Returning Student Housing Selection Process

Choosing where to live is an important decision. Please take the time to thoroughly read this guide through each step of the process of housing selection for returning RWU students.

All aspects of the selection process are "Subject to Change". Changes communicated via email to appropriate and eligible students.  

Housing Selection Webinars

To help prepare students for returning student general housing selection, Residence Life & Housing Staff will be holding two zoom webinars focused on Roommate Profiles/Group Formation and Room Selection. These sessions will be recorded and can be accessed below if your are not able to attend in person.

Session #1: Roommate Profiles & Group Formation

Recording of Roommate Profiles & Group Formation 

Session #2: Room Selection  

Thursday, April 18, 2024 at 5:00PM (EDT).

Recording of Room Selection

Returning Student Housing Selection Process 

As you read the information provided, please be sure to let us know if something does not make sense, or requires further clarification. Direct questions to your Resident Assistant (RA), the Graduate Community Director or Area Coordinator of your residential community, or the Department of Residence Life and Housing (email rwuhousing@rwu.edu or call (401) 254-3161). It is important that you thoroughly understand the housing selection process in order to make the most informed choice based upon the options presented to you during your designated day, date and time of online selection.

Housing Contract

Once you electronically sign your housing contract (as part of your housing application), you will enter into a binding contract and you will be financially responsible for all costs associated with the 2024-2025 academic year: You cannot just move off campus. This is a binding contract, similar to that of a Landlord/Tenant lease agreement. Download the 2024-2025 Housing Contract.

Housing Selection 2024 Process Timeline At-A-Glance

The important dates for Pre-Selection Processes are provided below. In order to be eligible for any of these processes you must complete your Housing Contract by the priority deadline of Monday, March 11th. Additional information regarding each process will be provided during the month of February and discussed during information sessions. 

• SAS Approved Accommodations: Requests and Documentation due to SAS by March 1st

• Single Room Selection: Complete a Single Room Selection Application in housing self-service by March 22nd. Single Room selection will be Wednesday, April 3rd beginning at 10:00 AM for rising seniors, 11:00 AM for rising juniors, and 12:00 PM for rising sophomores.

• Triple Room Selection: Complete a Triple Room Selection Application in housing self-service by March 22nd. You must be fully matched by Thursday, April 4th. Triple Room selection will be Friday, April 5th beginning at 10:00 AM for rising seniors, 11:00 AM for rising juniors, and 12:00 PM for rising sophomores.All members of your group must complete the Triple Room Selection form via housing self-service by March 22nd or your will not be eligible for the Triple Room Selection Process.

• Living Learning Communities: Applications & Agreements due by March 22nd

  • Includes: Sustainable Food Systems, Black & Latinx, Honors, Queer & Trans, and Substance Free 

  • More information about our LLC offerings can be found here: Living Learning Communities | Roger Williams University (rwu.edu)

• Continued Occupancy (CO): Rolling applications due by March 22nd, Agreements sent to RWU email March 25th, Agreements due back to Residence Life and Housing by April 1st  **First Year rooms are not eligible**

• Supersize Room Placement (SRP): Rolling applications are due March 29th. See below for more information, but students who complete this process do not select a space, but rather are hand placed by the Housing Operations Team.

• Gender Inclusive Housing: Rolling applications due by March 22nd. Students interested in Gender Inclusive Housing will participate in the housing selection process in mid-April but only be able to select from designated gender inclusive housing units.

• Upperclass Almeida Housing Placement: Rolling applications due by March 29th. This year, we are excited to introduce a new opportunity for juniors and seniors. By completing this form, you express your interest in residing in Almeida for the 2024-2025 Academic year. Pending space availability, submitting this form guarantees you and your group a spot in Almeida. Limited 2-person apartments are available.

Pay Housing Deposit & Clear All Holds

Before students can participate in the Housing Selection process, they must complete two important steps:

Step 1: Housing Deposit payable online through the Student Accounts Center on Roger Central.

Under the "Deposit" option, select the Fall 2024 term and "Housing Deposit Fall 2024" as the deposit type. 

Instructional Video - How to make a Housing Deposit online

The priority deadline for Housing Deposits are due by Friday, March 8th. 

Families can submit a deposit for their student if they have been added to their student's account, Family SAC Login. Information on granting student account access.

Step 2: Be Financially Cleared & Remove All Bursar Holds

Students must be financially cleared by Tuesday, April, 12th 2024. Financial clearance means that students do not have an outstanding balance on their student account. 

Students will not be able to participate in Housing Selection if these two steps have not been completed.

 Room & Meal Plan Rates

Students who complete a housing application and contract but either a). do not select a room during the Housing Selection time period or b). are unable to select due to limited options available in the portal will be placed in a "HALL TBA" assignment and will have multiple opportunities over the summer to assign themselves to a space. This process typically begins in early June and runs through Opening.

Please refer to the following Rates & Fees pages for the room and meal plan rates: 2024-2024 Undergraduate Tuition & Fees

Student's living in traditional halls are required to be on a full meal plan. Meal plans are not required but are optional for those areas designated as apartment style (Bayside, Almeida, or the apartments in the North Campus Residence Hall). Please refer to the Campus Dining page for more information.

 SAS Approved Accommodations Process

All students who are seeking accessible housing accommodations for the 2024-2025 Housing Selection must submit the appropriate paperwork directly to the Student Accessibility Services (SAS) office by March 1st, 2024. Students who submit requests to SAS after the advertised deadline may be waitlisted for the approved accommodation. SAS Forms: Request for Accessible Housing Accommodations & Treating Practitioner's Verification.

Here’s what takes place once the documentation is reviewed and approved by SAS:

• Students receive an e-mail from SAS containing the specific accommodation(s) that has been approved.  
• The approved accommodation information will be shared with the Department of Residence Life and Housing.  
• Students will be placed in an assignment that meets the criteria of the approved accommodation.  
• Students will receive an email from Residence Life and Housing notifying them of their assignment on a rolling basis beginning the week of March 22nd. Students will have the opportunity to decline the placement and at that time they will need to select a space through the Housing Selection Process or through the CO process (below).
• Students who are approved for a unit with a shared accommodations will be able to pull-in one (1) friend into their direct bedroom.
• In an effort to promote equity across the board, we will not be allowing students who are approved for a single room to pull-in any student into their unit. Guidance will be provided to affected students once assigned to the space. 

 Continued Occupancy (CO)

Students who want to remain in their same room/apartment for next year will need to complete this process. It is important to note that all of the students who currently live in the unit and who complete a Continued Occupancy Application must be approved for the CO process to ensure all current residents agree for whom will be occupying the space for the 23-24 academic year.  

Pulling-in new roommates: If there will be empty spaces within the unit and a returning student within that unit wants to pull-in new roommates to the unit for next year, they are permitted to do so if all students wishing to live in the unit have completed the Housing Contract by the priority deadline of March 11th. Please note: Single rooms are not eligible for the CO process. Additionally, the room/apartment (unit) must be completely filled in order to process the CO. For example, two students can CO one double in a Bayside 4-person apartment, but cannot just have three students CO the apartment- rooms cannot be left partially filled.

If the suite/apartment (unit) is not filled after the CO process, the space(s) will be the first to be occupied during Housing Selection. 

Please follow these steps to Participate in the CO Process for 2024-2025: 

1. Pay your $350 Housing Deposit and Complete your Housing Contract (Fall 2024) through the Student Account Center.

2. Complete the Continued Occupancy Application by March 22nd. Students can access the application via Housing Self-Service/HawkLink Forms. You can only see the application if you have completed the 2024-2025 Housing Contract by the priority deadline.  

3. Receive your Continued Occupancy Agreement through your RWU email on Monday, March 25th    

4. Print and complete your Continued Occupancy Agreement and return to the Department of Residence Life and Housing by Monday, April 1st

 If it is determined that the CO process is being completed in an effort to manipulate the housing selection process (i.e. the student who CO's the room/apartment withdraws, etc.) then the entire room/apartment will be relocated in any available space(s) after the housing selection process concludes. 
If there is a disagreement, no one will be able to participate in the CO process and all of the roommates will need to go through the housing selection process and pick a space based on their selection time. 

Potential Housing Assignment Relocation 

If your current unit is needed for other housing needs, the Department of Residence Life and Housing will assign you and your requested roommates to another room/unit that is comparable to your current room/unit. For example, if you currently live in a quad apartment on the first floor of the Bayside 100s, we will relocate your group to another Bayside quad apartment on the 1st floor. 

Supersize Room Placement (SRP)

There is limited availability for students who are interested in the Supersize Room Placement (SRP) process. The SRP process allows for students to add additional occupants into a designed occupancy space. For example, a group of 5 or 6 students may elect to convert a traditional 4-person apartment into a 5- or 6-person apartment (one or both doubles in the room would be converted to triple rooms). Additionally, a 5-person group may elect to convert a 4-person apartment in Almeida to a 5-person apartment with the larger double in the unit becoming a triple room. Students receive financial credits based off the living arrangement in the space: each student who's room is supersized will receive a $600 credit for each semester the room is supersized; additionally, the remaining students who are in the unit will receive a $100 credit for each semester the room is supersized. Please note: If a student were to leave a room which is supersized, all students would receive a prorated charge on their account for the remainder of the semester/academic year based off the amount of days left in the semester/academic year to offset the credit provided by the SRP process.

Please follow these steps to Participate in the SRP Process for 2024-2025: 

1. Pay your $350 Housing Deposit and Complete your Housing Contract (Fall 2024) through the Student Account Center.

2. Complete the Supersize Room Placement application by March 29th. Students can access the application via Housing Self-Service/HawkLink Forms. You can only see the application if you have completed the 2024-2025 Housing Contract by the priority deadline. Limited availability throughout campus- once projected quota is reached, form will become disabled and no additional SRP applications will be accepted. All students of the roommate group must complete the application.

3. Receive your Supersize Room Placement through your RWU email by Friday, April 12th.    

Please know that since this is a pre-selection placement process, students are receiving priority placement within the housing selection cycle. If, at any time, a student within the SRP group decides to withdraw from the University or participates in a room change, all members of the group will be relocated and reassigned based off what is currently available across University housing. Please only complete an interest application if you and your group members are 100% confident you will be returning next year for the entirety of the academic year.

 Online Housing Selection

Please review the important information to remember regarding the online housing selection process:

• Remember, you must pay a housing deposit AND be financially cleared (no outstanding balance with Bursar hold) in order to be eligible to participate in the Housing Selection Process. Spaces will not be held.
• You will receive important housing selection information via your university email account. As outlined by the university, students are responsible for checking their RWU email account for important university information.
• Your selection time will be based upon your class year according to university records. This means that residents who are Rising Seniors will choose first, then Rising Juniors, then Rising Sophomores.
• If you know the person or persons you want to live with, you will form a group during Roommate Matching and Group Formation.
  • If you successfully matched with your group prior to April 7th, the Group Leader's selection time will be the selection time for the entire group- please be mindful of this when selecting roommates from different class years. 
  • If you successfully match after April 7th, you will need to wait until all roommates' selection times are active to choice a space.
  • Once your group is confirmed, only one group member will need to sign on to the system during Housing Selection to select your room for next year.
• Please refer to the Bursar's Office Rates & Fees pages for the room and meal plan rates.
  • Remember that singles cost additional money.
• If you are interested in a single room, you will need to follow the Single Room Selection Process; outlined in timeline above
• If you are interested in a triple room, you will need to follow the Triple Room Selection Process; outlined in timeline above.

Partially filled apartments or rooms

If an apartment/room is not at full occupancy after the CO process, the space(s) will be the first to be occupied at Housing Selection. Students who are looking for one space or going through housing selection on their own will not be able to sign into a completely empty apartment/room as long as there is a similar space available in a partially occupied apartment/room. The same is true for a group of students that are not completely filling a room/apartment. Students are directed to these partially filled rooms/apartments (e.g. two Juniors CO’ed into a Bayside apartment by themselves because their two roommates graduated - two other students are looking for a Bayside apartment – they will automatically be directed to this apartment).

 Smoke-free

Please note that all residence hall rooms and apartments are smoke-free. Residents who smoke in the residence halls will be referred to the Student Conduct Office which may result in educational and punitive sanctions. Smoking is only permitted in designated gazebos.

Page last updated on March 21st, 2024