Curious about how we assign first-year students and roommates to housing? This outline describes our process.
Housing Process Overview
After you have submitted your housing application, we assign all first-year residential students to a Shared Interest Community based on the preferences selected in the housing application. These communities are not connected to specific academic majors; rather, you can choose the one that best fits your interests. We house our first-year students this way to provide an opportunity for you to live with peers who share similar interests beyond the classroom. If you are interested in learning more about the different Shared Interest Communities options for our first-year students you can read more on our Shared Interest Community page.
Roommate Requests
You may request roommates through the housing portal. After completing a housing application, you can create roommate groups in the Roommate Groups section of the Housing Portal. You will need the maine.edu email of the person you wish to invite. Once you click save they will receive an email with the information on how to accept the invitation. Please note: You can only invite people who have completed their housing application to a roommate group.
As we make assignments, we will take these roommate groups into consideration and will seek to prioritize requested roommates even if the individuals have selected different Shared Interest Communities. We still recommend discussing with your roommate what Shared Interest Communities you are considering to find one that you are both interested in. If you do not select a roommate group, we will do our best to match you with roommate(s) with similar preferences based on the responses to the Roommate Matching information on each of your housing applications. As such, we ask that students make sure to fill out this section as accurately as possible, and that you do not have someone fill out this section for you!
Honors and Roommate Groupings
One of our most frequent roommate group mismatches is for students who want to create a roommate group that has both Honors and non-Honors students in it. Honors students have specific sections of the 1-credit experiential class designed for the Honors Program, and are housed in an Honors Community. As not all students are able to participate in Honors, however, we do allow exceptions for roommate groups made up of both Honors and non-Honors students. In these cases, students in these roommate groups may either be housed in the Honors Community or the Shared Interest Community that is selected by the non-Honors student, depending on the availability of open rooms in each of these communities.
Timeline
The housing application deadline to be assigned to housing in the first round of assignments is May 7th. While we typically begin housing students in July, our process is ongoing throughout the summer, as our ability to house students depends on when you and any requested roommates register for classes. Making assignments later in the summer not only allows us a wider pool of students that we can draw from when creating roommate groups but also results in fewer changes to roommate groups as students are usually firmer in their plans later in the summer.
Room Types for First-Year Students
We do not offer singles, suites, or apartments within our first-year housing options. Students are housed in doubles. If you need any kind of housing accommodation, you must submit a Housing Accommodations Request Form through USM’s Disability Services Center (DSC), as all accommodation requests must go through that process. Please know that requests are not guaranteed- rather our DSC will communicate with applicants about what we are able to accommodate.
Other Information
If you have any additional questions regarding housing here at USM, please take a moment to review our Frequently Asked Questions and our Residential Hall Policies. If you have any additional questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact us.