2025-2026 Room Selection

NOTE: This information is only for returning students. New incoming first year students or transfers for Fall 2025 should be following the communications they receive from Undergraduate Admissions. New students do not need to pay a separate housing deposit and should only follow the communications from Undergraduate Admissions about deposits.

ROOM SELECTION TO DO LIST (Details on the steps are below)

• Consider if you will be part of a Greek Organization Housing or Affinity Housing Group applying to live together. Review application materials sent to Presidents.
• Pay your housing deposit by March 14, 2025
• Make sure you resolve any Bursar holds on your account
• Fill out your housing application by March 14, 2025
• Consider if you want to apply with a group of others for an apartment. Review point system described below.
• Create a roommate group with person/people to live with
• Look at dates in the timeline for when spaces in different buildings will be selected:
  • March 10-11: Interviews for Affinity Housing groups
  • March 31-April 4: Apartments (North Village and Gardens)
  • April 10: Honors housing
  • April 15-16: Spaces in various locations for medical accommodations
  • April 21: Gender Inclusive and Foodie Houses
  • April 23-25: Doubles, triples, quads, or singles in Albert Norman Ward Hall, Blanche Ward Hall, McDaniel Hall, and available West Main or PA Ave house spaces (selected room by room, not as whole house)

$200 HOUSING LOTTERY DEPOSIT IS DUE MARCH 14, 2024

• Visit  https://mcdaniel.erezlife.com and log in with your McDaniel username and password. This is our housing management system and a place to visit for information and updates.
• On the left menu bar, select Resources
• In the Resources area you can find 2025-2026 Room Selection: Prices and Deposit, which includes instructions for paying the deposit. You can either print out the Housing Deposit Form to mail with a check to the Bursar’s Office, or you can log in to your MyMcDaniel portal and pay online. Please contact the Bursar’s Office at  bursaroffice@mcdaniel.edu if you have questions.
• In order to participate in the room selection process and choose a room for next year you must pay the $200 housing deposit by March 14, 2024. Student(s) with whom you plan to live must also pay the deposit by this deadline as well. McDaniel College requires students to live on campus during their first three years as a student unless you are age 25+, commuting from the home of a parent/guardian, or married. For any students starting during the Fall 2023 or a later semester, the parent/guardian home must be within 30 miles of campus. Please remember that McDaniel College guarantees housing for the first four years. If you are unable to pay the housing deposit by March 14, a Residence Life Staff Member will contact you over the summer to determine your housing assignment.
• In order to participate in the room selection process, students also need to resolve any Bursar holds on their account.
• If you are going into a 9th+ semester you can email reslife@mcdaniel.edu to request to be on the housing waiting list in case vacant spaces are available. You would not participate in the room selection process and should not submit a housing a deposit.

HOUSING APPLICATION

The housing application on the eRezLife site will be live on February 14, 2025. 

• Visit https://mcdaniel.erezlife.com and log in with your McDaniel email username (without the @mcdaniel.edu) and password.
• Check the top of the left menu bar for your profile and make sure your fields are filled in and accurate.
• Top left again for Home, and then mid page for apply for housing. Fill out the application for 2025 Fall Housing.
• Housing applications should be completed by March 14, 2025 (same as the deposit deadline).

MEAL PLAN AND ROOM PRICES

You will be asked about a meal plan selection when you choose your housing. Please think about this in advance and refer to the Resources area of eRezLife where you can find a Room and Board Rates document in the 2025-2026 Room Selection: Prices and Deposit section.

• Students living in locations without a kitchen need to choose a Platinum, Gold, or Silver meal plan.  If they do not, they will be assigned a Gold meal plan. Meal plans can be changed until the end of the first two weeks of the semester.
• Students living in a location with a kitchen may select any meal plan option or opt out of selecting a meal plan.

ROOMMATE GROUP FORMING

Once you have completed your Housing Application and paid the $200 housing deposit by March 14, you are ready to select a roommate(s) if you choose. To select a roommate or roommate group you should do the following:

Once you have completed your Housing Application, paid the $200 housing deposit by March 14, and resolved any Bursar hold on your account you are ready to select a roommate(s) if you choose. To select a roommate or roommate group you should do the following:

• Visit https://mcdaniel.erezlife.com and select “Roommate groups” from the left menu.
• Create a new roommate group (feel free to make up a name for your group) and invite your friend(s) to the group. If you are trying to live in a double make sure to invite one additional person so there are two people in the group. This is the same if you want to live in a triple, quad, or apartment.
• Your invited roommates will then need to go into “Roommate groups” and agree to join your group. A student can only be in one group at a time, and everyone must actively agree to select/join the group you create.
• In order to select a room, you need to be able to fill it to capacity. In order to select a space in a double room (for example), you need to be in a roommate group with one other student. If you do not form a roommate group and are not able to/not interested in a single room, the Office of Residence Life will contact you over the summer about a room assignment.
• IMPORTANT: While it is possible to create a group with someone that completed their Housing Application but has not paid their room deposit, you will not be able to actually select a room with someone that has not paid the deposit by March 14. Please be in communication with your invited roommate(s) to make sure that everyone has taken care of both steps (application and deposit). The Office of Residence Life will also share a list of student eligible to participate in room selection in the Resources section of the eRezLife website.
• If you do not have a roommate, please check the Resources area on eRezLife under 2025-2026 Room Selection Process: Roommate Groups and Searching for information on a roommate profile search/match function of the website that you can opt to use.

APARTMENT APPLICATIONS

If you are interested in applying for an apartment for next year, you will need to create a group of 4, 5, or 6 students following the “Roommate Group Forming” instructions explained above.

The creator of the group will also need to complete the Qualtrics form available in the Resources section of eRezLife under the 2025-2026 Room Selection: Apartment Applications section. The names listed on the Qualtrics form and the students in your Roommate Group MUST match and everyone in the group must properly log into eRezLife to agree to join the group you created. Before completing the form, make sure you know the following:

• Who will be living in the single(s) or double(s)?
• Who will be roommates?
• What meal plans are individuals choosing, if any?

The group creator will submit this information on the apartment mates’ behalf.

Apartments are assigned based on the “point total” of the group. Each member that started at McDaniel in Fall 2021 is 3 points, Fall 2022 is 2 points, and Fall 2023 is 1 point. As described in the timeline below, each group is also assigned a random number, but that is only used in the event of a tie in points. Otherwise, the point total takes priority. For examples:

• There is one five bed North Village apartment left and two groups left in the application pile. A five-person group has three Fall 2022 start students (3 points each) and two Fall 2022 start students (2 points each), for a total of 13 points. Another five-person group has two Fall 2022 start students (3 points each), two Fall 2023 start students (2 points each), and a Fall 2024 start student (1 point), for a total of 11 points. The first group would get assigned the apartment.
• Same situation, one five bed North Village apartment left. First group has three Fall 2022 start students (3 points each) and two Fall 2023 start students (2 points each), for a total of 13 points. Another group has four Fall 2022 start students (3 points each) and one Fall 2024 start student (1 point), for a total of 13 points as well. In this case, it would come down to the random number assigned to each group, where numbers closer to “1” are better.

Remember: There is a brochure with information about each apartment type in the Resources area of eRezLife under Upper Class Housing Info. 

ROOM SELECTION TIMELINE

All participating students need to submit the deposit by March 14, 2025 and complete the online housing application.

Students who are on Bursar Hold cannot participate in the room selection process.

Once a student is assigned to a space, they are not able to continue to participate in other room selection processes. If they are assigned to a space and then decide to cancel for some reason and want to live elsewhere, they will be placed on a list to be contacted over the summer and placed in spaces available at the time.

• Greek Housing, Affinity Housing, and Language House processes are open for applications. The Residence Life Staff will work directly with those groups to manage room assignments and collect meal plan information. Participants in these programs still need to pay the housing deposit and be clear of any Bursar Holds.
• March 14: Deposit deadline
• March 14: Housing applications are also due
• March 26: Residence Life Staff will post a list of students eligible to participate in room selection (application done, deposit paid, no Bursar hold) in the Resources section of https://mcdaniel.erezlife.com and email housing applicants when this is available. This list will also have information on which selection group (please see details just below) students will be considered for picking rooms. These groups determine the order in which students will be selecting rooms, or their priority for being a part of a group applying for an apartment. If a student does not appear on the list, they are not eligible to participate in room selection and should contact Residence Life to see if this can be resolved. If you see your name and think you should be counted in a different group, please contact Residence Life at reslife@mcdaniel.edu to discuss that. 
  • Fall 2022 start. If you started at McDaniel as a first-year student in Fall 2022 OR if you started at McDaniel as a transfer student and you are currently a Junior by credits, this is your group. This group has the highest priority in the room selection process. For the apartment selection process, each of these students is worth 3 points toward their group total.
  • Fall 2023 start. This is for students that started at McDaniel as a first-year student in Fall 2023 OR began as transfer students and are current Sophomores by credit. This group has the next priority, and for the apartment process, each of these students is worth 2 points toward their group total.
  • Fall 2024 start. Students that started at McDaniel as a first-year student in Fall 2024 OR began as transfer students and are current First Years by credit will then select. For the apartment process, each of these students is worth 1 point toward their group total.
• March 31, 9am: If you have a group applying for a North Village 4 bed apartment, your Roommate Group needs to be formed and your Apartment Application must be complete by 9am on March 31 in order to be considered. At 9am, Residence Life Staff will download the applications and sort the applying groups by point totals and assign each group a random number. These random numbers are utilized if there is a tie in points.

NOTE: If a group was not successful in getting a North Village Apartment 4 bed apartment, they can submit a new Apartment Application for a different apartment in subsequent day processes. If they do so, they may also need to edit/create a new Roommate Group in eRezLife. Remember that the names on the Apartment Application MUST match the Roommate Group composition in eRezLife.

• April 1, 9am: If you have a group applying for a Garden Apartment 4 bed apartment, your Roommate Group needs to be formed and your Apartment Application must be complete by 9am on April 1. As on the previous day, if a group is not successful, they can reconfigure and apply for a different apartment type on a later process date.
• April 2, 9am: If you have a group applying for a North Village 5 bed apartment, your Roommate Group needs to be formed and your Apartment Application must be complete by 9am on April 2. As on the previous day, if a group is not successful, they can reconfigure and apply for a different apartment type on a later process date.
• April 3, 9am: If you have a group applying for a North Village 6 bed apartment, your Roommate Group needs to be formed and your Apartment Application must be complete by 9am on April 3. As on the previous day, if a group is not successful, they can reconfigure and apply for a different apartment type on a later process date.
• April 4, 9am: If you have a group applying for a Garden Apartment 5 bed apartment, your Roommate Group needs to be formed and your Apartment Application must be complete by 9am on April 4.
• April 9: Honors Students will be notified of a time when they are able to login on April 10 in order to select a bed from Honors Housing. Fall 2022 start category students will be assigned the earliest times, then Fall 2023, and then Fall 2024.
• April 10: Honors Student room selection will take place.
• April 15-16: Students with medical accommodations that do not already have a room assignment will be contacted for housing placement.
• April 21, 9am: If you (or you and a roommate) are interested in applying for Gender Inclusive Housing or a space in the “Foodie House” (cooking/baking themed housing), your application must be submitted by 9am on this day. Students will be assigned based on the starting semester groups and randomly assigned numbers. Please see application links in the Resources area of https://mcdaniel.erezlife.com
• April 22: All remaining eligible students without a room assignment thus far will be assigned a date and time when they can begin to log in and select their housing.
• April 23: Room selection will take place for remaining students that started in Fall 2022 or transferred to McDaniel and are current Juniors.
• April 24: Room selection will take place for remaining students that started in Fall 2023 or transferred to McDaniel and are current Sophomores.
• April 25: Room selection will take place for remaining students that started in Fall 2024 or transferred to McDaniel and are current First Years.