Housing Selection FAQ

To participate in the the housing selection process, students must first update their profile information and electronically agree to the Housing and Dining Agreement in the Housing Portal. 

Room selection is an online process, which takes place over the course of several days. The amount of housing credits (previous semesters spent in on-campus housing) determines your selection date and time.

Information regarding room selection will be sent to you via email each year. We will walk you through the process!

Students for whom a portion of college costs are provided by Wake Forest Need-Based Scholarship funds should carefully consider their housing and meal plan selections. Please read about the financial impacts of the various options and then contact Student Financial Aid at finaid@wfu.edu with any questions.

Think about what is more important: where you live or who you live with.

The likelihood of getting one or the other is higher than if you are trying for both.

We recommend having a plan A, B and C.

You should review the Room Type Availability List close to your selection day, and make sure you’ve created a back-up plan. You will need access to the housing portal, as well as the information about your group, if you are selecting as the group leader.

Start with two double rooms and think about building up from there.  Create a list of additional people that can join your block.  Add someone and create a five-person block.  If there are no five-person blocks available, add another person and create a six-person block, etc.  You could also divide up into two doubles if there are no larger blocks available.

Selection times are randomly generated based on your housing credits.  The longer you live on campus, the earlier your selection time will be.

Selection times are not based on your GPA or number of class credit hours.

It is impossible to predict precisely and there are no guarantees. We recommend students track the availability list closely up to their selection time, and utilize this to make a plan A, B, and C as to how they might pivot should an option not be available.

No, you will register your off-campus address beginning in April.

No, you must have the exact number of people to fill a block or room.

In recent years, when rising juniors began selection the following options were available: Apartments, Suites on the Quad, Dogwood, and Magnolia, along with Single and Double rooms in a variety of locations. When rising sophomores began selection, the following options were available: Suites on the Quad has Double rooms in a variety of locations.

It happens!  Come to the Help Desk in Angelou Residence Hall and we will see what we can do.

• On a case-by-case basis during housing selection, the Office of Residence Life and Housing may allow a student to delete an active assignment and select again if an error or mistake was made in the selection process. If you selected as a group, the entire group’s assignments will be deleted and the entire group will need to reselect their housing.
• Under no circumstances will a student who selects for a group of residents during General Room Selection be allowed to change rooms between General Room Selection and the Fall Semester. The earliest opportunity for a room change for those students is the Room Change process over Winter Break.
  • Unapproved room changes may result in a fine, return to the original assignment and loss of opportunity to move during the room thaw process.

There is a second round of the room selection process which occurs during the middle of the summer each year.  All students who are required to live in campus housing, but do not select during the first round of housing selection, are automatically placed on the list to select during the second round. Again, this is a normal part of our assignments process and occurs each year.

During the summer, rooms open up across campus for a number of reasons, including when students decide to go abroad or transfer. After allowing time for these changes to be processed, unused spaces are made available in our second round of housing selection. Students on the list for the second round will receive an email with a selection day to go online and select at that time.

You will not be able to choose one space in a double room.  You can select any available single or wait until Second Round Selection in the summer.  There will be a wide range of spaces across campus, which will all be segmented into doubles and singles by this point.

Lists of types of available spaces will be posted on the Residence life and Housing website approximately one week prior to room selection.  Specific Room numbers are not provided, but instead the building and room type like the example below. This list will be updated in real time, usually on a delay of ~15 minutes.

Wake Forest University views living on-campus as integral to a liberal arts education and the Wake Forest experience. As such, the University has a six-semester resident requirement.

In support of students with disabilities, the Office of Residence Life and Housing has a wide variety of housing and dining options on-campus which can accommodate the vast majority of disability needs. For more information, please refer to our Housing/Dining Accommodations page.

Once a request for an accommodation is approved by the Housing Accommodation Review Committee (HARC), the student will be notified of their housing assignment and informed of the number of individuals that may be assigned to their living unit.

The student should then provide the names of any preferred roommate(s) to the Office of Residence Life and Housing by the designated date.

The Program Assistants will each turn in a roster for all students living in their Residential Engagement Community.  The week before General Room Selection, those students will sign up for their place in that community.

Greek blocks are a group of rooms that are blocked off for a Greek organization’s members.  They are located in various residence halls across campus and accommodate about 20-30% of the organization’s membership.  There are increased expectations and accountability for Greek members living in blocks.

Students living in Greek blocks are expected to live in the block for the entire academic year (unless studying abroad).  These students are expected to follow the same residence hall guidelines in the Guide To Community Living.  Students living on blocks are expected to contribute positively to the residence hall community.  The chapter may be held responsible for the behavior of members living in the block.

Managers will turn in a roster with all members that will be living on the block for the next academic year, placing you in your room. 

These members will receive specific selection instructions.

Yes, but you are committed to living on campus for the full academic year – meaning you’ll need to complete a room change into another on-campus room.

Students studying abroad during the Fall Semester will NOT select housing during Housing Selection for the full year. Instead, students abroad for the Fall Semester will be required to select their housing for the Spring Semester online in December.

• In Mid-December, you will be required to electronically self-select your actual spring room and meal plan.
• An e-mail from the Office of Residence Life and Housing will be sent to your WFU e-mail account with log-on times and instructions on self-selecting your spring room and meal plan.
• Wake Forest University views living on campus as integral to a liberal arts education and the Wake Forest experience.  In support of that view, Wake Forest University has a six-semester residency requirement; your semester abroad will count as one semester towards this requirement. You will be expected to return to on-campus housing upon your return to the University.

Students planning to study abroad during the Spring Semester should proceed with General Room Selection for the Fall Semester. During the Fall Semester, these students should notify the Office of Residence Life and Housing by visiting the Housing Portal > Room Change and selecting the appropriate reason.

During the spring semester, these students will be able to participate in General Room Selection for the following fall from abroad.

Studying abroad in the Summer will not affect your room selection process, as you will be on campus for both Fall and Spring semesters.

When the Off-Campus Lottery period is active, it does not matter if you apply when it opens or right before the close date. You have the same odds of being selected.

To start, each person from the group must go into the Housing portal and select that they would like to participate in the off-campus lottery. Once in the housing portal, you can form a roommate group. If someone from the roommate group is selected for the off-campus lottery AND everyone in the group has elected to participate in the lottery, then everyone in that group will be selected for off-campus.

No. If you select for the Off-Campus lottery and do not get chosen, it will not impact your on-campus housing selection time. Housing Selection times are determined by your housing credits.