For students who plan to live on-campus for the 2023-24 academic year, room selection is fast-approaching. Student housing is guaranteed for four-year students at both Rose Hill and Lincoln Center. 48% of Fordham students live in on-campus housing.

In recent years, getting first-choice housing has been challenging for many undergraduate students, particularly freshmen and sophomores, due to increases in first year class size.

“Our returning students who have returned to housing continue to return at steady rates. Our first year student classes in housing have been slightly larger the past two years and we work hard each year to make good on Fordham’s guarantee of housing,” said Nicole Vaughan, assistant director of Residential Life for Housing Operations at Rose Hill.

Room selection is designed to give upperclassmen more options to choose their housing as well as fair opportunities within classes. Upperclassmen are assigned an earlier time slot to select housing than underclassmen.

“Students are assigned a time slot based on their class year. Other than class year, students who deposited for housing on time and are going through our room selection process are randomly assigned a time slot to ensure a fair and equal opportunity to choose their preferred housing,” said Vaughan.
Although time slots are assigned randomly to ensure fairness throughout the room selection process, students can only hope that they or their roommates are assigned an early time slot. If students have a later time slot, there’s the possibility that there will be no rooms available by the time it’s their turn to select their room.

Elizabeth Sadler, FCRH ’25, was placed in Post-Room Selection while completing room selection last year. Sadler was trying to select a double-room in O’Hare Hall for her and her roomate.
“There wasn’t any housing left in O’Hare or Finlay [Hall] that fit my group size during my time slot, which was 11:30 [a.m.]. My time slot was the earliest between me and my roommate,” said Sadler.

“In part because of the housing types available and strong demand we have seen — especially first year housing — room selection has for many years been designed to give students in the upper classes more options to choose their housing,” Vaughan said.

The Room Selection Manual states that, toward the end of room selection, there comes a point where there are no rooms left to choose. Students unable to pick a room go into Post-Room Selection and are guaranteed housing and are placed in housing throughout July and August.

“Our office sends a Post Room Selection form to all students in the post room selection pool to gather their housing preferences including style of housing/hall preference, roommate requests and these factors’ order of importance. The number can vary, but is generally between 300 and 500 students [in the post-room selection pool] depending on demand. Of course, the pandemic affected demand greatly.”

Although Sadler and her roommate were eventually guaranteed housing in O’Hare, they didn’t receive their housing assignment until mid-July.

“I was extremely stressed about my housing assignment. I heard tons of stories of people being separated from their roommates, getting placed with random people and winding up in totally different dorms than they requested,” said Sadler.

The class of 2026 consists of 2,600 students, an enrollment number only slightly lower than the class of 2025. Although Fordham’s class sizes have increased over the past two years, Residential Life is equipped to accommodate all students who wish to live on-campus.

“We continue to handle the housing demand through our room selection process and work with Admissions very closely to ensure there’s space for all incoming students accepted with housing,” said Vaughan.

“I am anticipating some housing issues; getting a time slot is always stressful and I would definitely prefer not to have to go into post room selection. Most people I know are dreading housing sign ups,” said Sadler.

Residential Life said it is available to assist students who have any unanswered questions about room selection, who are unsure about the housing options or who are anxious about the upcoming room selection process.

“Call us or send us an email — we are here to help. We would also recommend that students take the process one step at a time. To start, reading the Room Selection Manual will provide great insights into the process and the best steps. If there are particular questions, please reach out to [email protected] and we are available to answer questions. On the days of room selection, we are available via phone and will monitor the email account as well if students have any questions or difficulties,” said Vaughan.