My son has pushed off committing to Texas to the last minute. Now he’s ready to commit for Petroleum engineering this fall but has not received a housing contract. We unfortunately waited to put the $50 deposit down until after he was accepted and we toured at the beginning of March. We are from Western NY and I am uncomfortable committing to a school across the country without knowing where he will be living. What off campus (but very near to campus/ short walk) apartments would you recommend looking at? I heard most freshman stay west campus but I’m not sure how far of a walk that is to the engineering buildings as he won’t have a car. I want him somewhere where he can have a good first year experience and make friends with other freshmen. Thanks for any advice.
I went to UT in the late 90s and will have a freshman there in the fall. I would recommend West Campus. There are private dorms with meal plans as well as tranditional apartments. A North Campus apartment would be closer to engineering but will be more upperclassman than freshmen. If your son will be taking some gen ed classes (psychology, econ, language) he will be all over campus for his classes anyway. Everyone is used to the walk from West Campus to class - even with a kinesiology class at DKR (the furthest he could be from west campus) his walk won’t be more than 20 minutes and there is always the shuttle if the weather is not great. Good luck and Hook 'Em!
Thank you for your reply. We are looking at the Castilian as it is close to campus, has dining plan and definitely a dorm feel. Not ideal, but need to lock in on something soon.
Thanks again.
What did the housing office say? At some of these schools you put the deposit down before you commit because housing is so hard to find off-campus; you don’t want to be stuck without housing.
Yes, we learned we should have committed to housing months ago. Castilian does have rooms available although limited. Problem is if we lock into contract and then find out we do get a contract for on campus housing, then we have to find someone who wants the Castilian space.
On campus housing said we may still get a housing contract/ but maybe not until June or this summer and they can’t promise anything do we may want to look at other options….
Our deposit was late Feb. and they are currently issuing contracts from Early February
What did you end up going with?