The on campus options have gone up around $3K for the school year from the time my older son lived in Jester West community bath in 2016-2017, compared to the cost we will pay for my younger son for 2020-2021. My younger son is leaning towards Jester Connecting bath if he goes to UT Austin. Most likely the biggest factor in the price increase is the meal plan that comes with the housing contract. For my first son, the housing contract came with meal money that should have averaged out to about 7 meals a week. I wasn’t sure if my son would end up running out of dining money before the first semester ended but he actually had about $300 at the end of the year that he was able to use in the fall semester of 2017 even though he was living off campus. For 2019-2020, the housing contracts switched to an unlimited meal plan. This may be preferred if you have a student that is a big eater but I prefer the old plan. I was a student at UT Austin decades ago and lived at Jester West for 2 years and at that time I think we could chose 10, 15 or 20 meals a week plans. My older sister lived at the private dorm Dobie for one year before moving to 2 years of on campus dorm since she didn’t get an on campus dorm her first year. At that time, the main co-ed private dorms were Dobie, Castilian and the now demolished University Towers. At that time, the private dorms were known to be nicer and more expensive than on campus housing. I was surprised when pricing dorms in 2016 for my older son, that Dobie and Castilian were about the same price as on campus options and you got more for your money - pretty much all you can eat food plus a connecting bathroom and some housekeeping services. I toured Dobie but my son wanted on campus housing. I guess the convenience factor was worth it to him? Seems that old reviews mention plumbing, heating and cooling problems with Dobie and Castilian. Both have recently gone through extensive renovations and look very nice. However, it seems that some people still have safety and cleanliness complaints and even though the buildings “look good” the “bones” are old and there are issues. This conversation does not include the much newer Callaway House . There don’t seem to be complaints about it but it is more expensive than on campus housing.
We just signed the lease for our son to live at Dobie. I couldn’t justify the price difference with Jester (which was the campus choice). And honestly, Jester is an old building too and the reviews had just as many and some similar complaints, soooo.
Also, the distance to the buildings he will have most classes in will be almost the same and the food options are great. They have “to go” that you can pre-order and well as the option to get a sandwich to grab to take with you for lunch. Plus you can always add dining dollars or bevo bucks to your own accounts to use if you want that option as well.
It’s also an immediate guarantee instead of having to wait until June to find out what dorm option you get!!!
I see the cheapest option for Dobie as an $860 payment. Is that $860 x 10 = $8,600? And this includes a meal plan? If so, that is so much less than the on campus options.
@Boogie818 and @parentof3kids Thank you!! That helps! And yes, that is $8600 including a meal plan at Dobie, which is significantly cheaper. We are touring Dobie, Castilian and Kinsolving (on campus) next week.
@parentof3kids YES!!! That is correct. We chose the $975 option with the two bedrooms and living room so he could meet more guys and have more space to move around in.
My son did a few weeks ago.
So I pointed out to my son that Dobie was a MUCH cheaper option and his reply was that it is so far away. I said it isn’t really - he’s a business major! I know since I was a business major and lived a few blocks West of Dobie on 21st St after moving out of Jester.
Same here. Check your required swction. I have one new line item to submit my final grade report
My son was accepted into the Engineering Honors Program this morning for Biomedical. Very excited for him! Any other EHP admits?
Accepted EHP this morning for EE!
Son was denied honors for Engineering 
But I am not terribly surprised. He was not an Auto Admit to the school and I figured with so many that were, and only a limited number of honors spots available, he wasn’t too likely to get it.
Accepted to EHP for Architectural Engineering, hooray! Congrats to the others who got in!
Also, this stipulates that we live in the honors dorm, correct?
Congrats on EHP! There is no requirement to live in an honors dorm as part of the program, although they are close to the engineering buildings. My non-engineering, now Sophomore, son lived in Carothers his freshman year and didn’t like it, but obviously it’s personal preference.
@hurricane314 You don’t have to live in honors dorms for honors programs. In fact, there isn’t enough space for all the honors students. I think A&M requires you live in the honors dorms to be part of their university wide honors programs.
OOS daughter was just accepted to EHP for Electrical Engineering - VERY excited! Does anyone know 1) when notifications for any related scholarships come out, and how they come? 2) how hard it is to get into the honors dorm (she’s VERY interested in living there but just now completed the housing application)? Thanks!
1)I believe notifications of related scholarships come in the mail with your EHP letter of offer, and I’ve read this is anywhere from 3 days-a week after the online notification.
2)The honors quad isn’t particularly hard to get into. The difficulty comes in choosing your individual dorm and room. I am just going on our experience 2 years ago. Certain floors and dorms (Carothers and Andrews in 2018) filled up within minutes when the honors housing became available. If I remember correctly, this was a couple of weeks before general housing was available for selection.
Accepted into EHP for aerospace.
can someone that was NON Auto admit that might have been accepted to EHP please share their stats…I am just curious.
Just want to let you know that the visiting days for admitted students are available for sign up now.