Housing Selection Process

Housing selection for students returning to campus will take place in early April.  Participants will make their housing selections in the order of the number of units they have earned as of the end of the fall semester.  Students with the highest number of units will be allowed to select housing first.  Students will be sent information about room selection in March and throughout the spring semester to their Roanoke email. 

Who participates?

• Students who do not meet the criteria for commuter status and plan to return in the fall;
• Students who are currently studying away and plan to take classes on campus in the fall;
• Students who currently live off campus, but would like to live on campus. These students should contact the Residence Life & Housing office to inform them of their desire to participate in the housing selection process by emailing reslife@roanoke.edu or calling 540-375-2308.

Housing Selection Schedule

Monday, March 11, 2024

Housing portal opens for current students. All room selection processes take place in the housing portal.  You are not able to choose housing until your designated time slot; however here are steps you can take to prepare for that time. 

• You are encouraged to sign on and complete your personal and profile information.
• Read and submit the housing agreement.
• Search for potential roommates, make or join a roommate group so that when your time slot opens, you are ready to choose your room
   

Monday, April 1, 2024

Eligible students will be emailed their selection time slot(s).

Time slots are assigned based on the total number of credits completed by the end of December 2023, with earlier time slots being assigned to students who have completed more credits.
Students participating in Honors Selection Day will receive a time slot for Monday, April 8.  All other students will receive three time slots, one for each process:  Fill an Apartment/Suite, Fill a Room, Fill a Bed.  

Monday, April 8, 2024

Honors Selection Day

Pre-authorized Honors students can select spaces on the first and second floors of Maxey Hall using their selection time slot.  Honors students have been emailed the Honors Housing survey and must complete it by March 1 in order to complete Honors Housing Selection.

Tuesday - Friday, April 9 - 12, 2024

General Housing Selection

Students who have not joined a Living-Living Community, have an assignment as part of a Greek organization, or been released off campus should plan to participate in General Housing Selection.  General housing selection includes processes where students can select an apartment, suite, or room with others in a roommate group or where students can select an individual bedspace in a suite or room.  

Tuesday, April 9: Fill an Apartment/Suite Day, which allows groups of students to select entire apartments or suites. 

Wednesday, April 10: Fill a Room Day, which allows groups of students to select entire room. Singles are available in this process. To find a single room, you cannot be in a roommate group.

Thursday, April 11:  Fill a Bed Day, which allows individual students to select from available bedspaces throughout campus.  

Friday, April 12:  Open selection for any students that did not select during the earlier processes.  

Students can only complete one of the above processes.  Housing assignments cannot be cancelled or changed after selection in the housing portal.  The portal will close for housing selection at 5 pm on Friday, April 12.  

Monday, April 22, 2024

Room Change Request form opens.

If you would like to request a room change you may do so beginning at noon on April 22. Room changes are not guaranteed, and your requests will be followed very specifically.  We will do our best to try to match your request, however very specific requests (e.g. only a single in Maxey Hall) may be difficult to meet.  Residents who would like to live together will need to each submit a request.  Submitting multiple requests will not increase your chances of receiving a room change and will replace the original room change request.

For additional information about housing selection, take a look at our Frequently Asked Questions page.

ROOMMATES/SUITEMATES

You can find roommates for the upcoming year through the housing portal.  If you already know who you want to live with, you both need to mutually agree to live together through the housing portal.  The housing portal will open beginning at 1 pm, March 11 for students to search and select roommates/suitemates.   

There are several ways you can search for people:

• You can search for specific people by selecting Roommate Search by Details from the Roommate Groups page.  You can search for people using their name, so make sure you know the correct spelling.  
• You can search for people based on what they have written in their Lifestyle Preferences profile by selecting Roommate Search by Details from the Roommate Groups page.  Enter a word that you’d like to be in other profiles, and the housing portal will return all students with that word.  You can then read entire profiles and see how similar others’ answers are to yours on the Lifestyle Preferences.
• You can search for people who have similar answers to the Lifestyle Preferences by selecting Roommate Search by Profiles from the Roommate Groups page.  This will bring up roommates who answered similarly to you.  The housing portal can suggest roommates for you based on how you answered the Lifestyle Preferences. 

The housing portal will only display people when they are eligible to be your roommate.  Roommates must be current students of the same sex assigned at birth. Also, if a person is in a roommate group, they will not be displayed in any roommate search.

When you are searching for roommates, you will see a percentage displayed for each potential roommate.  The higher the percentage, the more similar your answers on the Lifestyle Preferences.  Students have reported having successful roommate matches with percentages beginning around 50%. If someone chose to fill out a roommate description, that information will also be shown when you view their profile.  

If you find someone you think could be a good fit for you as a roommate/suitemate, you can send them a message through the housing portal that will be sent to their Roanoke email.  If you have created a roommate group and think you’d be good as roommates, you can request that they join your roommate group.  

I already know who I want to live with.  How do we make sure that we pick a unit together?
One of you will have to create a roommate group within housing portal.  This will make them the group leader.  When someone creates a roommate group, they come up with a group name and password.  There are two ways to have new members join a group:  a) sharing the name and password with them so they can add themselves within the portal or b) request them as a roommate and they accept the request.  People cannot be assigned to the same unit if they are not in the same roommate group.  

What can the leader of a roommate group do?
The leader is the person responsible for creating the group name and password, as well as sharing it with desired roommates/suitemates.  The leader of the roommate group can also:

• Message a potential roommate/suitemate. All messages are sent to a student’s Roanoke email.
• Delete the whole group, which means that the former members will not be able to select a unit together and the group will no longer exist.
• Select a unit on behalf of the whole group--the group leader should do this only if they have the earliest time slot of all the group members.
• The group leader also is sent an email when someone new joins their group.

What can a member of roommate group do?
A member is anyone who has joined a roommate group by entering the group name and password.  A group member can:

• Message any other group members.  All messages are sent to a student’s Roanoke email.
• Delete themselves from the group.
• Select a unit on behalf of the whole group--the group member with the earliest selection of all the members should do the unit selection.

Can only the roommate group leader pick a unit?
No.  Any member of the roommate group can assign a space to everyone in the group.  It is suggested, however, that the group member with the earliest time slot for the Fill an Apartment, Fill a Suite, or Fill a Room process be in charge of completing housing selection for all group members.

You cannot be in more than one roommate group, and you cannot create a new roommate group if you are already in one. You will have to leave your original roommate group in order to join or create a new roommate group.