Residence FAQs

The Fall 2025 - Winter 2026 residence application opened on February 1, 2025.  You can access the application through the Housing Portal.

Our residence buildings can accommodate approximately 5000 students across all categories, with approximately 4,500 spaces for incoming first year students.

If you’re an Ontario high school applicant and you did not receive an offer of admission before March 1, you are not guaranteed a space in residence.  However, we do have a limited number of residence spaces available and you are welcome to apply for the residence lottery by submitting the residence application and $750 residence deposit by June 2, 2025.  

• Beginning on May 1, students with a completed residence application will be assigned a randomly generated lottery number that will be used to make additional residence offers.  The residence lottery will continue on an ongoing basis up to and including June 2.

No, the deadline to accept your offer of admission to the University is June 2.  You can apply to residence at any time before accepting your offer, as long as you have an active offer of admission. 

Residence applicants are assigned a randomly generated number that is used to determine if you will be offered a space in residence, or if you will be placed on a residence waiting list. Beginning on May 1, once you submit your application and deposit, you will be informed of your residence status within 48 hours.  

Note: To be given a randomly generated number, you must submit the residence application and $750 deposit by June 2.

Additional questions related to residence priority may be directed to the Residence Admissions team by emailing housing@uoguelph.ca.

All terminations of the Residence Contract must be received in writing. Please send an email to housing@uoguelph.ca.  Please include your U of Guelph Student ID number.

The $750 residence deposit is non-refundable, except under the following circumstances:

• If you are on a residence wait list at the time you cancel your application.
• If you accepted your offer of admission and are approved for a deferral to the following year.

Note:  If there are extenuating circumstances behind your cancellation, you may appeal your deposit forfeiture.  See further information in FAQ below.

Yes, students who wish to appeal the forfeiture of their deposit must do so within 30 days of terminating the contract. 

What are valid grounds for a deposit refund appeal? 

If there are extenuating circumstances (such as a medical emergency) that prevent you from living in residence, you may appeal for a refund of your deposit and/or residence fees in full or in part.

Generally speaking, if you are not able to live in residence or attend the University of Guelph for reasons beyond your control, you may appeal and your case will be reviewed. Circumstances may include a medical, mental health or family emergency, and must be supported with documentation.  If you decide residence isn't for you, or you decide to live off-campus or commute for financial reasons, these are not considered valid reasons for a deposit refund.

Send your request for an appeal in writing from your @uoguelph.ca email account to appeals@uoguelph.ca with the following information:

• a written summary of the reasons for withdrawal
• supporting documentation (such as a letter from your physician, counsellor, etc.) to validate the circumstances of your appeal

Once you have returned your keys, a pro-rated refund of your residence fees will be applied to your student account, based on the date of your check-out, MINUS the forfeiture of your residence deposit.

All refunds are processed through Student Financial Services to your student account.  If you have a credit balance, you will receive a direct deposit to your bank account if you have completed the Direct Deposit (EFT) Information form.

There is no residence fee refund after November 1 (for fall semester) and March 1 (for winter semester).

If you have been levied a charge for damage to your residence, improper check-out, lock change or other facilities or desk charges, you may submit an appeal in writing (from your @uoguelph.ca email) for a review.

Appeals should be accompanied by supporting documentation to validate your circumstances. Appeals should be submitted to:

Lock change or improper check-out, contact Joanne Mead, Manager, Desk Services, at jmead@uoguelph.ca

Damage Charge appeals should be send to Residence Facilities at shsfacil@uoguelph.ca

We are sorry to see you go, but we understand that there are many reasons why students chose to leave residence.  After you have cleared out your room, simply return your keys to your Residence Desk.    If you have withdrawn from courses and are no longer a registered student, you are no longer eligible to live in residence and must check-out of residence within 48 hours of withdrawal.

No, University of Guelph residences are designated residences for property tax and rent purposes, meaning that residence fees cannot be claimed as rent payments on income tax returns. The only claim that is allowed is $25 for the year (with no receipt necessary). For this reason, the University does not issue tax receipts for residence fees.

Our residences are currently at capacity.

It is challenging for us to answer the question accurately, as there are many variables, such as how many residence spaces we have available, your wait list position and cancellations.  Historically we will see natural attrition of approximately 150-200 spaces throughout the summer resulting from cancellations, deferrals, etc. The wait list will also change periodically as students cancel their application after finding alternate housing. 

Current Status:   Our residences are currently at capacity.

We have created a residence wait list based on your randomly generated lottery number.  Your wait list number is available under "My Details" on the Housing Portal and is updated in real time.

Applicants who submit the residence application and deposit after the June 2 application deadline will be added to the wait list based on the date and time of submission of the completed application.

We have expanded our residence capacity in our North, South, East and West residences. We have also added Gordon Hall to our residence options for the next few years to house more students.

Your wait list number can be found on the Housing Portal in real time under "My Details".  As cancellations are processed, and new residence offers are made, your wait list number will change.   

If you did not submit your residence application and $750 deposit by April 15^th, your guaranteed space in residence is no longer valid. 

If you complete your residence application after the application deadline, you will be added to the bottom of the wait list based on the date and time of submission of the completed residence application and $750 application deposit. 

In the event that we are not able to offer all applicants a space before classes begin in September, we encourage you to think about alternate accommodation off-campus or temporary arrangements for the fall semester.  

Our team at Student Experience has a wide variety of supports and connections for off-campus AND commuting students.  We encourage you to check out their resources at your convenience.

Check out rental resource and local listings as well.  Please note that listings continue to come available throughout the summer as the rental market is very dynamic.

Student housing rental housing listings and roommate requests are also available at The Cannon.   

A large number of students choose to live off campus or commute and have a great first-year experience!

Applicants with an offer of residence will be invited to add roommate or suitemate(s) preferences to their application in the Housing Portal after the June 2 deadline has passed.  You can only request each other if you both have an offer of residence.

Once residence offers are confirmed, we start the annual room assignment process.  We use a randomly generated lottery number to assign rooms based on application preferences.  

New first-year undergraduate students have first priority for residence (if the application and deposit deadline is met).  If space is available after we have accommodated incoming secondary school students, additional offers will be made to first-year transfer students, graduate students and upper-year returning students. Learn more about residence priority here.

Please note:  We reserve the right to modify the occupancy capacity of residence rooms/buildings if there is high applicant demand, including combining multiple residents into rooms and/or the use of temporary non-resident spaces (ie. lounge, study rooms).  Assignment to expanded spaces will be based on lottery priority.

The application you fill out includes information about:

• The type of room you prefer
• The building or living-learning community you prefer
• How you like to live and study
• Whether you value the room type or building choice more

These are the factors that are used to determine your room assignment.

After the application deadline, you will be randomly assigned a random, computer-generated lottery number. This lottery number will determine the odds of you receiving one of your top choices.

Do you have a friend(s) coming to Guelph and want to live together? 

After the June residence deadline has passed, if you met the Residence Application and Deposit deadline, you will be invited to add a roommate or suitemate(s) preference to your application in the Housing Portal. Applicants with an offer of residence will be invited to complete this process after the residence priority deadline.

How to Add a Roommate/Suitemate Preference

The instructions below can be used to add a roommate/suitemate for:

• A multi-occupancy room (double, triple, quad in any residence)
• A suite-style residence (East Residences and Lambton Hall)
• An East Village townhouse
  Although we do our very best to match all requests, we are not able to guarantee in advance that you will be placed together. Your chances of being assigned together will depend on your room location and your lottery priority.

The most important first step is to ask for each other on your application, so let's get started.

1. Log in to the Housing Portal
2. Select Residence Application in the top menu bar
3. You will see a new process called “Add Roommate/Suitemate” in the Application pathway
4. Enter the @uoguelph.ca email address and search for the last name of your preferred roommate/suitemate (or follow directions if you don’t have their email).
   1. Note:  Only applicants with an on-time application and deposit will be available for you to add as a preference. If your preferred roommate did not submit the application/deposit by the deadline, you cannot add them to your application.
5. After you have added their name, they will receive a request to accept your invitation.
   1. Note: only one roommate/suitemate needs to add the other person.  Once the invitation is accepted, the match is complete.
6. Please ensure that your preferred residence locations and room type are aligned with your roommate/suitemate(s).

During the roommate request period, you will also be able to modify your residence preferences on your application.  After the window closes, you will not be able to modify your roommate OR assignment preferences as we will begin the room assignment process.  

No. Everyone who applies before the deadline is assigned a random number at that point and has an equal chance.

It will depend on how many people apply to the same Residence Learning Community (RLC). That being said, we have the ability to upsize and downsize if demand is high.  To increase your chances, you can tell us on your application form that being assigned to an RLC is your highest priority (over building and room type).

The student who draws #1 on the lottery will get his or her first choice (if there is an opening in the requested building). Student # 2 should also get his or her first choice, and so on until at some point, a student’s first choice is full. The assignment algorithm then looks at the student’s second choice and assigns it accordingly. As the residences begin to fill up, students’ second choices may also be filled, so the third choice and then the fourth choice will be assigned. For students with a low lottery number, it’s possible that none of their choices may be available.

It is impossible to accurately predict.  It depends on the number you are randomly assigned in the lottery, and the popularity of the residence options you’ve chosen.

No. If you look at the description above about how the lottery works, you’ll see that we only assign your second choice if your first choice is full. If your second choice is the same as your first choice – well, it's still already full.

Try instead to look for a variety of options that will still give you the residence experience you want. That will make it more likely that you’ll get one of your choices.

As you might have guessed, this takes time! We expect to release room assignments in mid-July. You will get an email from Residence Admissions to let you know that your room assignment is posted on the Housing portal with instructions on how to view it.

Didn’t get any of your choices? From our experience, most students find that once they are here and getting to know their residence community, they decide they are happy with their new home on campus and don’t want to transfer. If you have a specific reason(s) for needing a transfer, you may be asked to provide documentation. After room assignments are released in late July, we will only be able to make room transfers for medical reasons, and only if we have spaces available. If you did not receive any of your preferences, we ask that you move into your assigned space and be patient with us while we wait for the dust to settle. Every year, we have "no-shows" that result in vacancies that allow us the flexibility to accommodate transfers starting in the middle of September. We will send you an email and announce on social media when the Room Transfer process is open.

Please review the Accommodation Request form for information about how the process works if you have special medical, academic, cultural or other needs.

If you are experiencing challenges, please contact your Resident Assistant or your Residence Life Manager.

Once you have moved in to your residence community, we pause and wait for our residence communities to engage and settle in. In many cases, we find that the overwhelming experience of moving to campus, Orientation Week, establishing networks and starting into the routine of attending your classes has settled down by the end of the second week and the urgency for a room or building transfer is no longer an issue. However, you may still feel that your current location is not working for you.

Transfer Requests can only be granted when and where vacancies exist within our residences. In emergency situations, transfer requests will be considered - please contact your Residence Assistant or Residence Manager in situations that require direct intervention.

Note:  

• The Room Transfer Form for non-medical requests opens on September 20.
• If you are transferred to a different room type, your residence fees will be adjusted accordingly on a prorated basis.
• Once a transfer has been granted, you cannot opt to move back to your original assignment.

Submit a Room Transfer Request by logging to your Housing Portal and complete the Room Transfer Request Form.

Room transfer requests prior to move-in are not possible. We suggest moving into your assigned location and meeting your new community and roommates/suitemates. If things don't work out as hoped, you can request an in-semester room transfer.

If you have medical requirements that you feel should be exempt and require a room transfer, please submit appropriate documentation through our Accommodation Form process.

Note: Medical accommodation requests are due June 2. Once room assignments are complete, it is not always possible to accommodate a room transfer unless vacancies are available.

We do our very best to assign as many students to their application preferences as possible, but it is not possible to accommodate all preferences. Room assignments are performed methodically based on your random lottery number and the available vacancies in your preferred location or room type.