Housing Selection Informational Resources

Welcome to the 2025-2026 Housing Application process! We’re here to ensure you have all the essential information, including important updates for the upcoming year, to help make informed decisions about on-campus living options at Carolina Housing.

Room Selection Information Sessions

Carolina Housing will also host two virtual Room Selection Information sessions on October 15th and October 16^th to provide an opportunity for students and parents to ask questions about these changes and the overall housing selection process.

October 15^th Information Session: 11:00am EST: https://unc.zoom.us/j/92452113901

October 16^th Information Session: 1:00pm EST: https://unc.zoom.us/j/91837341108

Application Timeline The application will open on October 21st at 9am, and the priority deadline is November 12th at 11:59 pm. Remember, you must complete your housing contract online by the priority deadline to renew your room or participate in housing selection.

Campus Availability

Avery Hall: Currently offline for maintenance and upgrades, Avery Hall is scheduled to re-open before Fall 2025. However, it will not be available for room selection. Instead, students will be reassigned to Avery Hall in Spring 2025. This will temporarily reduce the number of beds available during room selection.
Craige North: The top two floors are currently used for first-year students. For the 2025-2026 year, we anticipate that all of Craige North will house first-year students and/or incoming Transfer and Exchange students. Therefore, Craige North will not be available for Room Selection.

Demand and the Waitlist We continue to expect high demand for on-campus spaces. While the exact demand cannot be known until after the November 12th priority deadline, we project a waitlist of students who applied by the priority deadline but were unable to select a room. It is not uncommon for there to be a waitlist at the end of the room selection process. Students who were unable to select a room will be placed on a waitlist, ordered by academic classification, and will receive their waitlist position and regular updates as we process cancellations.

Important Changes for the 2025-2026 Room Selection: Due to increased demand for on-campus housing, several changes have been made to the housing contract and the room selection process. Our goal in making these changes is to provide housing as quickly as possible to as many students as possible who want to live on campus. These changes will allow us to move faster through the waitlist by disincentivizing students from holding onto on-campus spaces while they search for off-campus alternatives. Please pay close attention to the sections below that outline these changes.

Housing Contract Cancellation Changes: Carolina Housing has updated the cancellation schedule to decrease the time between room selection and the first penalty increase. Previously, students had up to three months to decide if they wanted to keep their space or move off-campus and cancel for the lowest penalty of $300. Moving forward, the first cancellation penalty will now be in December, providing assigned students a month to decide if they would like to live on campus or move off-campus. The base penalty has also increased from $300 to $500.

We strongly suggest students only sign up for on-campus housing if they are committed to living on campus. However, we recognize that plans can change, and the housing contract allows for a cancellation that is substantially lower than the off-campus market. Carolina Housing will continue to review appeals to waive the cancellation penalty based on unexpected financial or medical hardships in conjunction with the Office of Student Aid and the Equal Opportunity and Compliance Office.

The new cancellation schedule for returning students is as follows:

After submitting the application but before room selection begins, the student may cancel for no penalty.
Until December 15th, students who receive an assignment through room renewal or room selection may cancel for $500.
From December 16th through January 16th, the assigned student will be responsible for 50% of the Fall semester room rent
On or after January 17th, the student will be responsible for prorated rent and cancellation charges equal to 50% of the remaining total contract value (both semesters).

A student on the housing waitlist at the end of room selection will have until January 16th to cancel without penalty. Beginning on January 17th, students without an assignment who cancel will only be charged the $500 penalty.

Once assigned off the waitlist, a student will have 14 days to cancel for $500.
Days 15-30, an assigned student will be responsible for 50% of the Fall semester room rent.
After 31 or more days, the resident will be responsible for prorated rent and cancellation charges equal to 50% of the remaining total contract value (both semesters).

Any cancellations that occur on or after August 1st are subject to prorated rent and cancellation charges equal to 50% of the remaining total contract value (both semesters).

Room Selection Timeslot Changes Given the high demand for on-campus housing and the way timeslots are assigned, rising Sophomore students were significantly overrepresented on the waitlist. Room Selection timeslots were previously assigned based on Academic classification as determined by completed credit hours. Moving forward, a slight change will be made to room selection, and timeslots will be assigned in the following order:

Day 1: Any Senior or rising Senior by Academic class who did not renew their room can select from available spaces on the first day of room selection.
Day 2 through the end of the process: All rising Juniors and rising Sophomore students will be combined into one group and will be assigned a randomly generated timeslot to select available spaces.

This model will still provide Seniors with some priority in selecting a housing assignment and ensure that the student classifications on the waitlist are more evenly distributed between rising Juniors and rising Sophomores.

Sophomore Only Spaces Morrison Hall is currently designated as a Sophomore Only building during room selection. This year, Carolina Housing will also categorize rooms in Manly and McIver as Sophomore only to provide more housing specifically for students returning to campus for their second year.