New Freshmen Assignments

Fall Term

For students starting in the fall semester, students must first be admitted to Georgia Southern by the Office of Admissions.  Approximately two (2) days after being admitted to Georgia Southern, students are eligible to apply for housing (once the applications are available).

All Freshmen and Transfer Students with less than 30 credit hours are required to live in on-campus housing.  Students who qualify for, and wish to live off campus, must complete the First Year Live-On Exemption Request process by May 1st or within 2 weeks of being admitted to Georgia Southern (if admitted after April 15th) to be granted an exemption.  Students starting in Summer or Fall semester must live on campus for both Fall and Spring semesters during their first year.  Students starting in the Spring are only required to live on campus for the Spring semester.

End of October

At the end of October, University Housing turns on the housing application for new freshman for the following fall semester.  Students who have been admitted will be emailed information on applying for on-campus housing.  Our system will mail four reminders over a period of time until a student either (1) applies for housing or (2) cancels their application with housing or the University.  After the fourth reminder, no additional emails will be sent.  All emails go to the address on file for the student with the Office of Admissions.

To complete a housing application, a student must complete the online application and pay the $150 non-refundable registration fee.  Once both parts are done, a student is assigned an Application Complete Date (ACD).  This date is used to assign the student to their room during the assignment process and will also determine priority for any room changes until the start of the fall semester.  Once your application complete date is set, it will not change unless you cancel your application.  Any changes to room preferences or roommate preferences DOES NOT change your Application Complete Date!!!

As part of the Housing Application you have three sections that need to be completed:

1. Room Preferences – you have the ability to select up to 5 choices either by building or down to specific room types in a building.  Please select a variety of choices as popular halls may be full when your application complete date group is being assigned.  [the most common mistake is not selecting enough room types].  We do not guarantee that just because you list a preference that you will be assigned there!
2. Roommate Preference – if you have a specific person you want to live with, you will need their Eagle ID number.  If not, leave blank
3. Lifestyle Questions – there are 8 lifestyle questions that the computer uses to try and find a good fit for students.  (This DOES NOT guarantee you will be with someone just like you.  Roommate matching is an inexact process, open and honest communication between roommates is the key to a successful relationship.)

March 1

All students who have a completed application will be assigned by our computer system.  The system uses the following procedures to determine priority:

• Application Complete Date
• Spaces Available
• Room Preference
• Roommate Lifestyle Questions

Due to the limited number of spaces of any particular room style, it is not possible to guarantee that any student will get their first preference.  The computer, once it creates the allocation order (based on Application Complete Dates) assigns each student using their room preferences in order.  [the first student who applied will be assigned first, second person next and so on through all complete applications], so if a student’s 1st room preference is unavailable, the computer will go to their second, third and so on.  If all of the student’s choices are full, the computer will assign them to the most popular room type still available.  This is how students can get assigned to room types that they may not have asked for.

April 1

Those students who completed their application by March 1 will be notified of their housing assignment by April 1.  University Housing will send an email (to the address on file) with instructions on seeing your room assignment, seeing your roommate(s) and their email address as well as instructions on completing the process.

It is very important to complete the housing process by:

1. Signing your housing contract (electronically or printing out a copy and mailing it in) by the Contract Due Date – typically 10-14 days after the email is sent.  This is a binding legal agreement between you and the institution.   PLEASE READ IT CAREFULLY!!!! You need to understand that there are financial and other consequences for cancelling your housing, so you want to review them carefully before you you do anything.

Once the contract is signed, you are done until you move in to your room in August.  You will not receive any additional mailings from the Housing Office regarding your room assignment or contract after you are complete.

Applying after March 1st

Students can still apply for housing after March 1st, but they will not be assigned until after the first group.  Assignments after the March 1st priority date are made on a rolling basis throughout the summer and students will be notified as they are made using the same process above.

Common Roommate Questions

1. Can I put in a preferred roommate?  Yes, you can if you have their Eagle ID.  Both roommates must preference the other person on their application (a mutual request) and both roommates MUST select the same room preferences in the same order to make sure they are assigned together.
   
2. How are roommates assigned?  Roommates are assigned by using the roommate group leader’s application date.
3. Should I wait for my roommate to apply so we have the same date?  No.  Your earlier date can give you and your roommate better chances of a room preference if you can move up even a few spots on the list.  Also, if your roommate changes their mind about applying, you are now left with a later date than you could have had.
4. What if my preferred roommate doesn’t apply by March 1st and I do?  You may not be assigned together.  We will assign all students with a completed housing application of March 1st in the first round.  If your roommate is not ready, then you will probably get assigned to a room with other students.  You can choose to either give up your spot to go with your roommate in the next round that is assigned to spaces still available or request a room change once your roommate is assigned.  Room change requests are not guaranteed.
5. How do you put people together?  The computer assigns students based first on their room preferences and then on the lifestyle questions.  We do not look at any other factors (race, religion, facebook status, hometown, major or other factor) when assigning students.
6. How do you fill spots after the first round of assignments/during room changes?  In order to honor the Application Complete Date, we only consider the room request for room changes – we are not able to select based on lifestyle questions.  If the student with the highest priority requests to move to Eagle Village and there is only one spot, that student gets the spot even if someone lower on the list is a better match according to the lifestyle questions.
7. If a space opens up in my room, can I move someone I know there? Unfortunately no.  We use the Application Complete Date and your friend may be much farther down the list of people asking for a space in your room type.  If your friend is next, then we can do so, but it is VERY unlikely.

Spring Term

Applications for students starting in the Spring semester are able to apply for on-campus housing in October.  Housing assignments are made in December placing students in available spaces in rooms that have vacancies due to students graduating, transferring or not returning to campus for the Spring term.  Spring students can request roommates, but options are very limited and we cannot guarantee any roommate pairings.

When notified of their assignment, Spring students must sign the housing contract (either electronically or on paper).

Summer Term

Summer term freshman must first be admitted to summer classes by the Office of Admissions.  Students admitted for fall are not automatically eligible for summer classes without permission from Admissions.  Students are able to apply for summer on-campus housing in March before their summer term.

Last updated: 12/21/2023