The Residence Life staff at Ursinus College strives to provide you with a positive and educational living environment that will serve as your home away from home.
Instructions on how to access and complete the application will be sent to your email and will be accessible in your portal beginning on May 23, 2024.
About First Year Housing
First-year students live together in one of two large residence halls on campus, known as BWC and BPS. This allows you to live in close proximity to other students who are experiencing the celebrations and challenges of college life for the first time, just like you. Resident Advisors are student leaders who are carefully selected to live and work with first-year students. Additionally, the Assistant Director for First-Year Centers devotes particular attention to community development efforts and programs for this community.
You will see the First-Year Centers, learn about our community values, and start discussing how we should live together on our campus when you attend Bear Beginnings. After Bear Beginnings on May 21 & May 22, 2024, you’ll have the opportunity to convey your living and roommate preferences to our staff.
90% of first-year students live in double or triple rooms, so you should plan to have at least 1 roommate!
Students who complete the First Year Housing Application on time will receive their housing assignment and roommate information in mid-July.
What is the First Year Housing Application?
The First-Year Housing Application is found on the platform StarRez and helps us determine your housing assignments for the upcoming year. It should be filled out by all incoming first-year students, including those who have declared commuter status.
The deadline to complete the first-year housing application is Wednesday, June 19.
Instructions on how to access and complete the application will be sent to your email and will also be accessible in your portal beginning on Thursday, May 23 after 10 a.m.
You can log back into your StarRez account and make changes to your application as many times as you would like before the deadline of Wednesday, June 19 at 1 p.m. EST. We will use each student’s latest submission when processing the data.
If you do not complete the application by the deadline, you will still be able to complete the application, however, you will not have priority deadline for roommate, occupancy, and/or floor type preference.
All students who complete the application by Wednesday, June 19 at 1 p.m. EST will be processed and placed in housing at the same time. There is no incentive for being one of the first students to complete the application. We want all our students to take the time they need to complete the application when they have time to do so on their own, uninterrupted, and thoughtfully.
If you would like to room with someone specific, students should create a Roommate Group in StarRez. Only 1 member of the roommate group (1 person for a double or 1 person for a triple) should create the roommate group in StarRez. Once they set up the unique group name and password, they will then share that with the other group members who will join the group.
Group Leaders cannot add the members to the group; however they can invite group members to join or group members can join on their own when they complete the application. The Group Leader will be notified via StarRez that the group members have joined.
Please do not verify your group because that will lock the group and your group members will not be able to find and join your group.
All students will answer questions about studying and lifestyle preferences. StarRez has a Roommate Match feature that will use your answer to show you potential roommates based on a percentage of match between you. Between this suggested match function and searching for students manually, you will be able to have a few different ways of connecting with other students seeking a roommate. Students should confirm roommate groups by June 18 to guarantee a match. After that time if you are interested in living with someone, please email firstyearhousing@ursinus.edu with the intended roommate cc’d. While placement is not guaranteed, we will make every effort to accommodate your request.
Many students coming into college do not have a preferred roommate. Do not worry if you do not have anyone specific in mind—we can make a match for you based on your preferences and answers to your Roommate Match questionnaire in your First-Year Housing Application. Please note that we do not make changes to rooms or roommates over the summer. We can learn a lot about ourselves and one another by living with people who may be different from us.
Please answer the questions as honestly as possible. If you have a specific person in mind as a roommate, please note that everyone needs to request each other perfectly on the questionnaire in order for the match process to work. It is each student’s responsibility to confirm roommate preferences prior to completing this form. You may log into the survey multiple times to make changes.
Students who do not complete the form on time will be placed on a wait list and assigned to rooms after other students in the class.
Residence Life staff will send an email to your Ursinus email account in mid-July with your room assignment and contact information for your roommate(s). We encourage you to contact your roommate(s) prior to your arrival on campus. Please remember that we do not make room changes over the summer.
Students requesting housing accommodations must connect with the Office of Disability and Access by Wednesday, June 19. If you have not done so already, please complete the Accommodation Request Form for Disability and Access. Once you complete the form, ODA will be in touch with next steps about the process. If approved, the Residence Life staff makes an assignment that meets the accommodations.