Room Selection Priority | Fall Selection Processes | Unassigned Students | Change Opportunities | Resources

Every student planning to live on campus must complete the following steps on SPIRE under Housing>Room Selection:

1. Sign the latest version of the Residence Hall Occupancy License
2. Resubmit the Housing Profile
3. Request an appointment* on the Room Selection Home page
4. Select an available space when their appointment begins

*Students who apply for and are accepted into an application based community will be given an appointment. All other students must request their own appointment. If you miss the appointment request deadline, you will not be eligible for that process and may not receive housing for fall. Students who miss the deadline can find the next process to participate in under 'Unassigned Students' below.  

Students can only select an assignment as part of one process. Once a student has selected an assignment for fall, they will not be eligible to use another process until the Summer Process.  Students who select an assignment are subject to the Cancellation Fee Schedule.

Students who are projected to graduate before fall 2023 are not eligible for Fall Selection processes. If you are currently projected to graduate, but believe you will be an active student in the fall, please update your graduation term in SPIRE before the application or appointment request deadline of the process you intend to use.  

Residential Life is required to offer selection opportunities to all current on-campus and new undergraduate students before spaces can be offered to other students. Based on this, Residential Life is not able to offer housing options to unassigned or readmitted students until all current on-campus and new student demand has been met. These students are encouraged to review the 'Students without a housing assignment' section below.

Fall 2023-Spring 2024 rates are typically finalized by the Board of Trustees in July. We currently expect housing fees for on campus housing to increase by 3-5% for the upcoming academic year. Students can find Fall 2022-Spring 2023 rates here.

Change Options for Students With Fall Assignments

The processes outlined below are intended to allow students who secured an assignment for fall 2023 to change their housing assignment. Students can either complete a swap, roommate pull-in, or participate in the Fall Change Online Room Selection Process

Summer Swap
April 18 - May 30

Students can use the Summer Swap Process to exchange like assignments (ex. shared room to share room, single to a single within the same hall, apartment to apartment). Students can complete the form in SPIRE under Housing>Room Assignment Changes>Room Swap from April 18 - May 30.  When a student initiates a swap request, the person they intend to swap with will receive an email.  Once both students have approved the swap in SPIRE, the assignment is automatically updated.

Roommate Pull-In
April 18 - May 30
Roommate Pull-In Form

Students who have a confirmed vacancy in their room are able to pull another student with a fall 2023 assignment into their room. In order to be pulled in, the student must be eligible for the space. For example, a student who is not a member of CHC in good standing is not able to be pulled into a space in CHCRC. Students who wish to complete a pull-in can complete the Google form that will be linked above from April 18 - May 30. All matched pull-in requests received by May 30 will be updated by no later than June 1.

Students should ensure that they are only logged in to their UMass Google account. Students who are logged in to a personal Google account will receive an error message that they are not able to access the form.

Fall 2023 Change Process
Appointment Request: April 10 - May 30 
Appointments Post: June 1 by 3pm
Room Selection: June 2 – June 30 at 4pm 

Students who wish to search for other available spaces can request an appointment for the Summer Change Process. Please note that spaces in this process will primarily come from other students requesting a cancelation of their assignment.  Students who request an appointment for this process and do not select a new space will remain in their current fall 2023 housing assignment.

Fall 2023 Housing Changes

New Defined Residential Community!
-Starting in Fall 2023, the Disability Defined Residential Community will be available! This community will be located in Brett Hall and is open to all students who identify as Disabled and their allies.

Break Housing Residence Hall Changes
-Grayson hall in Orchard Hill will become a Break Housing option for Fall 2023. Students who select into this hall will be subject to the Break Housing Fee and will be able to remain in their space over Thanksgiving, Spring and Winter Breaks.

-Brett Hall will transition to a hybrid break housing option.  Students who select into this hall will have the option to remain over break if they agree to pay the break housing fee. Students who do not request to stay over the breaks will be expected to vacate over break periods.

Increased Gender Inclusive Options
-The ground, first and second floors of Baker Hall, located in Central, will be Gender Inclusive Housing options for fall 2023. This expansion will include the Spectrum Defined Residential Community as well.

-Four suites in Cashin Hall, located in Sylvan will be available for students seeking gender inclusive options as well.

Priority for Fall 2023 Room Selection

Students will be eligible for different processes based on their academic standing. Students projected to be a freshman or a sophomore for fall 2023 and students who were admitted as a freshman during the fall 2022-spring 2023 academic year will receive priority consideration for shared spaces in traditional halls during the fall 2023 room selection process. Students projected to be a junior or senior for fall 2023 will receive priority consideration for singles and apartments during the fall 2023 room selection process.

Residential Life uses a priority system to determine appointment times for Online Room Selection processes. Students who have lived on campus longer will receive earlier appointments for any processes that they are eligible for.  Residential Life also uses a random number, called Priority Order, to determine appointment order for students with the same number of semesters completed. Students can find a more detailed explanation with examples on the Room Selection Priority Website.

Fall Room Selection Processes

Application Based Processes

Defined Residential Communities
Application due by Friday, March 3
Accepted Students will be notified Monday, March 20th by 5:00pm
Appointments Post: Tuesday, March 21 by 3:00pm
Room Selection: Wednesday, March 22 - Thursday, March 23 at 4:00pm.

Students can find the application for all communities on the Defined Residential Communities website. The following communities are accepting applications for the upcoming academic year:

-Asian/Asian American Student Community
-Disability Defined Residential Community
-El Bario: Latinx Student Community
-Harambee: African/African-American Heritage Community
-Spectrum: LGBTQIA+ Student Community

All spaces in these communities are single, double, triple or economy triple residence hall rooms. Any unselected spaces in these communities will be available in the Fall 2023 Room Selection process. 

Students who choose not to select an assignment using their DRC appointment must request an appointment for Fall 2023 Online Room Selection if they wish to live on campus.

Appointment Request Processes

Fall 2023 Room Selection Process
Appointment Request: February 23 – March 23, 2023 at 11:59PM 
Appointments Post: March 28, 2023 by 3:00PM
Room Selection: March 29 – April 7, 2023 at 4:00 PM

Students who request an appointment for this process may receive several appointments, detailed below. 

Commonwealth Honors College Residential Community
This process is available to all members of the Commonwealth Honors College in good standing and who request a Fall 2023 Room Selection appointment. Eligible students will receive an appointment which will include all available CHCRC spaces based on their class year. The following types of spaces will be available in this process:

• Projected Sophomores will see single and double occupancy rooms in CHCRC suites. This process will be called the CHCRC Soph Selection Process.
• Projected Juniors and Seniors will see single and double occupancy rooms in CHCRC apartments and the 4th and 5th floors of North D (CHCRC Break Housing Option).  This process will be called the CHCRC Jr/Sr Selection Process.

Please Note: Historically, more students are eligible for this process than there are spaces in the community. Also, the University traditionally welcomes a new cohort of incoming CHC transfer students as well.  Based on this, students who are not in good standing, or who are not members of CHC are not eligible to receive an appointment.  Also, unselected CHCRC spaces will not be available in other Fall Room Selection process or any summer change processes. The next opportunity to secure spaces in CHCRC will be during fall in-semester change processes.

Fr/So Room Selection Process
The following students will receive an appointment for this process:

• Students living on campus for spring 2023 or returning from a Study Abroad program and who are projected to be either a Freshman or Sophomore for Fall 2023.
• Students living on campus for spring 2023 who were admitted as a freshman for fall 2022 or spring 2023.

This process will include enough spaces for all students with an appointment to select as long as they participate at the start of their appointment time. Spaces will include shared rooms, economy triples, expanded housing and a limited number of single and double occupancy rooms located in Sylvan.  After all students in this process have had an opportunity to select a space, any remaining spaces will be added to the Jr/Sr Room Selection process. Based on this, all students who intend to live on campus for fall 2023 are strongly encouraged to select an assignment at the beginning of their appointment time.  Students with a Fr/So Room Selection appointment will also receive an appointment for the Jr/Sr Room Selection process at this time as well.

Please note: Students with a private room accommodation from Disability Services will also receive an appointment at the start of the Jr/Sr Room Selection Process in order to search for options that best meet their needs.

Jr/Sr Room Selection Process
The following students will receive an appointment for this process:

• Students living on campus for spring 2023 or returning from a Study Abroad program and who are projected to be either a Junior or Senior for Fall 2023.

This process will include North Apartment spaces, single rooms and any shared rooms not used for the Fr/So Room Selection process. After all students in the Fr/So Selection process have had an opportunity to select a space, any remaining spaces from that process will be added to the Jr/Sr Room Selection process.  Students with a Fr/So Room Selection appointment will also receive an appointment for the Jr/Sr Room Selection process at this time as well.

Please note: We are unable to guarantee that all students with an appointment for this process will be able to select an assignment. Students are strongly encouraged to attempt to select a space at the beginning of their appointment time.

Processes for Unassigned Students and Students Who Miss Initial Deadlines

Students who do not hold a fall 2023 housing assignment by April 7 at 4:00pm can use the following processes to attempt to secure a housing assignment. Please note that we are only able to guarantee an assignment for freshmen.  

Freshmen and Sophomores who participated in Fall Online Room Selection

Freshmen and sophomores who participated in online room selection, but did not secure a space, can request an appointment for the Fall Change Process. The majority of spaces in this process will come from students canceling the assignment that they selected during Fall 2023 Room Selection.  This process is primarily intended to allow students who hold an assignment to make changes.  Appointments for freshmen and sophomores without an assignment will begin after all students with an assignment have had an opportunity to change.

Fall 2023 Change Process
Appointment Request: April 10 - May 30
Appointments Post: June 1 by 3pm
Room Selection: June 2 – June 30 at 4pm 

All Other Students Without An Assignment

Before working with unassigned students, Residential Life is required to assign all new first-year and transfer students because they are guaranteed on-campus housing. After new student assignments are complete, any remaining on-campus spaces will be offered to unassigned students as part of the Unassigned Fall Room Selection Process. Since this process will take place after new students are assigned, we are projecting limited availability and are only able to guarantee on-campus housing to freshmen, who are required to live on campus.

Unassigned Fall Room Selection
Appointment Request: July 1 – August 4, 2023 
Appointments Post: August 8 by 3pm
Room Selection: August 9 – August 18 at 4pm 

Room Selection Resources

Fall 2023 Room Selection FAQ
Find answers to common questions about Fall Room Selection.

Video Tutorials
View the step-by-step instructions for each part of the room selection process. 

Floor Plans
View room dimensions and bathroom locations for every residence hall by selecting a residential area. 

Gender-Inclusive Housing
View options for gender-inclusive housing and a list of gender-inclusive bathrooms in residence halls. Also, Residential Life is required to assign students based on the gender marker listed in SPIRE. Students can change their gender marker for assignment purposes and the name that appears on campus records by completing the form located here. To ensure that students see the appropriate spaces in Fall 2023 Online Room Selection, we encourage anyone planning to submit this form to do so as soon as possible.