Yes - so glad there is someone here to give 1st hand prespectives!
There are TONS of off-campus housing choices in the unique area next to UT called West Campus. Almost as large in area as campus itself, home to all the greek houses, coops, private dorms: Callaway, Castillian, Hardin House (girls only), Scottish Rite (girls only…usually people get on that waitlist years in advance for this one). And there have been quite a few high density “luxury” (some of the stories make you wonder about that term wrt maintenance and issues) high-rises built in the past few years to relieve the pressure: Unions (SA and 26th), Torre, Rise, Ion, Icon, Moontower, the Mark, the Standard to name a few.
The natural progression of students there is to typically live in a dorm on-campus or off-campus (private) then for sophomore year and beyond sign with an apartment in West Campus with lots of roommates. And some of these WC apts might be closer in distance to your class then some of the on-campus dorms…literally a few blocks.
UT’s newest dorm at the old Whitis Place will open in Fall 2027 and the athlete-only dorms being bid on now along with the Mini-Moody Complex for volleyball will help a few years from now.
When/if you decide to apply housing, assuming application to UT goes well , is totally a matter of priorities but how they do it is not uncommon.
My oldest son is a Junior and live in Callaway, which he loved. My youngest Longhorn will be doing the same. The vast majority of students in Callaway are freshmen and interested in greek life.
Thanks. It absolutely shocks me UT is asking for money from people who aren’t admitted. We aren’t giving UT a $100 because they admit more students than they can handle and then extort from kids who have dreams. It’s really a disgusting practice. Additionally, there are other schools my daughter is more interested in and have the same out of state decision date.
However, thank you for the inside scoop. Glad to know your experience given she will be making a decision well after most UT kids. I don’t know how one accepts admission to a school without having a place to live included in that admission but it seems many schools are poorly run and taking advantage of the students in a similar manner.
I’m simply telling you that there are good options for freshmen outside of university housing. Another option is Castilian. Both Callaway and Castilian provide meals too, just like a dorm.
It shocks me that you’re shocked. There are lots of schools…mostly large state schools…that don’t guarantee housing. But don’t worry, there are plenty of places for UT kids to live.
FWIW, I know dozens of kids at UT and none live in a dorm. Most that I know never wanted to do so. In my area freshmen boys want to live in Callaway. It is so much nicer than a dorm, but crazy expensive. Freshmen Girls want to live in Hardin House or SRD. Some have been on waitlists since birth (especially Hardin House) but truthfully they don’t hold a space for you so it’s very possible to get in to one of those places even if you are not on the waitlist. But you have to put deposits down for these places too and they do fill up quickly. So if you are a late-decider, you’ll like find something else but there are tons of housing options, actually.
I know. For some reason people have accepted the fact that it’s okay for schools to be poorly run. Of course, it’s mostly the public schools. Reading Princeton Review they have a ranking for “best run schools.” I never knew what that meant but I do now.
I mean I do agree with the premise that UT is poorly run to some extent but I don’t think that that’s especially true of the dorms.
Austin is a major city and UT is a very compact campus for its size; it makes sense that they’re going to have limited housing capacity for a university with 50k students. Most of the things I’d consider poorly run about UT concern the administration, who have fired deans and administrators who don’t conform to the governor’s ideological leanings. Or, last year, they didn’t release almost all admissions decisions until a month after the decision date, which was a strange thing to do.
As far as I know, it’s pretty normal for schools to ask for a housing deposit like that. In-state students usually have a good idea if they’ll be accepted or not based on past admissions data and auto admit, and since they do have limited stock of housing, some are going to want to guarantee the specific dorm they want or whatever. I’ve never met anyone who was concerned about getting you know room 1603 in Jester or something specific. But I do still think you’re very likely to get on-campus housing even if you wait to put the deposit down until you’re admitted, and if you don’t get it, housing is not in short supply. I do agree that it’s probably not helpful to ask for $100, but they do already charge an application fee of a similar amount; I suspect it’s not a substantive income stream for the university and it’s more to encourage prospective students to decide earlier if they want to live on- or off-campus.
Last cycle UT released EA decisions on 1/15/25, on the date EA decisions were set to release by. The decisions were either “accepted” or “deferred,” and they made about 5000 offers that night on the 92000 apps in the pile (EA and RD), so they deferred the majority to RD. They released RD decisions a few days in advance (2/7/25) of that advertised decision date of 2/15/25.
Deferring so many left lots of people ticked off. It was their first EA cycle, so everyone thought they would receive a real decision on January 15, not a deferral. Many took this to mean they must be behind and have not read the all the EA apps. But this was imho not the case and mass deferral was to be expected. Many large universities defer EA/ED in equally large numbers. USC (both the CA and SC versions), Michigan, Duke, UNC-Chapel Hill - all defer in large numbers, 80%+. UT did make the administrative misstep of including some RDs in that 1/15/25 release. That was not a good idea/look even if say they were for smaller majors who had completed reviews of all apps both RD and EA at that time. And they had some poor wording about the new process which they have cleared up. I predict 2 things for EA this cycle: 1. EA decisions will come out on 1/15/26, and it will be another day of mass deferrals, and 2. EA decisions will be EA only (no RDs mixed in). 3 weeks left…we will see how well my predictions come to fruition.
I think we all have ideas of what “poorly run” means to us. To some, it means asking for non-refundable money for a product that might never materialize if the applicant is rejected or decides to go elsewhere. Others do not like the footing conservative voices are finally finding in Texas colleges in Texas, a conservative state. That’s fine. Everyone has an opinion.
I personally find neither of these things objectionable. My complaints as a parent are more directed at the perpetually understaffed financial aid department (been that way for decades), which processes funds late or at the last minute, the multitude of portals within the UT website one has to deal with to get anything administrative done, and the last-minute changes in degree plans lately that advisors are not yet knowledgeable about.
UT Housing, however, has been amazing. Super responsive, efficient in all the processes I have seen, including crazy mooove-in of 10000+ students, and very responsive to the ADA needs of students. As an alumna who didn’t have the opportunity to live in a dorm on campus at UT (because housing was just as limited three decades ago), I have been pleasantly surprised by UT Housing so much so that we opted to apply (August 1 of course) for a UT-owned apartment in West Campus for my LH’s sophomore year.
Ha! I don’t think “timing of housing deposit” is one of the factors that Princeton Review rates. And I’m fine with “First-come-first-serve” as a way to prioritize freshman dorm assignments. I don’t understand why you feel that makes the university housing) poorly-run? I guess a lottery would be an alternative, and that’s fine too. I’m not sure what other options there are for determining which 6,000 or so of the approximately 10,0000 freshmen get to live in the dorms. If my kid gets in, and if she decides to go there, I know she’s hoping to live in a dorm because she wants that “dorm experience” but there are so many private dorms that offer a community experience as well…some of them with a much more luxurious feel than Jester Center.
Glad to know it’s not as difficult as some make it out to be. I don’t think a school should admit more students than it has beds for but we are in the age of greed not education anymore.
There is not one school that asks for non refundable money from unadmitted students. UT is alone in that one.
We visited 25 schools in the last couple years and not a single one asked for money from kids they had no intention of admitting. Not having enough space for all the kids you plan on admitting is a clown show and exactly what Princeton Review is referencing.
We visited the number one school on their list of “well run universities” and it was amazing. Unfortunately, they have 20 years to go before they are considered in the upper echelon of desired academic schools to attend.
No offense. But if you think UT is a “clown show”, then dont apply. UT had 100,000 applications. Im pretty sure 100,000 applications would qualify as “upper echelon” of desired academic schools.
I had 2 kids go through this process. They would never attend a University that they didnt believe would be their best fit.
Based on your comments, UT is clearly not the school for your family.
I think you should cross UT off your list. It sounds like it would be the wrong school for you and/or your child. Plenty of other great schools out there for you to consider.
I know my daughter has a dorm room at ND without even asking. All the admitted kids do. There are some schools run well and there are some that take advantage of the students. I know people on here love UT and it is a fine school but that doesn’t excuse what they are doing and a lot of other schools too. Mostly the public ones.
If I were anticipating shelling out $90k for Notre Dame I would be saving every penny too. I think it is just the wording us UT-lovers find objectionable. I dont think charging a fee that the current market sustains well (it was actually only $50 last year and now they hit another new record high in undergrad apps at just under 100k this cycle), is “poor business practice.” It is just a different business model given their size/popularity/geography/history/funding mechanisms of public vs private. Not common but not the only one to operate this way either.
But hopefully all this discussion inspires everyone ask the same questions and evaluate all the other unis on their list for similar issues. It is always better to make informed decisions early than be the one left in the dark and scrambling at the last minute for housing/parking/courses/honors programs/merit money etc.
Dont get me started on the Big Ticket and Longhorn Foundation memberships. Getting the guaranteed fastpass to football games sold out for students in like 20 minutes. Yeah, fun times ahead! Popular things at UT sell out like it is Taylor Swift’s last concert.
Good point. I think UT re-committed to fund free tuition for Texan families making less than $100k again next year (phasing out a lesser amount at $125k I think).
, is totally a matter of priorities but how they do it is not uncommon.