Mid-Year Returning Student Housing

We anticipate releasing housing assignments in mid-December for Winter term, and in late January for Spring.

• Housing for both Winter and Spring have a lot of moving pieces that impact what spaces are available. We have students leaving for abroad or taking time off, students returning from abroad or from time off, students opting out of Winter term, students graduating in February, and students changing rooms who have either been on a waitlist, worked with the Disability Resource Center, Civil Rights and Title IX Office, or the Scott Center for Religious and Spiritual Life to meet their housing needs. Additionally we have students moving out of Forest West and Hepburn to make room for the incoming Feb class.
• Some of this information we know ahead of time and some of this information is changing and being finalized right up until housing assignments go out. Often you know what your friends are deciding before they tell us, and we cannot open up a space until students have followed the official process for taking a leave of absence.
• Because of these moving pieces, navigating housing assignments during this time of year is very complex, and running a selection process isn’t possible as we do not have a clear list of all available spaces until very close to winter and February break.
• We are collecting information and working with it from November through mid-February, which is why we collect each student’s housing preferences, and try to meet preferences as best we can with the information available. 

• If your friend still lives in that space they are welcome to pull you in as a roommate/suitemate! You can provide us with their names in the roommate question on your application. We will also email students who will have space in their room or suite with information about how to let our office know who they would like to pull in.
• If they are not continuing to live there, then unfortunately students can not “pass” a room or suite to another student(s).
• As we shared above, the housing puzzle is incredibly complex, and we have lots of students on waitlists and who have priority for open spaces, so passing a room to someone else isn’t possible. You can preference a building and name a room but we want to be transparent that doesn’t necessarily mean we can assign you to that space. 

• There is definitely a myth/rumor that there are many open suites and singles for Winter or Spring term.
• Because most students stay in their room from Fall term to Winter and Spring, the open spaces that we have to work with are from other students going abroad, taking a leave of absence, or graduating (for Spring term). Typically, we do not see full suites of students leaving at once.
• Additionally, most students that are abroad are juniors. Since junior and senior housing is in the same buildings/areas, and since we prioritize spaces based on matriculation term, it means that seniors have priority for spaces. Often in the housing selection processes for the Fall term (that happened last Spring) seniors selected most of the available suites and singles. This means that juniors have lower priority than seniors and are choosing from spaces that seniors did not select (any remaining suites, doubles, and singles). Many juniors do not live in suites and singles since seniors select first.
• We can only place students returning in spaces that have become open from other students leaving so the housing choices are limited. 

• First priority for open space always goes to students who have an approved housing accommodation through the Disability Resource Center or a housing consideration through either the Civil Rights and Title IX Office or the Scott Center for Religious and Spiritual Life.
• After that, all of our on-campus housing processes (whether we are making assignments ourselves, or running a selection process or lottery), run based on matriculation terms, meaning that students that have been here longer have higher priority.
• Additionally, students that are moving from Forest West and Hepburn will have priority for open spaces on campus for Spring term.

• The waitlist for students occurs after students are housed for Fall (processes that happen in the previous Spring term). Sometimes students go through the housing selection process and do not get a space they want. We will add students to the waitlist in case space opens up during the Fall term.
• We don’t allow students that are currently not on campus to be on the waitlist since priority goes to students that are already here.
• If you receive a housing assignment that you are not satisfied with, email our office (reslife@middlebury.edu) and we can add you to the waitlist.
• For students returning from abroad, we encourage you to add information to the housing application about who you would be interested in living with. If you don’t get a placement that you are excited about then we can certainly add you to the waitlist as well. So you are aware, we don’t often get fully open suites for Winter or Spring term. 

• January 4, 2025 at 9am: Residence halls open for Winter term.
  • Early arrivals are not permitted for Winter term.
• February 8, 2025 at 9am: Residence Halls open for Spring term.
• Arrivals before the halls open will not be permitted so please plan travel accordingly.