Returning Student Housing Process

Important Lottery Information & Deadlines

Below is a lot of information regarding our housing selection process that occurs in March - April when our current First-Year, Sophomore, Junior, and Frances Perkins students select their housing for the following year (2024-2025). If you are anticipating studying abroad or taking a leave in Fall 2024 you should not participate in this housing selection process. Please take the time to thoroughly read the entire page. The Office of Residential Life will also be hosting a variety of information sessions where students can come and ask all their housing selection questions.

Register for the information session on February 7, 2024 5-7pm in Blanchard Great Room. Save the date for two more information sessions that will be hosted on February 28, 2024 one at 5pm and one at 6pm, where students can come and ask all their housing selection questions.

Check out this Step by Step Guide for our Housing Lottery.

Link to Residence

  • Eligibility

    To find out if you are eligible to participate in our housing processes, check your clearance status in Residence under "my account". "F" means you are fully cleared and ready to participate. "N" means you are not eligible and the office which has a hold on your account will be listed. Please contact the office listed to figure out how to release the hold. Holds can be from the Dean of Studies Office, Health Services, Counseling Services, and Student Financial Services. Please note that having only a hold from Financial Services will not prevent you from participating in the housing lottery. Students with an "N" from Dean of Studies, Health Services, and/or Counseling Services will not be able to opt-in to any of the housing lotteries. The Office of Residential Life does not have additional information about these holds and cannot remove them for you.

    If you do not see the option to opt-in to any lottery process it means you have a hold and should not be part of any roommate groups.

    The first day that you will be able to opt into a lottery process is March 19.


    Please note that once you are cleared, clearance takes about 24 hours to appear in Residence. Clearance happens on a rolling basis so you could be cleared one day and not the next.

    Your eligibility to participate in any housing processes described below will be based on your clearance by March 22, 2024, at 12 noon. If you miss the opt-in deadline for one process you can opt-in to the next process you are eligible for.

    Clearance

    All students must be cleared by the offices of Student Financial Services, Registrar, Health Services, Counseling Services, Dean of Studies, and Residential Life by March 22, 2024, at noon (12:00 pm). Having only a hold from Student Financial Services will not prevent students from participating in the housing lottery. Students who are not cleared by these departments will not be eligible to participate in the Lottery. Questions regarding your clearance can be checked on My Account in Residence.

    Reclassification

    Students must have the appropriate number of credits to move with their class. Students who want to be reclassified must contact the Registrar's Office directly. All reclassifications must be completed by March 22, 2024. Reclassifications after March 22,  2024 will not be accepted for purposes of the Housing Lottery.

  • Room Cancellation Fee

    If you choose a room through a housing lottery process you have until June 15, 2024 to withdraw from on campus housing without the charge of a $200 Room Cancellation Fee. Should you cancel your housing after June 15, 2024 you will be charged a $200 Room Cancellation Fee.

  • Housing Accommodations

    Given the individual needs of accommodations, students who have requested housing accommodations through the Disability Services Office by completing the Housing Accommodation Request Form by the deadline on, February 23, 2024 at 11:59 p.m. will be emailed directly by Residential Life by March 8, 2024 regarding which housing process they will need to complete. Any student who missed the March 1st deadline, or was not approved for housing accommodations prior to this deadline, should proceed through the housing lottery processes open to all Mount Holyoke College students. The Housing Accommodation Request form will reopen in late April for new incoming students and those who missed the priority deadline for returning students.

  • Frances Perkins Scholars:

    FPs have their own housing process, and we will be in touch with you directly regarding your room selection on March 18. Your response will be due March 26 at noon.

  • Living Learning Communities (LLC)

    The LLC application will open in Residence on February 2, 2024 and will be due on February 22, 2024. LLC Applicants will receive notice of their acceptance into these communities on March 23, 2024. This email will explain your housing selection process based on the decision that is made. LLCs will have single, double, and triple rooms available and you can apply for LLCs if you have housing accommodations. Check out the LLC Webpage for more information on which communities will be available.

    An announcement in Residence will note the location of the LLCs for 24-25 year.

    Change Reminder: If a student is selected to be in a Living Learning Community, the student must select a room in the Living Learning Community Lottery. They will not be able to participate in any other lottery process (Seniors Singles, Suites/Apartment Lottery or Doubles/Triples lottery). Students will be administratively placed in a room in the Living Learning Community based on their matching profiles if they don’t select a room on their own and will have the option of going through the room change request process over the summer.

    Example: Green Griffin ‘25 is a rising senior and is selected into the Arts LLC. By the time it's their turn to select a room on the floor, there are no singles left and Green Griffin decides to not select a room. The Office of Residential Life will place Green Griffin ‘25 in a vacant space in the LLC based on their matching profile and the beds available on the floor. Green Griffin ’25 will not be able to participate in the Senior Singles Lottery. They will have to wait until the room change request process over the summer to change rooms.

    Why: These spaces are hard to fill with students once all lottery processes are concluded and we want to ensure that the students who are applying for the LLCs are doing so because they genuinely desire to be part of those communities and actively participate in them.

  • Housing Lotteries

    • Senior Suites& Apartments: Open to Seniors only Must have a roommate group of all seniors only. Must have a roommate group in order to try for a suite or apartment.
    • Mixed, JR & Soph Suites & Apartments: Open to Seniors, Juniors, & Sophomores. Must have a roommate group in order to try for a suite or apartment.
    • Senior Singles: Open to Seniors only (No Roommate Groups Allowed)
    • Singles Accommodation Lottery: Open to juniors & sophomores with an approved housing accommodation only (no roommate groups allowed) This lottery is invite only.
    • Doubles/Triples: Open to Seniors, Juniors, & Sophomores Roommate groups will be prioritized by you don't need a group to participate.

  • Opt-in

    Each lottery phase has an opt-in process; students will need to opt-in to each phase that they wish to participate in. Students may only opt-in to one phase at a time, after each phase if a student did not choose a room, the Office of Residential Life will change the student's status to opt-out so that they may choose another process to opt-in. For example, a rising junior may want to try for a single, but if they do not get one, the Office will opt-out all of the students in that group so they can opt-in to the doubles/triples process.

  • Favorites

    You'll be able to make a list of "favorites" of the available rooms so you can have a list of all the options you'd like to consider when your selection time arrives. As rooms are selected throughout the process, they will disappear from your favorites list. Please note that the favorites list does not place rooms in any priority ranking. You will need to prioritize your list outside of Residence.

    You will only be able to see rooms specific to that lottery process. For example, only singles are in the singles lottery, only doubles and triples are in the doubles/triples lottery.

  • Rooms in Lottery

    Please note that all rooms are not available for selection. Rooms are held for various reasons, including housing accommodations, facilities concerns and for the incoming class. We will be holding more singles with private bathrooms given the increased of this accommodation. Residence also tells you the occupancy of a room; for example, 3 beds available mean the room is a triple.. You can review the floor plans in my.mtholyoke under Student Resources on the Division of Student Life resource page.

  • Roommate Group

    You can also create a roommate group within the system to make sure you are sharing a room with the person you wish to live with. The ability to create roommate groups opens on March 14th. All members of your roommate group must opt-in to the same process, just because the leader of the roommate group opts-in to a process does not mean the entire roommate group is in the process, you must all individually opt-in to the same process. If you receive a request to be roommates you must reply to the link in the email and not to Residential Life.

  • Off Campus

    All applications to live off-campus for the 2024–2025 academic year must be submitted to the Office of Residential Life by 5 p.m. on March 20. Please visit the Off-Campus Housing Webpage for more details.

  • Suites

    The residence hall suites and apartments offer students an opportunity for greater independence as such, these placements are typically available to seniors as they prepare to transition to independent life post-graduation. They are chosen by current Mount Holyoke students through the annual housing lottery process. Students wishing to live in one of these spaces must fill the apartment completely as a group and must keep the apartment filled. If one or more residents of the apartment leaves, it is the responsibility of the remaining apartment residents to find another person to move into the space. Failure to do so could result in the remaining residents in the apartment being reassigned to other spaces on campus and the apartment offered to other students. Students with housing accommodations can opt into this process along with their peers. The suites and apartments are not part of the Disability Services placement process. Selection times for all students are random.

    Suites are rooms with a common space and some suites have private bathrooms that all occupants share and are responsible for cleaning.

    Hall Room # Private Bathroom Configuration # of People in Roommate Group
    Mead 117 Yes 3 singles within the suite 3
    North Creighton Hall 100 No 4 singles within the suite 4
    North Creighton Hall 200 No 4 singles within the suite 4
    South Creighton Hall 46 No 2 doubles within the suite 4
    South Creighton Hall 48 No 3 singles within the suite 3
    South Creighton Hall 150 No 2 doubles within the suite 4
    South Creighton Hall 152 No 3 singles within the suite 3
    South Creighton Hall 160 Yes 4 singles within the suite 4
    South Creighton Hall 252 No 2 doubles within the suite 4
    South Creighton Hall 254 No 3 singles within the suite 3
    South Creighton Hall 264 Yes 4 singles within the suite 4

    Apartments are rooms with a common space, kitchen, and private bathroom that all occupants share and are responsible for cleaning. These apartments don't have individual bedrooms.

    Hall Room # # of People in Roommate Group
    1837 121 3
    Ham 123 4
    Torrey 115 3
  • Apartments in Wooden Structures

    These apartments come with full kitchens.

    92 College Street: is a 2 person apartment on the edge of campus. This apartment has two bedrooms (singles). This is considered an on campus apartment and students must be on the meal plan. Limited parking is available on a first come basis. Students must have a MHC parking permit. Gorse parking lot and the Dickinson parking lot is also available.available. Students must have a roommate group of two students to be able to choose this apartment. There is no laundry available in the house, students will have access to Abbey and Buckland in order to do laundry.

    94 College Street: is an 8 person apartment on the edge of campus. This apartment has 5 bedrooms ( 3 doubles and 2 singles). This is considered an on campus apartment and students must be on the meal plan. Limited parking is available on a first come basis. Students must have a MHC parking permit. Gorse parking lot and the Dickinson parking lot is also available. Students must have a roommate group of eight students to be able to choose this apartment. There is no laundry available in the house, students will have access to Abbey and Buckland in order to do laundry.

    1 Faculity Road: is a 6 person apartment across from Dickinson House. This apartment has 6 bedrooms (singles). This is considered an on campus apartment and students must be on the meal plan. There is no parking at the house, however students with a parking permit may park in the Dickinson parking lot across the street. Students must have a roommate group of six to be able to choose this apartment. There is no laundry available in the house, students will have access to Dickinson House in order to do laundry.

  • Updating Your Matching Profile

    As an incoming student, you filled out a matching profile that assisted Residential Life in matching you with a roommate. As your time on campus progresses, your answers to these questions have most likely changed. Use the "Update Roommate Preferences 24-25" link in Residence to update your profile. We recommend all students maintain an updated profile, even if you have a roommate in mind or are hoping to live in a single. Students looking for a roommate can search for others that match their preferences.

  • Needing a Proxy

    If you are unable to select your own housing you may request that a Residential Life professional staff member select your room for you by filling out the Proxy Request Form by March 24, 2024 11:59PM. In order to select your room via proxy you will need a minimum of 15 favorited rooms (there is no maximum limit). If at your selection time none of your favorite rooms are available, Residential Life staff will not select a room. You will be asked to fill out the Room Change Request Form and will be assigned a room over the summer. The Room Change Request Form will be available April 26, 2024 and will be due June 1, 2024 .

  • Lottery Phases for Fall 2024 Selection

    Lottery

    Date

    Opt In

    Roommate Groups

    Selection Times Released

    Senior Suites & Apartments Lottery

    Wednesday, March 27, beginning at noon

    Begins Tuesday, March 19 at noon and ends on Sunday, March 24th at 11:45 pm

    Begins Tuesday, March 19 at noon and ends Monday, March 25th at noon

    Monday, March 25th by 7:00pm

    Mixed, JR & Soph. Suites & Apartments Lottery

    Thursday, March 28, beginning at noon

    Begins Tuesday, March 19 at noon and ends on Monday, March 25th at 11:45 pm

    Begins Tuesday, March 19 at noon and ends Wednesday, March 27th at noon

    Wednesday, March 27th by 7:00pm

    Living Learning Community Lottery

    Friday, March 29, beginning at noon

    Students selected to live in a Living Learning Community will be opted in by the Office of Residential Life.

    Requested as part of the application process.

    Thursday, March 28th by 7:00 pm

    Seniors Singles Lottery

    Tuesday, April 2, beginning at noon

    Begins Tuesday, March 19 at noon and ends on Sunday, March 31st at 11:45 pm

    Not Applicable

    Monday, April 1st by 7:00pm

    Singles Accommodation Lottery

    Thursday, April 4, beginning at noon

    Students directed to participate in the Singles Accommodation Lottery will be opted in by the Office of Residential Life.

    Not Applicable

    Wednesday, April 3rd by 7:00pm

    Doubles/Triples Lottery (Groups)

    Wednesday, April 10, (all groups) beginning at noon

    Begins Tuesday, March 19 at noon and ends on Monday, April 8th at 11:45 pm

    Begins Tuesday, March 19 at noon and ends Tuesday, April 9th at noon

    Tuesday, April 9th by 7:00pm

    Doubles/Triples Lottery (Individuals)

    Thursday, April 11(all individuals) beginning at noon

    Begins Tuesday, March 19 at noon and ends on Monday, April 8th at 11:45 pm

    Not Applicable

    Tuesday, April 9th by 7:00pm
  • Questions

    If you have any questions, please contact the Office of Residential Life at 413-538-2088 or emailres-life@mtholyoke.edu, and we will be happy to talk to you through the process. Please note that due to the high volume of emails, the average response time is 48-72 business hours (Monday-Friday). If you leave a voicemail, please include your name and number where we can reach you.