First-Year Students

Fall 2024 First-Year Housing Registration

Our team is extremely excited to welcome the students and families of the Class of 2028 into our community. Our core mission is to build positive communities that empower our students to grow and develop as they engage in unique challenges and possibilities throughout their undergraduate experience. Our residence halls are a focal point of our institution's mission to further human well-being by offering a space of cultural and intellectual diversity that is the foundation for the exploration of new ideas.

Housing at GW is based on a student’s class year at GW, and not on the academic credits that a student has. Students whose first semester at GW is fall 2024 will have the class year of 2028 and are considered first-year students during the 2024-2025 academic year.

All housing processes happen via a student's GW Home Portal, which requires a student to claim a GW email address and UserID to log in.

1.  Review Criteria to Receive an Exemption to the Residency Requirement

The George Washington University requires all first-, and second-year students to reside on campus unless they are approved for an exemption to our residency requirement. First-year students who believe they meet one of the seven criteria and desire to live off-campus may apply for an exemption to the requirement. Applying for an exemption does not guarantee that the exemption will be approved. Exemptions approved will remain in effect for the remainder of a student's time as an undergraduate student at GW, unless relinquished to allow a student to live on-campus if desired.

The form to apply for a first-year residency exemption will open in May and will be available via a student's GW Home Portal. Students who intend to request an exemption should begin to prepare the documentation required for exemption requests.

2.  Review First-Year Residence Halls, Costs, and Meal Plans

During the 2024-2025 academic year, GW has 11 first-year residence halls across our Mount Vernon and Foggy Bottom Campuses:

Mount Vernon Campus

• Clark Hall (primarily doubles with adjoined bathrooms)
• Cole Hall (primarily doubles with adjoined bathrooms)
• Hensley Hall (primarily doubles with adjoined bathrooms)
• Merriweather Hall (primarily doubles with adjoined bathrooms)
• Somers Hall (primarily doubles with adjoined bathrooms)
• West Hall (primarily quads with single bedrooms)

Foggy Bottom Campus

• Guthridge Hall (doubles, triples, quads, and fives with private bathrooms)
• Madison Hall (doubles and quads with private bathrooms)
• Mitchell Hall (primarily singles with common floor bathrooms)
• Potomac House (primarily doubles with adjoined bathrooms)
• Thurston Hall (doubles and singles with common, private bathroom suites)

Review 2024-2025 housing costs before beginning the housing registration process. All first-year students who live in a GW residence hall are required to have a meal plan and students should review the meal plan that first-year students are required to have. Meal plans will be selected during housing registration.

All housing and meal costs are placed on a student's eBill, similar to tuition and other fees.

3.  Review the First-Year Housing Registration Timeline

Housing registration for incoming first-year students will occur in May and June, along the following timeline:

• Around Tuesday, May 7:
  • Students who submit a deposit by the GW Admissions deposit deadline and have claimed GW UserID will be invited to access the MyCollegeRoomie system (explained further on this page)
• Wednesday, May 8:
  • First-year students may request an exemption to our residency requirement to live off-campus. Exemption requests are reviewed on a rolling basis.
  • First-year students gain access to their GW Home Portal
• Tuesday, May 14 at 12:00 PM EDT:
  • First-year students may begin to register for 2024-2025 academic year housing via their GW Home Portal. Housing is not determined on a first-come, first-served basis based on when a student registers for housing.
• Wednesday, June 5 at 4:00 PM EDT:
  • First-year student housing registration closes
• Late June:
  • First-year housing assignments are released. The specific date will be updated here soon.
• Friday, June 21 at 9:00 AM EDT
  • Housing registration re-opens for students who were not able to register by the initial June 5 deadline.

First-year students will be notified via their GW email address when each of the housing registration periods opens.

4.  If Desired, Register with Disability Support Services (DSS) to Request a Housing Accommodation

Residential living is central to the learning environment for many GW students. Students with specific disability-related needs may request housing accommodations. If approved for a housing accommodation that we can meet, a student will be placed into the type of room that meets the specific housing accommodation.

Students who feel that they need a housing accommodation must register with GW Disability Support Services (DSS). Housing accommodations are reviewed by Disability Support Services, and if approved, sent to Campus Living & Residential Education. Students who receive a housing accommodation will register for housing between May 14 and June 5, regardless of when they receive the housing accommodation. The CLRE team then uses the housing accommodation to place a student in a room that meets the accommodation before other first-year students are assigned to rooms. Incoming first-year students with housing accommodations will be notified of their housing assignment in late June.

5.  Prepare for Life with a Roommate

Almost all students who live in GW residence halls have roommates: someone whom they share a bedroom or other living space with. Beginning to prepare for life with a roommate is an important step in the transition to becoming a GW student. Students and families should begin thinking about the following topics of shared living:

• Number of desired roommates (sharing a bedroom) and suitemates (sharing bathrooms)
• Bathroom types:
  • private (bathroom inside a room used by only those who live in that room)
  • adjoined (bathroom shared between two double rooms)
  • community (bathroom used by the entire floor, with distinct men's and women's bathrooms per floor)
  • common, private bathroom suites (shared gender-inclusive bathroom suites used by entire floor; multiple suites per floor with shared sink area and private, secure rooms with a toilet, sink, and shower; Thurston Hall only)
• Sleep schedules
• Desired use of the room (including studying, having friends over, noise, or other use)
• Desired level of room cleanliness
• Resolving differences in personal living preferences with roommates
• Any other important considerations around shared living environments

Students are assigned roommates through a variety of methods:

1. Students find each other and mutually agree to live with one another. Students may identify any other first-year student to live with, regardless of sex or gender, or
2. Students are automatically assigned one or more roommates of a similar sex. This roommate assignment used personal living preferences, noted in a student's housing registration, to match them up with students who may have similar living styles or preferences, or
3. Students who desire to live with any other student, regardless of sex or gender, may participate in our Gender Inclusive Housing group. A student who desires this will note that in their housing registration and will be placed into a pool of students who may be assigned to live with one another without regard to a roommate's sex or gender. Personal living preferences will be used to match up roommates with others. Students who participate in this Gender Inclusive Housing group should be welcoming and affirming of all student gender identities, sexual orientation, or other identities

View GW Roommate Matching Questions

Each year, first-year students at GW tend to create roommate group sizes to maximize the best possible chance of specific residence halls. Should more large groups get created than rooms of those large sizes, Campus Living & Residential Education may need to split up a small number of roommate groups.

In order to minimize the chance that a roommate group would need to be split up, only 2-person and 4-person groups are allowed to be created. First-year students are not permitted to create 3-person roommate groups.

As students think about first-year living, the following room sizes are available for first-year students during the 2024-2025 academic year. 

6.  Enter My College Roomie to Search for Roommates

Students who desire to find and pick other specific people to be roommates with have an option: My College Roomie. Using My College Roomie is not required and many students each year decide to let our housing assignment system determine who their roommate(s) will be, based on personal living preferences indicated in their housing registration.

My College Roomie is a system, managed by a third-party vendor, that helps students discover and match with other first-year students. All first-year students who have claimed their GW email address and UserID automatically have an account in My College Roomie. In the system, students will fill in personal information, upload photos, and answer a series of questions about shared living preferences. Using a sliding scale, each question asked will involve students indicating where they fall on the scale for themselves, as well as their comfort zone for potential roommates. After completing their answers, students will be able to see a list of other students they are closest matches to based on their answers. Students can then message each other in My College Roomie, share contact information to connect outside of the system, and determine if they will be successful roommates for each other.

My College Roomie will launch around May 6 and first-year students who have claimed a GW email address and UserID will be notified that their account in My College Roomie has been created.

Students in living-learning communities, such as Civic House, the Women's Leadership Program, the University Honors Program, Blaze the Tra1l, and the Politics & Values Program, will only be able to discover and match with other members of their program or program's cohort.

7.  Register for First-Year Housing

On May 14, first-year housing registration will begin via a student's GW Home Portal. Housing assignments are not given on a first-come, first-serve basis and there is no incentive to register for housing quickly. We encourage all students to take their time and be thoughtful in their housing registration, in which a student will:

• If desired, indicate a desire to live with other specific people as roommates by creating a roommate group. To create a roommate group, students do the following:
  1. The group's chosen leader creates the group, setting the group's name and password
  2. The leader shared the group name and password with desired roommates
  3. During housing registration, roommates join the group by entering the group's name and password
  4. The leader confirms each member's request to join, adding them to the group when confirming the request 
• Indicate personal living preferences, through a series of scaled questions, regarding important topics such as sleep schedules, use of rooms, cleanliness, and more. These answers will be used to assign students with roommates if they don't request specific other people.
• Rank a list of 16 different first-year residence halls and room sizes, from 1 to 16. This ranked preference list is used to assign students to a hall and room size as high as possible on their list
  • Students should keep in mind the size of their roommate group when ranking building and room size preferences. We prioritize keeping roommate groups together (not splitting them up) over rankings of building and room sizes, with our belief that who you live with is more important than where you live.
  • All first-year students are required to rank all 16 possible room types. While CLRE does everything possible to ensure students are assigned to rooms near the top of their preference list, each year demand for specific halls and room sizes can outnumber the number of spaces we have in those room sizes. All first-year students should prepare for the possibility that they and their roommates are assigned to halls and room sizes lower on their preference list
  • Singles with private bathrooms are not eligible for ranking, as they are typically reserved for students with Disability Support Services housing accommodations for that specific type of room. If a student receives a housing accommodation for a single with a bathroom, CLRE will use hall preferences in a student's housing registration to assign them to a single with a private bathroom
  • Students in living-learning communities (Civic House, the Women's Leadership Program, the University Honors Program, and the Politics & Values Program) will rank building and room types, but students in these programs will be assigned to live in specific buildings pre-determined by program
• Sign the 2024-2025 Housing License Agreement, the agreement that outlines what you agree to in order to live in a GW residence hall
• Update contact information that Campus Living & Residential Education need to have on record for students and their emergency contacts

Upon successful registration, a first-year student will be able to edit their housing registration as many times as desired until assigned to a room:

• sending invitations to other students to join a roommate group
• accepting invitations to join another student's roommate group
• adjusting the ranking of hall and room types
• adjusting answers to personal living preference questions

First-Year Hall and Room Sizes Eligible for Ranking

To help first-year students effectively rank hall and room sizes in their housing registration, here is the breakdown of the prevalence of each hall and room size. Note that first-year students are not able to indicate preferences for bathroom type between private or adjoined bathrooms.

8.  Receive First-Year Housing Assignment

In late June, all first-year students who registered for housing will receive their specific housing assignment, including the residence hall, room number, and information about any specific roommates (if applicable). The CLRE team will release housing assignments on a rolling basis throughout the day on release day.

Students who wish to explore changing their room assignment will have the opportunity to do so through Room Swap, a system involving expressing a desire to move, finding another first-year student interested in swapping rooms, and confirming the swap. Room Swap will be open from late June to late July. Housing will be at capacity, with no vacant spaces, when housing assignments are released in mid-June.

Housing Waitlist

There may be a small waitlist of first-year students who have not been assigned when room assignments are initially sent out. Because all first-year students are required to live in on-campus housing, all first-year students are guaranteed housing and will be assigned housing.

As space becomes available in the days after assignments are released, students placed on the waitlist will be the first to be assigned and will be assigned on a rolling basis.

Students on the waitlist will be asked to update their building and room preferences. In other words, students with very specific preferences (e.g., single bedrooms only, very few buildings or room preferences, or multiple roommate preferences) will have a more difficult time being assigned due to the nature of available spaces through cancellations.

We understand that being on the waitlist may not be ideal and we are happy to answer any questions you may have about being assigned from the waitlist. Students on the waitlist typically receive an assignment by the end of July.

First-Year Housing Registration FAQs

What do I need to do before I can register for housing?

Make your deposit to The George Washington University; there is not a separate housing deposit required.

• Retrieve your George Washington ID Number (GWID)
• Claim your UserID and GW email address
• More information can be found on the Admissions website.

Where is the First-Year Housing Registration located?

The First-Year Housing Registration will be available beginning on May 14 via a student's GW Home Portal.

All housing-related actions and processes happen via the GW Home Portal.

What is my UserID?

UserID (Formerly NetID): Your UserID is the ID that you'll use to log in to GW resources. It allows you access to many GW technology services and is an important first step in establishing your digital identity at GW.

Your UserID is your GWID.

You can claim your UserID online at GW Information Technology.

It will take 24 to 48 hours for your UserID to be imported into the housing system. You will not be able to access your GW Home Portal or My College Roomie until this has occurred.

I am having problems accessing the housing registration.

Ensure that you have made your deposit to the university and it has been processed. This can take a few days.

Make sure that you have created a UserID and that you have waited 24-48 hours for it to sync with our housing system.

The application works the best on the Chrome browser. Make sure you are running the latest version of any browser you are using and that pop-up blockers are turned off.

If you continue to have technical issues, contact GW Campus Living & Residential Education at [email protected] or (202) 994-2552. Our office is open Monday-Friday from 9am-5pm EST.

How does the housing assignment process work?

The housing system uses a random selection process, meaning that it will randomly select an application and then look at the preferences listed.  If your first preference is available at the time your application is pulled, you will be assigned to that space. If it is not available, the system will look at your next preference and see if that space is available and then assign you there. This process continues until you are assigned. If you have requested roommates, the system will assign you together as long as there are enough spaces together available.

Are housing assignments made on a first-come, first-serve basis?

No, you can register for housing at any point before it closes and it will not affect the order in which you are assigned. We encourage you to take your time and be thoughtful in your housing registration.

If you apply after the deadline, you will be assigned after students who registered on time.

Why do I have to list so many room preferences?

Selecting all available hall and room size preferences gives you more control over where you are placed. Having more preferences means that our system has a better idea of your choices from top choice to last choice. In effect, you must list every possible first-year hall and room size available, as we want you to understand that you could be place in any of those halls or room sizes.

We also recommend thinking about the housing experience you would like to have. If it is important to you to be in a double room, then list all double rooms on both campuses before listing any larger rooms. If you would prefer one campus over the other, list all room types available on that campus before listing any from the other campus.

What are the most popular residence halls?

The popularity of residence halls changes from year to year and each residence hall offers a unique housing experience. Typically, quad rooms (with single bedrooms) in West Hall and double units in Foggy Bottom halls are highly preferred.

I am not happy with my housing assignment, how can I change rooms?

Housing will be full for first-year students, so it is unlikely Campus Living & Residential Education will be able to move you into a different room on campus as we do not expect to have vacant spaces available in first-year halls.

Can I cancel my housing? Is there a fee?

First- and second- are required to live on campus unless they have been approved for a Residency Exemption.

Students are able to cancel their housing if they are not attending GW and there is no cancellation fee.

Students who cancel their housing after they have moved in will be subject to the terms and conditions outlined in the Housing License Agreement.

I need special accommodations for housing, what should I do?

GW Campus Living & Residential Education works closely with Disability Support Services (DSS) to find a configuration of space that fits the accommodation needs of students who have medical or disability concerns regarding their housing. Students must register with DSS prior to or during the housing registration process.

Can I live off-campus?

All first-, and second-year students are required to live on campus. However, there are situations where students do qualify for a Residency Exemption. Common situations include students commuting from home, students who are married, student veterans who are over 20 years old, and students who have children.

Requests for Residency Exemption can be made starting May 7.

How many students live on each campus?

30% of the first-year class lives on Mount Vernon. 70% of the first-year class lives on Foggy Bottom

Is it possible to be assigned to live on Mount Vernon?

Yes, first-year students could be assigned to live on either the Mount Vernon or Foggy Bottom Campuses. All first-year students should prepare for the possibility that they are assigned to live on the Mount Vernon Campus.