Yes. All unmarried undergraduate students must live in residence halls on campus. Authorization to live elsewhere (Greek chapter houses and off campus) is granted at the discretion of the Director of Housing Assignments and Operations in special circumstances or when space is unavailable on campus.

Please visit the Off-Campus Authorization website for application dates and deadlines.

A random selection process (a lottery) is used to determine which students will have their requests for off-campus authorization granted.  Please visit the Off-Campus Authorization website full details regarding the 2026-2027 off-campus authorization process.  HRE is no longer considering requests for 2025-2026 off-campus authorization.

Yes.  New applicants are permitted to form off-campus roommate groups with up to three (3) other students from the same class cohort.  Properly matched roommate groups will either be granted authorization or denied authorization as a group.

Please visit the Off-Campus Authorization website full details regarding roommate groups.

No.  Forming a roommate group simply links you together with your requested roommates for the random selection process (lottery).  Since roommate groups can only be formed within the same class cohort and all members of the class cohort have the same number of lottery points, the lottery point average of an individual applicant is the same as the lottery point average of a roommate group.

No.  Roommate groups must be comprised of students from the same class cohort.

Students who receive off-campus authorization are allotted a period of time to decline their offer.  If students decline their off-campus authorization, they can participate in the on-campus housing assignment process.  Students who accept their off-campus authorization will not be permitted to participate in any on-campus housing assignment processes.

No.  We recognize that plans can change.  Offer acceptances and declines are managed on an individual basis; therefore, if you apply for and receive off-campus authorization as a group, one or more members of the group can decline the offer without impacting the rest of the group.

Students with off-campus authorization are responsible for securing their own housing.  Students are welcome to utilize the Off-Campus Housing Service to search available listings in the area.

Students who decide to study abroad, take a leave of absence, or participate in an out-of-town internship for the fall semester will forfeit their off-campus authorization for the entire academic year and will be required to reside on-campus for the spring semester should they decide to return to Vanderbilt.

Students currently receiving aid who have questions about how residing off campus will impact their aid are strongly encouraged to reach out to their Financial Aid Officer.

No.  Early or mid-year graduation dates do not give students higher priority in the process.