New Students

Housing Registration for New Students

 Important Dates:

  • Housing Portal Available to First Year and Graduate Students on April 8, 2013
  • Housing Portal Available to Transfer Students May 1, 2013
  • Housing Application (through Housing Portal) Due on June 1, 2013
  • Housing Assignments will be emailed to First Year and Transfer students by August 1, 2013
  • Housing Assignments will be emailed to New Graduate Students on a rolling basis through the summer.

How Housing Works

The Office of Residence Life assigns housing through an online housing system (referred to as the Housing Portal). 

All incoming new students who want housing will need to fill out the Housing Application through the Housing Portal.  Please note that First Year and Transfer students are required to live in on campus housing.

Students are assigned to rooms based on lifestyle preferences and/or room type preferences.  There is an opportunity through the Housing Portal for students to indicate lifestyle preferences and for students to search for roommates based on those lifestyle preferences. 

For First Year Students, you can select a roommate but you cannot select a specific building. 

For Transfer and Graduate Students, you can select a roommate and/or a room type within various buildings.

Once all incoming new student have filled out their Housing Applications, the Office of Residence Life sets the computer system to automatically create housing assignments based on the various lifestyle preferences, roommate requests, and/or room type preferences.   

For First Year Students, specific requests for single rooms will be considered.  However, a request for a single room will not guarantee that a student is assigned to that room type.  Please note that there are a limited number of single rooms and that they are assigned randomly to those students who request single rooms. 

For Transfer and Graduate Students. We will try to honor your requests for a specific room type.  However, please know that if the room type you have request is not available, the computer will find the next closest match to your room type preference.

 

What To Do
Once RISD Admissions has received your Enrollment Fee, they will send your RISD e-mail account and password details. Your email username and password credentials are your log in for the Housing Portal.  As soon as your user name and password have been activated by the Office of Internet Technology (this process can take up to two weeks),  log into the Housing Portal to fill out the application and search for roommates.    

 

Residency Requirement for First Year, Transfers, and Sophomore Students

All first and second year students are required to reside on campus and are guaranteed housing.  Students can request a waiver for this requirement provided they meet one of the following qualifications:

They are married

They are 21 years of age or older  as of September 1, 2013

They are living at home with a parent/guardian

To request a waiver of this requirement, students will need to submit their online request (see Additional Info and Forms on this page) by May 31st, 2013. Requests are NOT approved until you receive written confirmation from the Office of Residence Life. All approvals will be sent on a rolling basis.

 

Medical Accommodations

Students with special or medical needs that impact their housing assignment must fill out the Medical Accommodation For Service Form, and the Medical Accommodation - Housing Addendum Form, that are required to be on file with the Office of Student Disability Services. All materials must be received in the Office of Student Disability Services no later than Friday, May 31st, 2013 (see Additional Info and Forms on this page). All Medical Accommodations Housing Assignments are pre-assigned and based on the medical needs of the students’ condition.  Housing Assignments will be sent to students in June.   


Where To Go Online

 
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Furniture Design students walk along the riverfront, carrying their projects to class.