Important update for undergraduates on 2023-24 housing assignments

Dear students,

We are writing today with an important update on the housing assignment process for the 2023-24 academic year and information about the longer-term vision for our neighborhood system. We have heard from many of you over the past two years that a greater degree of choice would help you create a home with your friend groups. As we think through the balance between community cohesion and student choice, we are writing today to share news of a one-year neighborhood re-assignment pilot program for 2023-24, a major feature of which is that moving neighborhoods will not involve any house and room selection penalty.

Here are the basics:

• Students who love their current neighborhood are welcome to stay.
• For students who would like to make a change, we will re-open the neighborhood reassignment process.
• Students will be able to rank up to eight neighborhoods and apply with a group of up to eight friends from any neighborhood.
• Re-assignments will be on a space-available basis.
• In contrast to our prior policy, students who change neighborhoods will not face any house and room selection penalty. They will select their house and room with others in their class year.
• The undergraduate theme house pre-assignment application deadline will be extended.
• House and room selection will be postponed; prepare to monitor Stanford email this summer.
• Additional details are provided below.

This short-term pilot will help inform longer-term thinking and planning, and we invite all of you to remain engaged in shaping the neighborhood system. More information will be shared soon about a new task force to be appointed by President Tessier-Lavigne. The task force will recommend what changes and enhancements should be made to realize the full potential of the neighborhoods to create thriving residential experiences for our diverse student body. Members will include students, faculty, and professional staff. To inform its work, the group will study changes to date, including the pilot described above, and solicit input and ideas from students at large.

We would like to thank everyone who has connected with us and our staff with feedback on the neighborhood system. Your observations, experiences, and suggestions are helping us take steps to create the brightest future possible for our undergraduate residential community.

We wish you all the best in your studies this quarter.

Sincerely,

Susie Brubaker-Cole
Vice Provost for Student Affairs

Shirley J. Everett
Senior Associate Vice Provost for Residential & Dining Enterprises
Senior Adviser to the Provost on Equity and Inclusion

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Housing assignments information

Please take the time to read this information carefully so that you understand what you must do in order to secure housing for next year and, if desired, this summer.

Covered in this message:

• Pilot Neighborhood Change Process
• House and Room Selection
• Pre-assignment
• Summer Quarter Housing
• Housing Assignments Timeline

Pilot Neighborhood Change Process

Beginning on April 14, students will be able to once again apply to change neighborhoods. On the neighborhood change application, students will have the ability to rank order all eight neighborhoods. If a student is reassigned to another neighborhood, they will not face any house and room selection penalty. They will be assigned a house and room selection time (gate time) randomly within their class year like all other students. Neighborhood Change Requests are due by April 21 (8 p.m. PT).

Here is some important information you should understand about the Pilot Neighborhood Reassignment Process:

Students who DO NOT want to change neighborhoods

If you do not want to change neighborhoods, you do not need to do anything at this time. On May 2, you will receive an email inviting you to participate in House and Room Selection for your neighborhood. Please watch for this email as it contains important steps you will need to follow to secure autumn quarter housing.

If you do not want to change neighborhoods but have friends in other neighborhoods who want to join you in your neighborhood, you do not need to apply to change neighborhoods, but your friends should apply and list your neighborhood.  Note that, since your friends may not be successful in transferring, if your top priority is to be with your friends, we recommend that you consider changing neighborhoods with your friends and applying to all eight neighborhoods (see below).

Students who DO want to change neighborhoods

Students who wish to apply to change neighborhoods can form a group of up to eight students from any neighborhood. While students can apply with up to eight students, smaller groups will be easier to reassign than larger groups.

You will be able to rank all eight neighborhoods on your application and you can rank as many or as few as you would like. Ranking fewer neighborhoods will decrease your chances of being reassigned to a new neighborhood. You will not be considered for neighborhoods you do not rank. Therefore, if your top priority is to be with friends from other neighborhoods, we recommend that you rank all eight neighborhoods.

Instructions for how to form a group are included on the application. The student who creates the group will be given a unique group ID that other students can use to join that group. In order to keep students together, only the group leader will be able to rank neighborhoods and those rankings will apply to everyone in the group. Group members will receive email notifications when members join or leave the group.

Neighborhood reassignment applications will be considered in class year order. Rising senior requests will be considered first, then rising junior, then rising sophomore. Within each class year, applications are considered in a random order. Students with mixed class groups will be considered with the lower class. For example, a group of two rising juniors and a rising sophomore will be considered with the rising sophomores.

Students who participate in this process are not guaranteed a neighborhood reassignment. Our ability to reassign students to a different neighborhood is dependent on the number of estimated vacancies we will have in each neighborhood. Additionally, neighborhoods are balanced by class year and gender which can limit the type of student able to reassign into certain neighborhoods.

If you apply as a group, you will be reassigned only if your entire group can be moved to the same neighborhood. Again, if your top priority is to be with friends from other neighborhoods, we recommend that you rank all eight neighborhoods.

Neighborhood change results will be announced on April 28. If your neighborhood is changed, you will not have the ability to cancel or reject the neighborhood reassignment.

If your neighborhood is changed, you will select a house and room within that neighborhood during the House and Room Selection process (see below).

If we are unable to assign you to a neighborhood on your ranked list, you will remain in your current neighborhood.

Students who applied to change neighborhoods last week should submit a new neighborhood change application with ranked choices.

R&DE Student Housing Assignments will be hosting a question and answer session on the neighborhood change process on Tuesday, April 18 from 4-5 p.m. Use this link to access the webinar.

Click here beginning at 9 a.m. PT on April 14 to apply to change neighborhoods.

House and Room Selection

Beginning on May 2, students will be invited to submit applications for House and Room Selection. All students needing autumn quarter housing are required to submit a House and Room selection application and sign the Residence Agreement by 5 p.m. PT on May 16.

More information about the House and Room Selection process will be sent to you on May 2.

Pre-assignment

Due to the changes above, the deadline to apply for pre-assignment to a University Theme House has been extended to May 2.

Pre-assignment results will be announced on June 19.

If you have already submitted a pre-assignment application and wish to withdraw it, you must do so by May 2.  You can find instructions for how to withdraw your application here.  As a reminder, all pre-assignment placements are binding, and once a student has applied and been accepted to a pre-assignment placement, they become ineligible to participate in the regular House and Room Selection process.

Summer Quarter Housing

Over the summer, Stanford students, as well as students from other universities participating in Stanford Summer Session, are invited to apply for summer housing. The summer quarter housing application will open on Wednesday, April 12.

Stanford undergraduates are welcome to apply for an eight-week or 10-week summer quarter housing contract regardless of enrollment status if they are in spring quarter student housing and will be in autumn quarter student housing. Additionally, students whose undergraduate degrees will be conferred this June are also welcome to apply for an eight or 10-week summer quarter contract. More information, including housing options, is available on our website. Students applying for summer housing with medical accommodation needs should file a Housing Accommodation Request form (HARF) with the OAE before Monday, April 24.

Summer housing applications are due Monday, April 24.

Housing Assignments Timeline

Friday, April 14 (9 a.m. PT): Neighborhood Reassignment Application Opens

Friday, April 21 (8 p.m. PT):  Neighborhood Reassignment Application Closes

Friday, April 28:  Neighborhood Reassignment Results Announced

Tuesday, May 2: House and Room Selection Application opens

Tuesday, May 2: Deadline to apply for pre-assignment to University Theme Houses

Friday, May 12: Deadline to submit Housing Accommodation Request Form (HARF) to OAE or Religious Accommodation Request to ORSL

Tuesday, May 16: Deadline to submit House and Room Selection application

Monday, June 19: Pre-assignments placements communicated

Wednesday, June 21: Deadline to edit group information on House and Room Selection application

Wednesday, June 21: Medical and religious accommodation assignments announced

Friday. June 23: Gate times sent to students participating in House and Room Selection

Monday, July 10 – Friday, July 14 – House and Room Selection

We are updating FAQs here.

If you have questions regarding the housing assignment process, please do not hesitate to file a help ticket with R&DE Student Housing Assignments. For questions regarding pre-assignment please contact pre-assignment@stanford.edu.

Best wishes for a happy and productive spring quarter!