If there are any alumni or people who have toured the housing halls I would like some advice on where to stay. I don’t want any rooms where there are community bathrooms. I have Florida prepaid so other than Hume and the infinity hall I’m fine. I’ve already made a list, Springs complex, lakeside complex, keys complex, cypress hall, Beaty towers, and Riker hall. I think we’re supposed to choose our top 10 housing preferences in order? Not sure how it works. If anyone could tell me about some of the best housing spots.
It’s been two years since we went through this, so please correct me if anyone has more up to date info (or if I’m getting something wrong…).
First, community bathrooms are a pain, but the dorms that have them tend to be much more social. It’s important that you try to make friends during your freshman year. Join some clubs, volunteer, join an engineering design team, get a part time job, but do something. It will make your freshman year much more fun. A “social” dorm can help, but if you do pick a Beaty, then you need to compensate by getting more involved in campus activities. Keep that in mind.
You have three options. First, you can pick a Living Learning Community (LLC). If selected, you will get placed into the dorm. If you have picked out roommates before hand, they will be placed into the same dorm.
https://www.housing.ufl.edu/programs-services/living-learning-communities/
You can select your top choices, and let UF place you into a dorm. You can select your roommate before hand, or let UF match you to a roommate.
Finally, and what most students do, is you can go through the online selection process. Based on your priority date (the date you submitted that housing deposit in the fall), you’ll be able to go online, see what dorms are available and make a selection. Some will be available, some will NOT. If you have a roommate, after you select a room, you can “pull” them into the same room. If your roommate has a higher priority date, and can pick first, then they can pick the room and pull you in. If you select a room, but don’t have a roommate, UF will match you to a roommate, no worries.
Will one of your choices be available? I don’t know. They will always have one of the standard freshman dorms (with community bathrooms!) available to be selected. The earlier you select (or your roommate), may improve your chances at the other housing halls.
Good Luck!
@Gator88NE I honestly don’t understand what LLC is. From what I’ve understood is that they put you in a residence hall where other people with similar majors are staying. I’m a pretty social guy and I prefer being in a residence hall where there are different people. Also, I really hate community bathrooms, I’ve been in a boarding school for so long I’m totally sick of community bathrooms, do you know which are the best halls without community bathrooms?
I recommend Beaty Towers if you don’t want community style. It’s more or less the closest apartment-style dorm to classes. It has a kitchen, bathroom, and two bedrooms two people per bedroom. It’s also not bad as far as pricing. I lived in Beaty Towers for a while. Lakeside Complex is also apartment-style, but it is EXTREMELY far. I had a friend who lived there, and I got to see it because of her. She said it was pretty inconvenient to always rely on the bus because it is VERY far from classes.
I can agree that the housing selection process for freshmen SUCKS. I had a roommate so it was extremely hard for me to find a spot in Beaty. If you are one person, more spots will probably be available. I turned in my housing deposit really early in October and I still had a LOT of trouble getting Beaty. My time was around 10am and I think they started at 8:45am? Maybe earlier? My tip is if you don’t see the dorm you want, keep refreshing the page for hours until it appears. People drop, people add.
@FutureGator55 from what I know the housing contract becomes available on the 19th of February, at what time should I expect it to be out? Does everyone get the housing contract at the same time, because I turned in the deposit I think on the 28th of October? And will I get the housing contract email on my email that I used to create my UF application or the ufl.edu email that they gave me?
You get your time to select a dorm based on when you turn in the housing deposit. October 28th will probably get you a selection time at around 10:15am. Everyone gets the housing contract at the same time if I remember correctly, that is done before you choose your actual dorm. It’s just you won’t choose your dorm until you are assigned your selection time. I’m pretty sure I got the email on my personal address I used with my UF application. I also just checked my email and my building selection was around the end of April. So housing contracts are made first, doesn’t matter what time you make yours since the $25 deposit is what creates the timestamp, then building selection comes either late April or early May.
Also, I was wondering this before I saw how it all worked. You don’t actually get to choose your exact dorm room until you are a student here. Just the dorm type. So it has a list of “Broward - Double Room” or “Beaty Towers - Shared Apt” but you dont get to pick if you want room 603 or 203. You will, however, be able to pick the exact room number you’ll be living in once you sign up for housing for sophomore year. I thought I’d share that since I was wondering myself.