t think it’s that uncommon. </p>
<p>It is a perfectly valid consideration, though, for OOS students/parents. Some will be fine with the possibility of having to move to off-campus housing and others will not. I will say, the off-campus housing options at UA are 100 times better than anything I saw at the other colleges we looked at.</p>
<p>That being said, I am very happy that my rising-sophomore is able to recontract…but if he hadn’t been, we would have just regrouped and figured out the next step. (Because UA is worth it. Roll Tide!)</p>
<p>Yes, I totally agree. I think it is important to have this information earlier on in the decision process though. We were reassured during our visit they would have no problem with honors housing, it wasn’t until recently this has all come to light.</p>
<p>I am going to hope that between his own efforts and the good info on CC my S will manage through this…I guess I just wish I didn’t have to worry about it (see, it is all about me really isn’t it)</p>