On Sept. 11, Residence Life at North Central College (NCC) sent out an email informing students about changes to the housing selection process. Now, students will apply for 2025-2026 housing in October 2024 and enter the dorm lottery in Jan. 2025.
In the past, this process occurred in the spring semester around midterms. Now that the timeline has moved up, students are in a panic to figure out their housing plans for next academic year.
What is changing?
For students interested in reclaiming their rooms or participating in the housing lottery, the application is in October. The application opens by Oct. 7th and ends Nov. 6th. If students do not apply in this time, they can still apply for housing but will not be able to enter the lottery. Instead, Resident Life will be automatically placing them into an open space.
The housing lottery is when students get assigned a date and time where they can select an available room for the next year. Students’ lottery times are assigned based on the number of credits they have.
The lottery will take place throughout Jan. Students will also be able to change their roommate groups until Jan. 5.
There are two changes occurring for the Residence Halls themselves. The new minimum required credit amount for New Hall is changing from 60 to 75, to accommodate more seniors. Res/Rec is also experiencing a change next school year. The first floor is off limits to reclaim, as the school is reserving it for incoming transfer students.
Why?
So, why is this change happening?
Nicole Wilkins, Assistant Director of Residence Life, explained the process and change with housing selections here at NCC.
“We decided to move the timeline earlier to provide students with additional time, and to avoid conflicts with midterms and class schedules,” said Wilkins.
According to Wilkins, this change was in response to student feedback in the 2023-2024 academic year.
This change also allows students more time to cancel their application without a fee. Fees for late cancellation begin May 1, 2025. It also provides time for students to finalize decisions during the school year and ask questions before they go back home for the summer.
Procedure
While the timeline for applying and selecting housing for the next academic year has changed, the procedure has not.
Students have four options for housing applications: Reclaim alone, reclaim and pull in a friend, be pulled into a reclaimed space, or join the lottery.
If reclaiming a room, eRezLife accounts will update assignments by Friday, Nov. 22, 2024. Students should check their accounts to make sure the reclaim is processed by Nov. 29 and report discrepancies to reslife@noctrl.edu. These students will not participate in the lottery in Jan.
If they are not reclaiming a room, students will enter the lottery in Jan. More information on the housing selection lottery will be available on Sept. 30, when Residence Life sends out guides to help students with the process.
Student reactions
While Residence Life claims that students want this change, most were unsure and maybe even panicked because of it. Two students, a sophomore and freshman, shared their reactions.
Keyla Boateng, ‘27, found it surprising when hearing about the changes to the housing application timeline being much earlier than last year.
“Yeah, that’s new too. I didn’t know you had to have it done by January, that’s wild,” said Keyla Boateng, ‘27.
Olivia Bergfeld, ‘28, a freshman here at NCC, also had concerns for her housing next academic year.
“I thought about it a little more, and I was like wait, I just got here as a freshman. How am I supposed to know where I want to live next year or who I’m rooming with,” said Olivia Bergfeld, ‘28.
It is safe to say that students are not too happy with this housing selection change at NCC. Hopefully this attitude may change when the process ends early next semester.
