Housing Lottery for Returning Student

The policy stipulates that all traditional-age students under the age of 23 must live on campus and have a university meal plan. Students who live with their parents or legal guardians in Botetourt County, City and County of Roanoke, City of Salem, Town of Vinton, or within a 40-mile radius of Hollins based on MapQuest are exempt, but are still required to complete the Exemption from Residency Policy form, available from the office of Housing and Residence Life.

In order to be eligible to select a room in the housing lottery, students must pay their enrollment deposit by 4 pm EST, April 1 and clear their account of all holds.  Students whose payments are received or holds are cleared after the first-round deadline will not be eligible to sign up for housing during the housing lottery, even if their prospective roommate(s) are eligible.  In order to be fair and consistent to all students, Housing and Residence Life does not grant entrance to the Housing Lottery for late payments; it is imperative that students pay their enrollment deposit by the April 1 deadline. 

No, students cannot request to remain in the same room for next year. However, if that room is available for selection during the housing lottery, students may select into that space again.

Students must fill the space in which they are selecting into.  For example, for a double room, two students must select to fill the space.  Double-as-single rooms are not available during housing lottery and would be made available on a case by case basis over the summer prior to the start of the Fall semester. 

Housing and Residence Life strongly encourages students to attend in-hall and/or campus-wide programs to increase the likelihood of meeting potential roommates. Students may reach out to Housing and Residence Life at hrl@hollins.edu if they are having difficulties looking for roommates.

Students will be able to login to eRezlife to view available rooms and to favorite or star rooms that they are interested in.

Yes!  Housing and Residence Life will be hosting a Residence Hall Open House on Wednesday, April 8th from 6:30-8:00 PM EST.  If students are unable to attend the open house, videos of the various residence halls can be found online at Residence Halls & Campus Housing at Hollins University

Students that currently have a housing accommodation or need a housing accommodation will need to reach out to Student Accessibility Services at sas@hollins.edu to either renew or apply for their accommodation.  The deadline for accommodations for the Fall semester is Sunday, March 15, 2026. 

No.  Residents who have been accepted into specialty housing and have confirmed their room placement via the Room Assignment Confirmation form would not need to select a space during housing lottery.  If a resident was accepted into specialty housing but did not confirm their room placement via the Room Assignment Confirmation form would be expected to participate in housing lottery.

Residents eligible to participate in housing lottery will receive their assigned timeslot on Friday, April 3 by 11:59 p.m.

If you miss your assigned lottery time slot, you may sign on to eRezlife at your earliest convenience and select a space.

Students can make changes to their housing assignments up until the final day of housing lottery on Friday, April 24, 2026.  After April 24, if students wish to change their room assignments, they will need to contact Housing and Residence Life at hrl@hollins.edu.

Due to varying degrees of interest in single rooms from year to year, we cannot say for certain what the likelihood of a particular student receiving a single room is.  Housing and Residence Life strongly encourages students wishing for a single room to have one or two backup plans in case a single room is not available during housing lottery.

Housing costs for the 2026-2027 academic year will be made available by early April.

In order to be eligible to participate in housing lottery, commuter students would need to inform Housing and Residence Life via email to hrl@hollins.edu that they wish to change their status to a residential student for the upcoming academic year as well as pay their enrollment deposit by 4 p.m. EST on April 1, 2026, and ensure that their student account is cleared of all holds.

Students currently studying abroad for the Spring semester that intend to reside on-campus for the upcoming Fall semester and are eligible to participate in housing lottery will receive a housing lottery number, date, and time in which they can go online to eRezlife to select their space.  Please note that all times are in EST, so students studying abroad would need to figure out their time slot in their local time. 

Students intending to study abroad in the Fall semester will not participate in housing lottery, as they will not be on-campus for the Fall semester. Students studying abroad in the Fall semester will need to email Housing and Residence Life by November 1, 2026 to notify Housing and Residence Life of their housing intent for the Short Term and Spring semesters. Housing and Residence Life will then work with the students individually to assign them to housing based on spaces available at that time. Please note that Housing and Residence Life will not reserve spaces for students studying abroad in the Fall for when they return in the Spring.  

No, new incoming students cannot participate in housing lottery.  Housing lottery is only for current actively enrolled students at Hollins University.  New incoming students will receive their housing assignments and move-in information in mid to late June. Explore details about New Student Housing and FAQs.