Hall Room

First-Year Self-Selection is when incoming students are eligible to choose their own bed space in Ball State's residence halls. The goal during Self-Selection is for students to choose a space in the residence hall of the Living-Learning Community that aligns with the major they've declared through the University. Please read through the detailed information below to understand the Self-Selection process and make the most of living on-campus at Ball State University.

Applying for Housing

First-year students admitted and confirmed for the 2024-2025 Academic Year can apply for on-campus housing via the Housing Portal starting Wednesday, November 29, 2023. The closer to the application open date that a student completes their housing application, the earlier their room selection timeslot will be.

VISIT THE HOUSING PORTAL

IMPORTANT: Students who have just confirmed their admissions to Ball State need to wait two business days to apply to live in the residence halls.

Roommates

Before selecting their room, students are highly encouraged to find and verify a roommate on the housing portal. Completing the roommate request and verification process ensures that both students are grouped together when selecting their space in the residence halls.  

Those intent on living in the building associated with their Living-Learning Community can enhance their chances of living in that building by selecting a roommate who belongs to their same LLC. Students can however, live with another person who is not pursuing the same major. 

If a student decides to not find their own roommate, that's completely fine. However, it's important to know that every incoming first-year student will have a roommate unless they have been approved for a special housing accommodation. The Office of Housing and Residence Life does not pair or select roommates for students.

On the Online Housing Portal, inside the housing application, students are able to search for other students to potentially become roommates!

There are three ways to search for a roommate:

  • By using a person's specific PIN number
  • By seeing others answers to profile questions
  • By seeing suggested students in their same field of study

Learn details about the process by visiting our roommates page.

Roommates Page

Room Self-Selection Details

Incoming first-year students who have been admitted and confirmed to the University for the 24-25 Academic Year can begin applying for on-campus housing on November 29, 2023, through the Ball State Housing Portal. We highly encourage students to complete their Housing Application (answer all questions, pay the housing deposit, and sign the contract) as soon as possible as this will be in your benefit. The earlier you complete your application and pay the deposit, the earlier your timeslot for Self-Selection will be.

APPLY FOR HOUSING

How First-Year students can apply for housing on the portal:

  1. Go the housing website (www.bsu.edu/campuslife/housing/apply-for-housing) and navigate to the button that says, “visit the housing portal.”  
  2. Students will need to log-in to the housing portal with their BSU ID and password.  
    • Students receive their BSU ID and password once confirmed to the University. They can access this information on their Cardinal Landing Portal. If unsure where to access this information, please contact the Office of Admissions.  
    • Students will need the Duo Mobile app set up as it will become extremely necessary to access many Ball State accounts. BSU’s IT department provides guidance on how to set up Duo Mobile.
  3. Once on the housing portal, go to the top red navigation bar and click on “Residence Halls.”  
  4. Next, go to the Academic Year (AY) 24-25 contract and click “APPLY.” 
  5. The next page will officially begin the housing contract. 
  6. Students will select their meal plan, agree to the terms and conditions, fill out necessary information, pay the housing deposit, and sign the contract.
  7. Once the contract is signed, hit “save and continue” the application will be considered complete!

Starting March 13, 2024, incoming first-year students with completed Housing Contracts can begin to submit their preferred roommate requests or search for a roommate on the Housing Portal. We highly encourage students to find a roommate prior to selecting their bedspace.

Friday, July 19, 2024 by 4:00 p.m. is the last day that students can make any roommate requests for the 24-25 Academic Year. Our office does our best to accommodate roommate requests, however, any requests that come in after the deadline will not be honored.

Learn details about the room verification process by visiting our roommates page.

Roommates Page

The Office of Disability Services and the Office of Housing and Residence Life work closely together to help students with special accommodations/needs.

For students with special accommodations/needs, please first reach out to the Office of Disability Services with your request/need. Housing accommodation requests for the 24-25 Academic Year need to be made to the Office of Disability Services by Wednesday, May 15, 2024. 

The Office of Disability Services will then coordinate with our office regarding individual student's needs and accommodation requirements.

Contact Disability Services

During the last week of June students will receive an email via their Ball State email address notifying them that they’ve been assigned a date and time, also known as a timeslot, to choose their bedspace for the upcoming Academic Year.

Self-Selection timeslots are based on the date the $125 housing deposit (in the housing application) has been paid. Housing applications for the 24-25 Academic Year opened on November 29, 2023. The closer to November 29 a student completed their housing contract the earlier their self-selection timeslot will be.

The first day for timeslots to become live and that students will be able to select a bedspace is July 2. With roommates, either person can choose the bedspace, however it would be in the best interest of the group for the person with the earlier timeslot to select the bedspace for the pair – so make sure you’re communicating that with one another.

The first day for timeslots to become live and that students will be able to select a bedspace is Tuesday, July 2, 2024.

When it's time for a student to select a room, they will log into the housing portal and go back into their housing application. They'll then navigate to the "Room Selection" page within the housing application.

STEP 1 - Students will see available room types



 

STEP 2 - STUDENTS will see the rooms available for them to select from

  • If students have a verified roommate:
    • They will see rooms with two available spaces.
  • If they do NOT have a verified roommate:
    • They will see rooms allocated for students without a verified roommate.
      • This means that another person will eventually put themselves in the other available space in the room.
      • OR they will end up selecting a room with another person already occupying the other space.







STEP 3 - Once "Added to Cart" STUDENTS WILL assign bed spaces

  • If students have a verified roommate:
    • One person will need to assign BOTH people to the room through the drop downs (either roommate can do this).
  • If they do NOT have a verified roommate:
    •  They will see one space available to assign themself to through the drop down.

There is a 3-minute time limit to assign the bedspaces or the room will be released for others to choose from.

 

 

STEP 4 - Book Now

  • Once assigned, students see an overview of what was selected. They need to click ‘BOOK NOW’ for the room selection to go through and become official.

STEP 5 - OVERVIEW

After a student has assigned bed/s they are taken to the ‘Application Details’ page. On here they can see several things...

  1. Confirmation of their booking
  2. Summary of their application
  3. Summary of their chosen meal plan
  4. Summary of their booking and their roommate's information
  5. A drop down with "next steps" where they can view their contract, change their meal plan, submit a contract cancellation, or change their room selection

 

This is the last day for students to verify a roommate, select their own room, as well as make any changes to their Fall meal plans for the upcoming Academic Year. Requests or changes to meal plans can be made directly on the Housing Portal by revisiting the Housing Application.

Changes or requests after this date cannot be honored.

VISIT THE HOUSING PORTAL

Info and FAQs

The Office of Disability Services and the Office of Housing and Residence Life work closely together to help students with special accommodations/needs.

For students with special accommodations/needs, please first reach out to the Office of Disability Services with your request/need. Housing accommodation requests for the 24-25 Academic Year need to be made to the Office of Disability Services by Wednesday, May 15, 2024. 

The Office of Disability Services will then coordinate with our office regarding individual student's needs and accommodation requirements.

Contact Disability Services

Undecided students/general studies majors will be able to see come Self-Selection time, Baker/Klipple Hall in Noyer Complex as well as other designated areas as necessary. 
Absolutely! Students should search for, request, and verify their own roommate. We highly encourage students to have a roommate verified before selecting a bed space.

Students should utilize the roommate search options on the housing portal to help identify potential students also looking for roommates. Please visit our roommates page to learn the specifics on how to search for a roommate, how to request a roommate, and the confirmation process.

    Students can also change their previously selected roommate by going back to the initial roommate request page on the online housing portal and “cancel” the pairing. Students who are planning to do this need to be aware that the other person will receive an email that the cancellation has been made.   

    If this happens during the Self-Selection timeframe (see timeline above) a student has already selected a space with their roommate, they will need to manually go into the online housing portal and remove themselves from the initially selected bed space. They will NOT be able to remove their roommate from their room/bedspace. They will only be able to remove themselves from any spaces and/or search and swap for another bed space.

    Learn more about finding a roommate.

    Essentially, the earlier someone commits to attending the University, completes their housing contract, and pays their housing deposit, means that they are committed and serious about attending Ball State University. Thus, securing an earlier assigned timeslot to select their space on-campus. Housing Applications for the 24-25 Academic Year opened for submissions on Wednesday, November 29, 2024.
    Essentially, the earlier someone commits to attending the University, completes their housing contract, and pays their housing deposit, means that they are committed and serious about attending Ball State University. Thus, securing an earlier assigned timeslot to select their space on-campus. Please keep in mind that students were able to begin submitting applications on Wednesday, November 29, 2024.
    Previously, Honors College students could ONLY live in DeHority with a roommate also in the Honors College – but that is no longer the case! Honors college students can: 
    • Live in the Honors LLC. 
    • Live in the Building with the LLC that correlates with the major they've declared through the University. 
    • Live in their verified roommate's LLC.
    Each residence hall has a certain number of rooms and bedspaces within their building. There are several factors that influence available space in the residence halls such as the number of returners, those with roommates, paid housing deposit date, etc. Additionally, there’s always a fluctuation of the number of students enrolled in certain majors in the incoming classes. Based on availability of space in the buildings at the point in time that students can log-in to the online housing portal and view bed spaces, there may be additional residence halls that traditionally do not have assigned Living-Learning Communities that will be designated as additional spaces for specific LLCs so students can still live amongst those within the same field of study.
    Each residence hall has a certain number of bedspaces within the building. Based on availability of space in the buildings at the point in time that students can log-in to the online housing portal and view bed spaces, there may be additional residence halls that traditionally do not have assigned Living-Learning Communities that will be designated as additional spaces for specific LLCs so students can still live amongst those within the same field of study. 

    There are several ways to find a roommate and we highly encourage students to find and verify their own roommate. 

    However, students without a roommate come their time for Self-Selection will see half spaces in the building with their Living-Learning Community (if available), will be able to select a bedspace, and then will see detailed profiles of the other human occupying the second space in the room.

    If a student decides to not find their own roommate, that's completely fine. However, it's important to know that every incoming first-year student will have a roommate unless they have been approved for a special housing accommodation.

    Students have until 4:00 p.m. on Friday, July 19, 2024, to continually search/swap spaces and confirm a roommate to live with. 


    Based on availability of space in the buildings at the point in time that students can log-in to the online housing portal and view bed spaces, there may be additional residence halls that traditionally do not have assigned Living-Learning Communities that will be designated as additional spaces for specific LLCs so students can still live amongst those within the same field of study. Only spaces that are truly available in the residence halls will appear/available to view on the online housing portal. 
    For students who do not take any action and select their bedspace within the residence hall, the Office of Housing and Residence life will then place them in an available bed space. At that point in time it will be very late in the Self-Selection timeline and will be no guarantee that the students’ building with their LLC will have availability. 
     
    Additionally, there are no waitlists for specific residence halls. Room change requests will be able to be submitted via the online housing portal starting the third week of the academic year. Room change requests will go through an official approval process with their building's Residential Learning Coordinator.
    View our Signature Experience webpage for more information! 

    Questions?

    If you have additional questions, please do not hesitate to contact our office.

    Email Us