Housing Selection FAQs

Yes.  Housing Selection is primarily intended to provide current residents with the opportunity to select housing before any other students are assigned.

In addition to being a current resident, you must also be in good financial standing. Students with outstanding student account balances greater than $250 will not be granted access to the application. You should contact Student Business Services to find out how to clear your account balance. Once you clear your account, you should contact the Residential Life Office to request access to the application.

Commuters are welcome to participate in Housing Selection if they completed a “Commuter Pass” indicating their plans to participate in Housing Selection with a current resident. Once your commuter pass is submitted, staff will review to ensure both you and the resident you are applying with are eligible to participate in your chosen selection process.

We recommend those seeking participating in Walker Avenue Housing Selection complete the “Commuter Pass” before March 1 to ensure our staff can review your request and issue the Housing Selection application to the commuting student before the deadline.

We recommend those seeking participating in Residential Life Housing Selection complete the “Commuter Pass” before April 12, to ensure our staff can review your request and issue the Housing Selection application to the commuting student before the deadline.

Only actively enrolled Spring students can participate in Housing Selection.

If you will be starting at UMBC as a newly admitted Undergraduate Student you are guaranteed housing UMBC Residential Life Housing (not Walker Avenue Apartments) if you apply by May 1.

If you will be a Graduate student or readmit/returning undergraduate student, you are welcome to submit a Waitlist Application (beginning February 1) and will be added to the waitlist of your choice/eligibility.

In order to participate in Walker Housing Selection you must have 39 completed credits at the time of application. If you will not have 39 completed credits by March 4, you will have the opportunity to apply for Residential Life Housing Selection or wait to submit a Waitlist Housing Application.

You can view your completed credit standing on your myUMBC account.  If you believe that you have earned (completed) credits that are not appearing on your UMBC record, you should contact the Registrar’s Office for review.

Housing Selection is the process by which you select your room from the available inventory. Since the inventory changes based on who selects before you, we cannot guarantee you will be in a specific room type.

Students who are participating in Walker Avenue selection are guaranteed to select a Walker Apartment.

Students participating in Residential Life housing selection are guaranteed a space in one of the Residential Life housing options (hall, suite, or apartment). Generally, we see that groups/individuals who are able to get a Residential Life apartment (Hillside, Terrace, or West Hill) typically have a credit average of 50 or more. Generally, we see that groups/individuals who are able to select a Harbor Single typically have a credit average of 30 or more.

The primary purpose of the application is for you to sign the license agreement (contract) and pay the reservation fee, which guarantees you will have housing for the upcoming year.

Since you will select your own room from the available inventory, the application doesn’t determine where you will live– you will. The application is helpful for our staff if we need to assign you or pair roommates after selection has concluded.   If you would like us to make a change to your application, we are happy to do so.

Below are common reasons why a student may not see the application:

• The application is not open.  The Walker Avenue Application will be available starting on March 4, 2024 at 10 a.m. and will close when 500 individuals have applied. The Residential Life Application will be available starting on April 1, 2024 and will close on April 12, 2024 at 5 p.m.
• You are not eligible to see the application.
  • Students who are not currently enrolled for the Spring semester will not have access to the housing selection application(s).
  • Students with less than 39 completed credits do not have access to the Walker Avenue Application.
  • Graduate students do not have access to the Residential Life Application.
  • Students with outstanding balances greater than $250 will not have access to the application, unless they clear their financial hold and submit an RT Ticket requesting access.
  • Commuters must be part of a current group of residential students and need to complete the Commuter Pass first to be issued the application.

If you complete the Walker Avenue Housing Selection Application (License & Reservation Fee) or the Walker Avenue Waitlist Application in March but intend to participate in Residential Life Housing in April, you will need to contact Walker Avenue Apartments in writing to cancel your Walker Avenue application. Requests received after March 8, 2024 will result in a $200 Cancellation Fee.

If you are an undergraduate student and you miss the Walker Avenue Housing Selection deadline/cutoff and want guaranteed on-campus housing for the upcoming year, then we recommend that you complete the Residential Life Housing Selection application available April 1, 2024 and participate in Residential Life housing selection. More information can be found at https://reslife.umbc.edu/apply/currentstudents/

However, if you are not interested in Residential Life Housing and only want to live at Walker Avenue Apartments you should not participate in Residential Life Housing Selection; instead you can apply to be added to the  Walker Avenue housing waitlist.

If you are a graduate student, you are only eligible to live at Walker Avenue Apartments, if you miss the Walker Avenue Housing Selection deadline you have a few options:

1. You can apply to be added to the housing waitlist by completing the Housing Application starting March 9.
2. You can explore off-campus housing options through Off-Campus Students Services (ocss.umbc.edu)

If you miss the Residential Life Housing Selection application deadline you can apply to be added to the Residential Life or Walker Avenue (if eligible) housing waitlist by completing the Housing Application starting April 13, 2024.

No, students approved to study abroad do not need to complete the application. They will be contacted by Residential Life with instructions for securing Spring 2025 housing.

Residents with a current accommodation still need to submit the application and license by the deadline.  As a student with an accommodation, who completes that housing selection application, you may have the choice to either to be:

1. Pre-assigned: If you choose to be pre-assigned you are guaranteed to be assigned to a space that meets your formal accommodation needs, before students have the opportunity to select rooms. This pre-assignment process would only apply to you and not extend to any intended roommates. However, because you know where you will be living you can share this information with your friends, so they can attempt to select a room near you. If you would like to be pre-assigned please contact Caitlin Scheidegger to discuss your housing placement for the upcoming academic year.
2. Participate in Housing Selection: If you would like to participate in the Housing Selection process with a roommate group, you are welcome to do so.  In the event that you or your group select a room from the available inventory that does not meet your accommodation, you are welcome to reach out to our office where we can support you with identifying a room that meets your needs.  

Students seeking a new accommodation should contact Valerie Valentine at Student Disability Services (valerie@umbc.edu or 410-455-8496).  Our office follows all recommendations from SDS.

Yes.  Students who plan to live on campus, regardless of their employment staff will still need to submit their application by the deadline.

If you apply to Walker Avenue Apartments, and later learn that you have been assigned a position in Residential Life we will work with you to complete the new application.

Students are asked to identify their meal plan for the upcoming year on the housing application. Students living in apartments, including Walker Avenue, are not required to have a meal plan.

They will be billed for the meal plan they select on their housing application. If they wish to change their meal plan after Housing Selection but before July 1, they can contact Residential Life via a myUMBC RT Help Ticket. Meal plan changes after July 1 should be directed to the Campus Card office via a myUMBC RT Help Ticket.

All students living in a residence hall or suite are required to be on a meal plan. If a student does not select a meal plan or they pick an apartment only meal plan option, but are assigned to a residence hall, they will automatically be billed for the 12-meal-a-week plan.

Students living in Potomac and Harbor 9-month rooms are required to purchase a winter session meal plan, (minimum $50 flex plan), even if they will not be on campus during the winter session. 

Yes. The housing reservation fee is mandatory. The reservation fee money will be applied as a credit toward your first 2024-2025 housing bill.

No. Payment must be in the form of Credit Card or ACH, through the housing portal. Exceptions may be made for students who make physical payment at Student Business Services (sbs.umbc.edu).

Students applying to Residential Life with significant financial need are welcome to contact Residential Life by April 1, 2024.

No, students may apply for housing and select a room as an individual.

Housing Selection is the process by which current students select housing.  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 can only request roommates who have completed the same application type as themselves (ex. if they completed the Walker Avenue Application, they cannot request a person who completed the Residential Life Application).

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 must form groups of 2 or 4 or go through the Residential Life Housing Selection process as an individual.  Students who want to be placed in a Walker 3-Bedroom unit should contact Walker Avenue directly.

Your group will be split up into individual members and assigned unique selection times.

Housing Selection times are based on the student’s cumulative completed academic credits. Selection times are not determined by group size. If they are part of a roommate group, their group’s average credits will be used (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).

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

• Students participating in Walker Avenue Selection will receive their time by March 25, 2024
• Students participating in Residential Life Selection will receive their time by April 22, 2024

The most common reason for not receiving a selection time, is that you did not complete the Housing Selection application by the deadline.

The second reason may be that 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.

Rooms are designated in the housing portal. Please make sure the group leader selects carefully and reviews the room description before selecting.

A select number of rooms are defined as Gender Inclusive.  Only students and groups who agree to living in Gender Inclusive Housing will be able to select Gender Inclusive Rooms.

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.