UT Honors Dorms - Your thoughts.....

Colleges and Universities A-Z The University of Texas at Austin
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My son is seriously considering one of the UT Honors dorms. Andrews, Blanton and Carothers are CO-ED, Littlefield is female only (and freshman only I believe as well). During the summer visit he wanted Jester, but getting into LAH affords him the opportunity of choosing an honors dorm in the quad. I really like this idea as they are smaller dorms and potentially has a more academically focused environment. I’m not naive to think there isn’t chaos and great distractions in every dorm, but it’s such a HUGE university, my hope is that this will help make it a little more personal and affable atmosphere. This thread isn’t meant to be snobby in anyway to the other dorms. I was very excited about Jester to begin with. Great location to the gym, stadium and food courts etc.

What I’m looking for here in this thread is, what are your thoughts about the Honors Dorms, what do you know of them, and does anyone have insight between each of them ie can you rate the 3, for males, or the 4 of them for the females and why?

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My son lived in the Honors Quad his freshman year. At that time when you submitted your housing preferences, you could only specify “Honors” but not a particular residence hall. I guess that’s changed now and you can rank your residence halls? My LH was assigned a room in Carothers. It’s very old but there were renovations the summer of 2013 that included new bathrooms and carpeting in the hallways. The closets are small but there is a sink in each room. The community bathrooms are cleaned twice a day so they’re always sparkling clean!

My son didn’t love Carothers but he also had a difficult roommate situation and I’m sure that affected his opinion of the Honors Quad. He became close friends with the two students living next door, and they’re now sharing an apartment together for the second year, with plans to live together again next year.

The outdoor Quad itself is lovely and provides a great place for residents to hang out, study, eat lunch, whatever. Based on what I hear from other Texas parents, it seems that Blanton is the most popular hall in the Honors Quad. I’m not sure why.

The Honors Quad is close to the north end of campus and Kinsolving Dining. Kinsolving has an unlimited buffet dining option that helps stretch your Longhorn’s Dine-In Dollars.

Last year when my daughter was deciding where she wanted to live for her freshman year, we found students to give us personal tours of Blanton (Honors), Moore-Hill (next to Gregory) and SRD (Scottish Rite Dormitory, an all-female private dormitory). We walked through Blanton to Andrews to Carothers and you can see they’re all a little different. Our Moore-Hill tour guide was a former resident of Blanton who became an RA in Moore-Hill. She wisely said that the Honors Quad is full of all different types of people and you have to “find your people.” Based on my son’s experience, I can say that quote is very true…and probably applies anywhere you choose to live!

My daughter decided to live at SRD. She absolutely loves it, but feels disconnected from her LAH friends. She often stops by the Honors Quad to study and hang out with the other Honors students.

I’m sure you’ve seen this page but I’m posting the link here to help others. At the bottom of the page is a chart titled “Residence Halls at a Glance.” The chart lists the number of residents in each hall, if the rooms have movable furniture and sinks, etc. It’s a handy guide as you compare residence halls.

http://www.utexas.edu/student/housing/?site=1&scode=4&id=140

Feel free to PM me if you have any specific questions that I can answer. Good luck and Hook 'em Horns! \m/

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@TXDad56 -
I may be wrong, but I have been told that you can not select which one of the specific honors dorm you want- you are only allowed to choose ‘Honors Dorms’ and then you are assigned (randomly, maybe) between A-B-C for male/female + L for females.

There are also varied opinions on the bathroom situation when comparing Jester to the Honors Dorms:
Chance of having 1 in your room/suite vs. Shared down the hall but, NOT having to clean it…

Hope others with more knowledge chime in too!

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I didn’t know you couldn’t choose between A-B-C. Interesting. My son was good with the community bathroom at Jester, so this wouldn’t be a problem with the Honors dorms. I don’t think he wanted any part of cleaning a bathroom/toilet. He’s also very cognizant of cost and knew that the Jester rooms with community bath were cheaper. From what I can tell the Honors dorms are the cheapest on campus.

I’ve heard that Blanton has recently (2014/15?) gone thru a makeover, but still are the only one of the four that don’t have a sink in the room and may even be the smallest rooms of the 4 dorms.

Do any of them have any type of gym equipment ie treadmills, bikes, etc?

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This link takes you to a page with information about all the residence halls on campus. Look for the “Residence Halls at a Glance” table at the bottom of the page. Choose a residence hall to get to a page about each hall. Then choose “VR Tour” and “View Floor Plan” to find the room dimensions.

http://www.utexas.edu/student/housing/?site=1&scode=4&id=140

My son didn’t want anything to do with cleaning a bathroom/toilet either. Community bathrooms were perfect for him. And he knew that Duren/San Jac/rooms with private baths were not in our family budget.

I think Blanton’s makeover was in summer 2014. You are correct about no vanity in Blanton rooms.