Do I need to accept admission in order to apply for housing? Should I apply for housing rn or should I wait for my other decisions?
Apply for housing to get in the queue, but wait to accept admission until you know your options and are sure.
@swimgirl2028 , Congratulations on your acceptance as an OOS ECE major! Eek, you probably didnāt realize that you could have applied for housing as soon as you submitted your application. They go by a timestamp for the priority queue to select your dorm/room. I would go ahead and pay the $50 for housing even if you arenāt 100% sure you are coming to UT. What state are you from? Being out of state, it might be a whole lot easier to just stay on campus than try to figure out off campus housing from a distance. Apparently, this year with covid, a lot of kids stayed home to do school and kids are one person to a double dorm room bc the demand is that low. So, even though you are applying for housing ālateā, it might not matter too much (ie, you will still be able to get a decent dorm room during your selection time).
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Thank you so much! Also, do we choose our roommates or are they chosen for us by UT?
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@swimgirl2028 You can chose your roommate if you want to. Apparently (this is my first kid to go to UT so Iām a newbie too), there is a roommate finder option like most schools have. You can put in your characteristics and blurb about yourself and also search through other peopleās ābiosā. There is also a Facebook group for the students to try to find a roommate too. Who knows, you might be able to connect with somebody from college confidential?
There are many off campus dorm options as well so donāt fret about the $50. A lot of people also didnāt get in that put down those deposits so you may not be so far in the back of the line anyway. If you have not had a chance to visit, just so youāre aware, the private dorms are right across the street from campus or in some cases like Dobie, essentially on campus. Itās not like some schools where a private dorm is in timbuktu.
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Thanks so much! will be looking into this as well (we live in Austin so hate paying for dorm -but will do it!)
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Some of the private dorms are also a but less expensive.
Does anyone know how the timeline works for signing up with a roommate for on campus housing? The portal just says something like contracts will be offered starting March 1 and after your contract is signed, you can indicate dorm and roommate preferences. That is a little vague for me. I thought I read somewhere that you donāt actually sign up for your actual dorm room/roommate until April or Mayish but I could be remembering things wrong. Should we be figuring out a roommate by March 1st if we want to sign a contract as soon as its available?
A lot of people find their roommates first but if I recall with UT housing itās like a lottery so if youāre #1 and you pick jester but your roommate is #100 they may not necessarily get it. I may be wrong but I vaguely recall someone once saying that their student was stuck with someone in a room because the person took the other spot before the roommate could but I could also be mixing that up!
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You donāt need to have a roommate by March 1. If you sign the contract and find a roommate later, you need to be connected to them in the housing portal. When room selection rolls around, the roommate with the earlier housing application time stamp (Roomate 1) will get the appointment to choose the building and the room. Then Roomate 1 will pull Roomate 2 into the room (they are operating as a pair in the system). Roomate 1 will only be able to select a room that has 2 spots vacant. In advance of the selection appointment, both RM 1 and 2 can look at the dorms and floor plans etc and figure out a list of their dorm, floor and room preferences so RM 1 is ready to select.
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if you are #1 on the list and you are connected to your roommate in the housing portal, they will get Jester too if that is what the #1 roommate chooses.
Also, the dorm preferences you put in at time of contract signing are not binding. If you put in any of the honors dorms they will offer you a special appointment to select within the quad. Between the time you sign the contract and when you have your selection appointment, you can log back in and change preferences, add/drop honors dorm request, add/drop roommates etc.
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@DTXMom Thank you so much! That helps a lot!
Thatās good, I just remembered the situation was a triple where 1 girl wanted the room and wouldnāt switch out. Maybe she had gotten it first with a lower number or something like that, but it was 2 friends and the 1 non friend. Not sure what the final result was, but good they link them together because not all schools do, which is ridiculous.
Iām having my doubts that my son will get into engineering honors and thus, the honors quad for living (his first choice). So, Iām thinking about alternatives, and well, Iām waiting on an oil change, so why not post a question? lol I have looked through archived posts but curious about fresh thoughts, especially with covid.
Is it conceivable to find an off campus apartment really close to campus that is a good place for non Greek studious freshman? Iām thinking he really needs a meal plan or otherwise he will just eat snacks all day instead of meals. Haha So, I was wondering about a commuter meal plan and an apartment within decent walking distance (he wonāt have a car). I wasnāt impressed with the reviews on Dobie and Castilian so if anybody has rave reviews, let me know.
Based on my daughterās experience, there are so many apartments that would fit this bill in College Station but I just donāt know if UT has them with land being at a premium downtown.
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Regarding housing, does the university take into consideration that a 17 year old cannot rent an apartment? We put down the housing deposit in December, but kind of worried about this part.
Not all students that live in Callaway are in greek life. I know a couple of students in EE who lived there this year werenāt interested in greek. I talked to another student who was business honors her freshman year and said many people on her floor were also in it and studied together. The nice thing about Callaway is that you can sign up for a private room, itās called a 4x4 on their website.
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@100lbdog , oh, I forgot about Callaway. I will look into that one. Thanks for sharing!
Edited: I looked at the reviews and they arenāt too good either. sigh
I know reviews can be very iffy just depending on who is the loudest but ā¦ Are there really that many drunk kids and vomit/beer cans in the elevators at all these places? My son has led a very sheltered life. He would be totally grossed out and a fish out of water. I know it is college and he is getting ready to be culture shocked but still ā¦
I could be wrong, but I am pretty sure any lease (even for students 18 and up) are in the parentās names.
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