Housing applications open at the end of January in the housing portal. Students have until March 15th to complete the housing contract. Students that complete a housing contract by this deadline will have a “priority application”. Students with priority applications will be assigned timeslots to participate in room selection. Time slots are assigned based off:
- Priority Application status
- Seniority; determined by class year and credits completed. If you have questions about your class status, you must contact the Registrar’s Office.
Students that don’t complete an application by March 15th will still be able to participate in room selection, but they will not have a priority application. Instead, students without a priority application will be able to select a room after priority room selection takes place. All students must participate in room selection unless they are:
- Participating in an off-campus study program or taking a medical/personal leave in the fall semester or full academic year.
- Accepted permission to live off-campus.
- Selected as a CA (Community Advisor), HC (House Coordinator), or Grinnell House Monitor.
Roommates
Living with and learning to live with a roommate is an important part of the Grinnell College experience. Students learn the necessary lifetime skills of negotiation, compromise, and communication when living with a peer. Through the roommate experience, students develop friendships that last a lifetime; appreciate diversity of experiences, talents, and cultures; and develop a sense of belonging to the Grinnell Community. Because the roommate experience is an integral part of the Grinnell experience, incoming first-year students will have (at least) one roommate; returning second-year students will also have (at least) one roommate.
Selecting a roommate requires careful thought, patience, and time and begins long before room selection. Current first-year students are encouraged to start making roommate arrangements early — well before room selection.
As part of the housing application, students will have the opportunity to form a roommate group. Students will only be able to add other students to their roommate group if both students have completed a housing application. If students are in a roommate group, they will need to determine what roommate will participate in room selection. We recommend the student with the earliest time slot participate, as this will provide the roommate group with the most options.