First Year Students (Freshmen)
Application Process
First-year students apply for housing online after they have been admitted to Penn by logging onto http://www.admissions.upenn.edu/decisions. Using the user name and password sent by the Admissions Office, students are able to login and access their housing application through the "My Housing" link. If you have lost your username and password, contact Admissions by email to eapps@admissions.upenn.edu.
We highly recommended that students prepare before applying by reading about the various College House and Residential Program offerings, reviewing the rent schedule for room types and associated costs, and prioritizing their preferences regarding Houses and room types. If requesting a specific roommate, please coordinate your efforts and follow the instructions provided in the College House Application Brochure.
Application Deadline
Applications must be submitted by May 1, 11:59 PM, EDT (Eastern Daylight Savings Time), in order to be considered in the first round of assignments.
Applications submitted after May 1 will be placed on a waiting list based on the date of receipt. Typically, these assignments begin after June 18 as spaces becomes available through cancellations. Be aware that once you are assigned a room, there is a cancellation fee if you decide not to live in University housing for any reason.
Assignment Process
Applications to Residential Programs will be reviewed by the House Deans who will determine acceptance into the program and room assignments. For those applicants not requesting Residential Programs and those not accepted into Programs, assignments will be made through a computer lottery process.
The computer program will review all applicants first choice and attempt to assign applicants to open beds. After all first choices are processed, the program then moves to second choices and attempts to place any unassigned student. This process continues through all six choices. If there are no beds available to match a student's request, no assignment is made. Staff will then assign remaining applicants to any alternate programs requested if available, or any available space to ensure the student on-campus housing.
Room change requests are not accepted at this time. Typically, housing is at full occupancy and our priority is to assign rooms to students waiting for space. There are three official room change periods during the academic year, early fall semester, mid-year, and early spring semester.