Applying as a Group for Undergraduate Housing


  • Students may apply for housing as a group during the Draw and Waiting List Rounds.
  • There is no group retention in the Winter and Spring Quarter Waiting List Rounds; group members will have the same application number but are often split between residences as there are few vacancies available in most residences.
  • Groups cannot be accommodated during the Continuous Assignments Round.
  • Group size can consist of two to four students and can be a mix of genders.
  • There is no guarantee that groups will be accommodated. Larger groups are less likely to be assigned to the same residence as smaller groups, as larger groups require more vacancies in the same room type and/or residence in order to be accommodated.

Application Numbers

Students applying for autumn quarter housing through the Draw or for winter or spring quarter housing before the Winter and Spring Quarter Waiting List deadlines will be asked to select a tier level (1-3). Each tier level represents a range of application numbers and students are randomly assigned one application number from that range. The application number (commonly referred to as a "draw number") determines the order in which a student or group of students is assigned. All group members must select the same tier level in order to remain a group. Group members will be assigned the same application number.

  • Tier 1 = 1-1000
  • Tier 2 = 1001-2000
  • Tier 3 = 2001-3000

Students who apply as a group for the autumn quarter after the Draw deadline or for winter or spring quarter housing after the Winter and Spring Quarter Waiting List deadlines are assigned a sequential number over 3500 based on the date their application was received. 



  • The first group member to submit a housing application creates the group by entering a group name and password. This person becomes the group leader, and will need to provide the group name and password to the other members of the group.
  • The group leader should select a group name that is not easy to duplicate, that is a minimum of five characters long, and contains at least one letter and at least one number. No special characters are allowed, and letters are case sensitive.
  • Subsequently, each member of the group then submits their own housing application and selects to join the group. They will need to enter the same group name and group password.  Please allow a few seconds for the group information to post before the next group member attempts to join.

Residence Choices

All group members must list the same residences in the exact same order on the application if they wish to remain together as a group. Failure to do so will likely cause the group to become split.

The housing application gives group members the option to copy their group leader’s list of residence choices. Important note: If the group leader changes their choices, the choices of the other group members will not update automatically. Each group member must go back and edit their application to re-copy the group leader’s choices after a change has been made. Otherwise, the old choices will remain on the group members' applications and will not match their leader's choices.

Group Retention

The “Group Retention” feature is only available for groups applying for autumn quarter housing though the Draw and these Draw groups are required to set a group retention level on their applications. Groups applying for a Waiting List round are not able to use group retention.

Group retention allows a Draw group to indicate through how many choices they would like the assignments program to keep their group together. For example, if a group of four students were to set their retention rate to 8, the assignment program would try to assign the entire group to their first choice. If there were not four spaces available in the group's first choice, the program would try to assign the entire group to their second choice. If there were not four spaces available in the group's second choice, the assignment program would move on through subsequent choices, trying to assign the entire group into each choice. If the assignment program goes through the first eight choices and is unable to get the entire group into any of those choices, it moves on to the ninth choice but group retention ends. If there is one vacancy in the group’s ninth choice, one person in the group would be assigned to that residence and the program would move on to the remaining three member’s tenth choice. Group retention allows students to prioritize staying together through a select number of residence choices (over being assigned to a higher residence choice without their group members) and then branch out on their own if desired.

Group retention also allows larger groups to split off into smaller groups. If a group of four wants to stay together through their 14th choice and then break into two groups of two through their 20th choice, all group members should set group retention to 20. After their 14th choice, the first group of two would list different choices than the second group of two, and the program would handle them as two groups of two starting at the point where the choices diverged..

Group retention only works if group members list the exact same choices in the exact same order. Once a group member lists a different choice from their group mates, their group retention is invalidated and the assignment program treats that group member as an individual.

If a member of a group does not wish to use group retention because they prefer to be assigned to the highest possible choice on their application with or without their group, they can set group retention on their application to “0”; however, it does increase the likelihood that they will be split from their group

Changing groups or deciding not to be part of a group

Students can change their applications until the application deadline, and can delete group information, change residence choices, and/or create or join a new group until the deadline.

Special Considerations

If a student applies as a group with another student who has applied for assignment through the Office of Accessible Education (during the Draw round only), they will need to be assigned through the Disability Draw and will not be able to join the main Draw or the July Reassignment Waiting List Round.  However, students still need to apply for housing, and if going through the Disability Draw need to apply for housing by mid-April.  See specific information on the Medical Accommodations page.

Filing a Split-group Petition

Split group petitions are only accepted after the Draw and Autumn Waiting List. Members of a group that is split after one of these rounds who wish to be assigned to the same residence as their group mates need to petition Housing Assignments by the Split Group Petition deadline. Every attempt is made to reunite split groups by the start of autumn quarter, and priority for reunification goes to groups that meet the following criteria: 

  • The group was not split because members selected different group retention choices
  • All members have the same tier level 
  • All members listed the same choices in the same order
  • All members petitioned by the deadline