Undergraduates who enter as first-year students through fall admission to Boston and NUin are required to live in university housing unless approved for a residency waiver.
Students joining campus from a specialized entry program, NU Immerse, or Foundation Year, should refer to the information for transfer students for their first year in Boston and to the information for Non-Required Students for future years. Students entering after completing Global Scholars or coming to Boston for their second year from London or Oakland Scholars, should refer to the Non-Required Students Information.
Timeline
Applications:
December 19, 2024: Applications posted to your Housing Online.
January 17, 2025: Fall and Spring Applications Due – You must submit BOTH a Fall and a Spring Application. Required students who do not submit applications will receive higher (less desirable) selection numbers.
January 31, 2025: Selection numbers and information sent to your Northeastern Email.
Selection and Placement:
More information available in the spring.
Selection
Traditional Rising Second Year Students are required to live in university housing for Fall 2025 and Spring 2026 so your housing deposit is waived for you! Required Students have a separate selection process from Non-Required Students and choose from designated second year communities, with the best selection number starting at 10,001. Selection numbers are assigned to students and are non-transferrable.
Students: if you would like your parents to receive reminders about deadlines they can do so with the Parent Email Opt-In.
Programming & Resources
Virtual Townhall: A live Information Session will be hosted by Housing and Residential Life staff prior to selection.
An optional Roommate Search feature in Housing Online.
Virtual drop-in sessions: Details to come.
A practice tutorial in Housing Online that mirrors the actual selection process will be available.
Coming in Spring: A Vacancy Viewer and floor plans in Housing Online for you to review the specific spaces that will be available during your selection process.
Students who receive Fall 2025 selection numbers and have their deposit waived or submit their deposit by the deadline will select or be assigned to their Fall 2025 housing through one of the following two processes. Both processes may not be available for both the Non-Required Selection and Required Student Selection Processes. Specific information about the details for each process will be shared in the coming weeks, and all information is subject to change.
Required Student Selection
How do I select: Group/General Selection
How will I select with a Group of Students: Group Selection
In an effort to keep roommate sets together, we offer you first the opportunity to select as a group by filling any vacant apartment during Group Selection. To select during this time your group must fill every bed space available in an apartment.
For example, 4-person sets will not be allowed to take a vacant 5-person apartment. Apartment capacities typically range from 1 to 8. Students participating in Group Selection may be:
An individual filling a vacant 1-person apartment
An individual filling an apartment that has 1 vacancy
A multi-person group filling a vacant apartment of the same size as the group
A multi-person group filling a larger apartment that has the number of vacancies of the group
How to Prepare:
Plan on your first three choices as follows: Keep an open mind; remember to develop several different buildings, room type, and group size scenarios.
Best case scenario of where you want to live
2nd best case scenario of where you want to live
Something that you can make work with all or parts of your original group
Assemble the selection information for all students in the group
Selection Number
Scheduled Selection Time
Roommate NUID
Roommate Group PIN
Figure out who has the best selection number and selection time. Whoever has the best selection number (lowest number- closest to 1) will be the person selecting for the group. Make sure this person knows how the group wants to be placed!
Login to Housing Online up to five days prior to your selection time to view vacancies on the Vacancy Viewer.
Plan to FILL all of the bed spaces in the apartment as it is required during the Group Selection Students may need to expand/decrease their group size during the process in order to fill each space in their selected apartment. For example: If you are in a roommate pair, you would not be able to select spaces in a six person apartment unless you had four other people to select with; your only choices would be two person apartments.
How will I select by myself: General Selection
During General Selection you may select as an individual or as a group that will partially fill an apartment during Individual/General Selection. You are not required to fill every vacant space in the apartment/suite. Since Individual/General Selection takes place following Group Selection, the majority of locations and room types may not be available during Individual/General Selection.
How to Prepare
Figure out what your selection time is based on your selection number.
Login to Housing Online up to five days prior to that date and time to view vacancies.
Login on your individual selection day at your selection time and pick from whatever is available.
How will I select if I am not available during my selection times?
If you are selecting by yourself and you are unable to select during your selection times, you may fill out a proxy form. More information about the proxy form will be provided closer to selection. If you are selecting in a group another member of your group may select for you.
How do I select: PAWS Placement
Placement Assistance with Staff is a part of Northeastern’s Housing Selection & Placement process. You are guaranteed housing for Fall 2025 Because so many Northeastern students participate in study abroad or co-op opportunities outside of the Boston area, or secure off-campus housing, we can anticipate a number of cancellations and manage available space through PAWS.
If you do not select a room during the first selection process, you will participate in the PAWS process.
PAWS Placement Form
Placement Forms become available at the beginning of Selection.
If you do not select during Group or Individual/General Selection, you will participate in the Placement Assistance With Staff (PAWS) process. Housing and Residential Life will continue to receive cancellations for Fall 2025 over the summer and will manage the resulting available spaces through the PAWS process. However, if a space is available during your selection that meets your highest priority, such as your full group, we recommend selecting for yourself.
You can complete a PAWS Placement Form indicating your interests in Housing Online during or after your selection time(s). Housing and Residential Life staff will use your PAWS Placement Form to best assign you to a space that matches your interests. Approximately 25% of students will be placed via PAWS, which is a routine part of Northeastern’s Housing Selection & Placement Process. You are still guaranteed university housing for Fall 2025.
Once you have confirmed your space for Fall 2025, you cannot change your assignment via the online selection process.
Please note: This is a routine part of Northeastern’s Housing Selection & Placement process each year. Students who fill out the placement form but are placed during Selection will have their placement form automatically cancelled
What will my choices be?
If you had the best non-required/upperclassmen selection number (1), your choices might look like the options listed for non-required/upperclassmen.
A chart of the Building Breakdown for selection will be posted here in February.
While this is a good place to start, the Vacancy Viewer on your Housing Online will be the best place to see what is available TO YOU, meaning it will show you the rooms for your class year, gender, etc. The Vacancy Viewer, is a live feed during selection, so as rooms are chosen they disappear from the viewer. On a selection day, the Vacancy Viewer is only available two hours prior to your selection time. If you are not selecting on that day, you will be able to see the updated viewer again at the conclusion of selection times for that day.
What if I want to select Honors Housing?
Honors housing can be selected during your selection date and time. Honors housing is ONLY for students who are in the University Honors program, you cannot pull in a non-Honors student into Honors housing.
What if I want to select all gender housing?
All Gender housing is defined as a housing option in which two or more students share a multiple-occupancy apartment or suite, in mutual agreement, regardless of the students’ sex or gender.
In order to view All Gender Housing during your selection date and time, you must have applied for it through your application on Housing Online in February. If you selected “yes” on your application for All Gender Housing, you are able to view All Gender spaces during your scheduled selection date and time.
If you would like to participate in the All Gender Housing process, but did not meet the deadline, you may contact our office after all selection times have ended to see if there are any additional All Gender Housing vacancies.
Please note: If you are in an All Gender roommate group, all members of your roommate group will need to have selected “yes” to All Gender Housing on the application in order to select an All Gender room.
Can I receive a medical accommodation?
Any medical accommodation must first be reviewed by the housing accommodation team. Please review the information on how to start that process here.
Additionally you will need to select “Yes” to the housing accommodation question on your housing applications prior to the application deadline in order to qualify for pre-selection.
How can I cancel my housing?
Undergraduates who enter as first-year students through fall admission to Boston and NUin are required to live in university housing unless approved for a residency waiver. If you are taking an official separation from the university or participating in a co-op or study abroad that would take you outside of Boston, please refer to our cancellation policies and deadlines.
Non-Required Students
Non-Required interested in securing university housing must submit an application and deposit for each semester by the deadlines provided. The information below is meant as an overview of our processes for Non-required Upperclassmen, including Second year Global Scholars, and Oakland Scholars or London Scholars coming to the Boston Campus.
Timeline
Application and Deposits
December 19, 2024: Applications Posted to your Housing Online.
January 17, 2025: Fall and Spring Applications Due – You must submit BOTH a Fall and a Spring Application if you would like the possibility of housing for the full year.
January 31, 2025: Selection/Waitlist numbers and information sent to your Northeastern Email.
February 10, 2025: Separate deposits due for both Fall and Spring Terms. Students who do not pay a fall deposit by this date will not be eligible to participate in selection.
Selection and Placement:
Group Selection: June, Dates TBD
General Selection: June, Dates TBD
PAWS Placement: Form posted in March, due in July.
Selection and Placement
All Non-Required students who receive a selection number are required to pay a deposit for the Fall Semester. As you are required to provide a selection number to pay your deposit, the deposit is not available until after selection numbers are sent. Students who receive a waitlist numbers cannot deposit, or be pulled in because they are not eligible to participate in selection.
Filling out your housing application does NOT guarantee your space in university housing.
Deposits must be submitted between January 31- February 10, 2025 at 11:59pm. Students who fail to submit the required deposit will have their application(s) and selection numbers cancelled and will not be eligible to continue through the process.
If you would like your parents to receive reminders about deposit deadlines they can do so with the Parent Email Opt-In.
Programming & Resources
Selection Webinar: March, Date TBD
An optional Roommate Search feature in Housing Online.
Virtual drop-in sessions: Details provided via Northeastern email.
A practice tutorial in Housing Online that mirrors the actual selection process will be available.
Available now: A Vacancy Viewer and floor plans in Housing Online for you to review the specific spaces that will be available during your selection process.
Students who receive Fall 2025 selection numbers and submit their deposit by the deadline will select or be assigned to their Fall 2025 housing through one of the following three processes.
All three processes may not be available for both the Non-Required Selection and Required Student Selection Processes. Specific information about the details for each process will be shared in the coming weeks, and all information is subject to change.
Non-Required Selection
How do I select: Group/General Selection
How will I select with a Group of Students: Group Selection
In an effort to keep roommate sets together, we offer you first the opportunity to select as a group by filling any vacant apartment during Group Selection. To select during this time your group MUST fill every bed space available in an apartment. For example, 4-person sets will NOT be allowed to take a vacant 5-person apartment. Apartment capacities typically range from 1 to 5. Students participating in Group Selection may be:
An individual filling a vacant 1-person apartment
An individual filling an apartment that has 1 vacancy
A multi-person group filling a vacant apartment of the same size as the group
A multi-person group filling a larger apartment that has the number of vacancies of the group
How to Prepare:
Plan on your first three choices as follows: Keep an open mind; remember to develop several different building, room type, and group size scenarios.
Best case scenario of where you want to live
2nd best case scenario of where you want to live
Something that you can make work with all or parts of your original group
Assemble the selection information for all students in the group
Selection Number
Scheduled Selection Time
Roommate NUID
Roommate Group PIN
Figure out who has the best selection number and selection time. Whoever has the best selection number (lowest number- closest to 1) will be the person selecting for the group. Make sure this person knows how the group wants to be placed!
Login to Housing Online up to five days prior to your selection time to view vacancies on the Vacancy Viewer.
Plan to FILL all of the bed spaces in the apartment as it is required during the Group Selection Students may need to expand/decrease their group size during the process in order to fill each space in their selected apartment. For example: If you are in a roommate pair, you would not be able to select spaces in a six person apartment unless you had four other people to select with; your only choices would be two person apartments.
How will I select by myself: General Selection
During General Selection you may select as an individual or as a group that will partially fill an apartment during Individual/General Selection. You are not required to fill every vacant space in the apartment/suite. Since Individual/General Selection takes place following Group Selection, the majority of locations and room types may not be available during Individual/General Selection.
How to Prepare
Figure out what your selection time is based on your selection number.
Login to Housing Online up to five days prior to that date and time to view vacancies.
Login on your individual selection day at your selection time and pick from whatever is available.
How will I select if I am not available during my selection times?
If you are selecting by yourself and you are unable to select during your selection times, you may fill out a proxy form. More information about the proxy form will be provided closer to selection. If you are selecting in a group another member of your group may select for you.
How do I select: PAWS Placement
Placement Assistance with Staff is a part of Northeastern’s Housing Selection & Placement process. You are guaranteed housing for Fall 2025. Because so many Northeastern students participate in study abroad or co-op opportunities outside of the Boston area, or secure off-campus housing, we can anticipate a number of cancellations and manage available space through PAWS.
If you do not select a room during the first selection process, you will participate in the PAWS process.
PAWS Placement Forms
Placement Forms become available at the beginning of Selection.
If you do not select during Group or Individual/General Selection, you will participate in the Placement Assistance With Staff (PAWS) process. Housing and Residential Life will continue to receive cancellations for Fall 2025 over the summer and will manage the resulting available spaces through the PAWS process. However, if a space is available during your selection that meets your highest priority, such as your full group, we recommend selecting for yourself.
You can complete a PAWS Placement Form indicating your interests in Housing Online during or after your selection time(s). Housing and Residential Life staff will use your PAWS Placement Form to best assign you to a space that matches your interests. Approximately 25% of students will be placed via PAWS, which is a routine part of Northeastern’s Housing Selection & Placement Process. You are still guaranteed university housing for Fall 2025.
Once you have confirmed your space for Fall 2025, you cannot change your assignment via the online selection process.
Please note: This is a routine part of Northeastern’s Housing Selection & Placement process each year. Students who fill out the placement form but are placed during Selection will have their placement form automatically cancelled.
What will my choices be?
If you had the best non-required/upperclassmen selection number (1), your choices might look like the options listed for non-required/upperclassmen.
While this is a good place to start, the Vacancy Viewer on your Housing Online will be the best place to see what is available to you, meaning it will show you the rooms for your class year, gender, etc. The Vacancy Viewer, is a live feed during selection, so as rooms are chosen they disappear from the viewer.
A chart of the Building Breakdown for selection will be posted here in February.
On a selection day, the Vacancy Viewer is only available two hours prior to your selection time. If you are not selecting on that day, you will be able to see the updated viewer again at the conclusion of selection times for that day.
What if I want to select Honors housing?
Honors housing can be selected during your selection date and time. Honors housing is ONLY for students who are in the University Honors program, you cannot pull in a non-Honors student into Honors housing.
East Village Apartments will be designated Honors for non-required students.
What if I want to select all gender housing?
All Gender housing is defined as a housing option in which two or more students share a multiple-occupancy apartment or suite, in mutual agreement, regardless of the students’ sex or gender.
In order to view All Gender Housing during your selection date and time, you must have applied for it through your application on Housing Online in February. If you selected “yes” on your application for All Gender Housing, you are able to view All Gender spaces during your scheduled selection date and time. If you would like to participate in the All Gender Housing process, but did not meet the deadline, you may contact our office after all selection times have ended to see if there are any additional All Gender Housing vacancies.
Please note, if you are in an All Gender roommate group, all members of your roommate group will need to have selected “yes” to All Gender Housing on the application in order to select an All Gender room.
Can I receive a medical accommodation?
Any medical accommodation must first be reviewed by the housing accommodation team. Please review the information on how to start that process here.
Additionally you will need to select “Yes” to the housing accommodation question on your housing applications prior to the application deadline in order to qualify for pre-selection.
Regardless of your co-op or study abroad schedule for the 2025-2026 academic year go through the selection process, as you are a required student. Should you need to cancel housing for a semester due to a co-op outside the Boston area (beyond Route 128) or a study abroad, you can cancel your university housing by emailing housing@northeastern.edu your name, NUID number and the semester you are canceling. You must also have your co-op adviser e-mail confirmation to Housing, as well, to confirm your co-op location or your study abroad adviser e-mail to confirm your study abroad. If you are a required student, if your co-op is located in the Boston area you are required to live in university housing.
Have a hold on your account?
Students who currently have a financial block, and/or are not in good standing with the University, will not be permitted to participate in the Room Selection Process. You will need to speak with Student Financial Services to clear your hold prior to Selection in order to participate.
Wondering how your selection number has been assigned to you?
Selection numbers are randomly computer generated within your year of entry.
In the not-required student selection and placement process, current 4th+ year students will receive the “best” selection numbers, followed by current 3rd year, current 2nd year, and current 1st year not-required students. All current Boston fall entry and N.U.in entry 1st year students participate in the same required student selection and placement process.
A central component of the First Year Residential Experience is our Living Learning Communities (LLCs). First year students in Boston choose from more than a dozen LLCs to begin their residential experience at Northeastern.