What is Housing Selection?

Housing Selection is the process by which actively enrolled students select their room and/or roommates for the upcoming academic year. Our system is fully online; you can participate in Housing Selection using your smartphone, tablet, or any computer. View the 2021-2022 Guide to Housing Selection.

Important Dates 

Information Sessions & Resources

• March 3 at Noon- A Guide to Housing Selection Information Session Video
• March 24 at Noon- General Q&A Drop In
• March 31 at Noon- Accepting a Housing Offer Presentation
• April 7 at Noon- General Q&A Drop In
• April 14 at Noon- Forming a Group & Selecting a Room Video
• April 28 at Noon- General Q&A Drop-In
• 2021-2022 Guide to Housing Selection
• How to Find Roommates & Form a Roommate Group Video

Eligibility

• All currently enrolled UMBC students are welcome to apply to participate in housing selection, including current commuter and off-campus students.
• You must meet all priority deadlines in order to participate in housing selection:
  • Interest Application due March 31, 2021
  • Housing Offer due April 15, 2021
• Students with outstanding student account balances greater than $250 can complete a Housing Interest Application, but will not be issued a Housing Offer. You should contact Student Business Services to find out how to clear your account balance. Once you clear your account and then contact the Residential Life Office to request a housing offer.
• Students who are not actively enrolled in classes at the time of Housing Selection will not be eligible for participation, and will receive their Housing Offer in early May.

Housing Selection Steps

(1) Interest Application

The application is the first step for all students interested in living on campus.  There is no commitment when you complete an interest application. The application assists in the housing offer, assignment, and roommate matching process, so students should make sure they complete this application honestly and accurately. Students are encouraged to review special housing options, community styles, and proposed room rates before submitting an application. If you plan to request roommates, you should make sure you are all completing the same application type.

Current students interested in living on campus and participating in housing selection must complete the Residential Life or Walker Avenue Apartment Interest Application at umbc.edu/go/housing between March 1, 2021 and March 31, 2021. 

Students can only submit one application. In most cases, students will only have access to one (1) application type: Residential Life or Walker Avenue Apartments. You may have the option to choose between the Residential Life and Walker Avenue Application if you are an undergraduate student with 39 completed credits. Fifth year residents & graduate students are only eligible to complete a WAA application.

If you complete the wrong application, contact Residential Life or Walker Avenue in writing or by phone before March 31, 2021 in order to be reissued the application(s).

Students who submit their application after the priority deadline may still be considered for housing but will not be eligible to participate in Housing Selection.

(2) Housing Offer Acceptance (License & Reservation Fee)

The second step in the process is referred to as the Housing Offer, which a student would receive electronically in their UMBC email, as early as April 1, 2021. Students who accept their offer by completing the license (contract) and paying the $200 reservation fee are guaranteed housing for the upcoming license term.

Students with outstanding student account balances greater than $250 will not be issued a Housing Offer. You should contact Student Business Services to find out how to clear your account balance. Once you clear your account and then contact the Residential Life Office to request a housing offer.

If you do not respond to the offer by the deadline, you will be removed from the applicant pool.

Housing License Facts

• • The housing license is a contract.
  • Students must complete a housing license in order to be assigned to housing.
  • The term of the license is for the entire academic year, both Fall & Spring semesters.
  • Students that submit a license and change their mind or cancel their assignment will be assessed a cancellation fee.
  • You can only form a roommate group with those students who have completed the same license as yourself (Walker Avenue or Residential Life).

Reservation Fee Facts

• • Students must pay a $200 housing reservation fee in order to be assigned to housing.
  • The housing reservation fee is mandatory.
    • Current Residential Life students with a $200 housing deposit on file, who reapply for 2021-2022 Residential Life housing will not have to pay $200 Reservation Fee this year.
    • Current Residential Life students with a $200 housing deposit on file, who apply for 2021-2022 Walker Avenue housing will have to pay $200 Reservation Fee to Walker Avenue.  Your Residential Life deposit will be refunded at the end of the Spring 2021 housing term.
    • Students with significant financial need are welcome contact Residential Life by April 9, 2021.
  • Payment must be in the form of Credit Card or ACH.
  • The reservation fee money will be applied as a credit toward your first 2021-2022 housing bill.

(3) Roommate Group Formation

This step is optional, as students may apply for housing and select a room as an individual. Only students that accept their housing offer by April 15, 2021 will be permitted to form roommate groups. The sooner you accept your offer, the sooner you will be able to form a group. The deadline to form a roommate group is April 18, 2021.

You may form groups of 1, 2 or 4. You can only form a roommate groups with those students who have completed the same license as yourself (Walker Avenue or Residential Life). Due to the different housing selection cycles, current residents are not able to request incoming freshmen or transfer students as roommates during the Housing Selection process.

Students interested in forming groups, should do so in the housing portal. Check out our How to Find Roommates & Form a Roommate Group Video.

Groups that do not meet size requirements and those with students who did not finalized their housing license will be considered incomplete, and may be split into individual groups of 1. 

Roommate Search Function

The Roommate Module in the housing portal allows you to search profiles of students with the same sex and same approved license type (Walker Avenue or Residential Life) from April 1- April 16. You can filter based on sleep habits, room condition, allergies, and more to find a match. 

You may choose to hide your profile by going to My Account > Matching Profile Visibility to “Hide”.

Gender Inclusive Roommate Group Formation

Due to system limitations, students seeking to form Gender Inclusive Groups have to wait until the profile searching function is disabled (April 17 & April 18) for students to request roommates of different sexes, gender identities, or gender expressions.

(4) Room Selection

Your group’s selection time will be sent to your UMBC email at least two days before the start of the selection period.

Selection times are assigned based on your group’s average completed credits and the selection process in which you are participating, times are not prioritized by group size or class year. If students are part of a roommate group, their group’s average credits will be used to determine the time (ex. Student A has 45 credits and Student B has 15 credits, their Group Average is 30 credits and they will select with other groups/individuals that also have a 30 credit average).

Some students/groups may not receive a selection time if demand for housing is higher than the amount of available spaces. Students who did not receive a selection time but met the other requirements are still guaranteed housing, and will be assigned to housing by the Residential Life Assignments team over the summer. Typically, groups with lower individual or group credit averages may not be issued a selection time.

The group leader must log into the housing portal during the assigned selection time to pick a room from the available inventory. Students have until the conclusion of the selection period to log-in a pick a room. After selection closes, students/groups that did not select will be assigned by Residential Life during the summer.

Please keep in mind that some buildings or communities may not be available for you to select, as they may be dedicated for first-year students and/or Quarantine & Isolation housing. Students will not be able to select Chesapeake and select apartment buildings during Housing Selection as they will be reserved for this purpose.

UPDATE (Mar. 29, 2021) Residential Life bedrooms will return to standard capacity for the 2021-2022 academic year. Residential Life plans to convert a limited number of double occupancy bedrooms (Potomac Hall’s South Wing) to single occupancy bedrooms, at an increased room rate. This will allow students to have their own room and share a bathroom with no more than 1 other person. As a result, students participating in Residential Life Housing Selection will have the ability to live in  groups of 1, 2, and 4. To better understand what room capacity looks like in each community, please review the table below.

*Limited number of standard singles available

Questions

• For Walker Avenue questions, please contact their office at info@walkeravenueapts.com
• For Residential Life questions, submit an RT Ticket