Study Abroad/Off-Campus

If you study abroad or off-campus during the fall semester...

Your Housing Intent Form will serve as your housing preference form for the Spring 2009 semester.  Because we realize plans become more concrete over the course of the semester, you may make any necessary changes to your preferences at any time prior to December 1st by emailing Sharon Fissel, Assistant Director of Residence Life for Housing, at sfissel@gettysburg.edu. Please know that any Housing Intent/Preference Forms received after May 2, 2008, will be placed in date received order and housed after those who submitted on-time Housing Intent/Preference forms.

Lottery numbers will be generated for students who are studying abroad/off-campus and can be viewed by logging into MyHousing the week of October 27th.  Housing Intent Forms are then placed in lottery number order by class year and students are housed in a combination of group requests versus group availability.  Please note that the PLACEMENT process will begin December 2008.

To provide the greatest possible chance of matching your preferences with available housing, we wait to assess TOTAL vacancies including withdrawals, transfers, and academic dismissals (which are not decided until the week of January 5, 2009). Therefore, the Office of Residence Life will not complete housing assignments until the the week of January 5, 2009. Once assignments are made students will be emailed, at which time they can view thier spring housing assignment via MyHousing in CNAV.

Please note the following:

• Due to space limitations, requests for groups of three or more are not usually granted. It is more likely that we will place students in pairs.
• Gettysburg College is a residential college. By policy (see page 15 of the Gettysburg Course Catalog), all of our undergraduate students are required to live on campus, or in a College-related fraternity house, unless they receive approval from the Residence Life Office to reside off-campus. Permission to live off-campus is determined through the Off-Campus Housing Application Lottery held every February for the following academic year. Only those students who have prior approval from the Housing Selection process last February have permission to live off-campus for the spring semester.
• All students will be billed "Plan 2 - Apartment Rate" for the spring semester prior to January. If your placement is anything other than an apartment, you will receive an adjusted statement in January.
• Students will not be permitted to arrive on campus for the Spring 2009 Semester prior to noon on Sunday, January 11th. However, if you are part of an organization that requires your arrival before this time, you will be on a roster for early arrival. Please check with your respective organization, coach or Faculty/Administrative Leader to make sure you are on this roster.
• Keys can be picked up in the Office of Residence Life (CUB 250) from noon - 4:00 p.m. on Sunday, January 11th and beginning at 8:30 a.m. on Monday, January 12th. Meal plans begin at lunch on Tuesday, January 13th.  Classes begin on Thursday, January 15th. Please see the College Calendar for other important dates for the Spring Semester. 

Residence Life office hours during winter break (tentative):

If you study abroad or off-campus during the spring semester...

Every spring, Housing Selection occurs for the following academic year.  Housing selection for current juniors will occur Monday, March 31 -  Tuesday, April 1, 2008.  Current juniors will be participating in an online housing selection process this year.  If you are a current junior student who is interested in living off-campus for any portion of the 2008-2009 year, you will need to notify the Office of Residence as to whom your proxy is by Friday, February 22, 2008.  There is a separate lottery process for off-campus approvals in which special off-campus lottery numbers have been created. This lottery number is NOT valid for any other housing selection process.

Current sophomore students will also be participating in an online housing selection process this year.

The good news is that even if you are studying abroad you will be able to select your OWN housing online.  With the Online Housing system, students will need to pre-select each other as roommates prior to selecting a room or apartment. (Instructions regarding this part of the process will be distributed with lottery numbers and lottery times on Monday, March 24, 2008.) When doing so, the Online Housing system will confirm that all roommates have selected one another--and students now become a group. Only the student with the lowest (best) lottery number and earliest lottery time will need to select housing for the group via the Online Housing Selection system.

If you are studying abroad during this process and your lottery number will carry a group to select housing, you can select for your group via "MyHousing" in CNAV, or you may select a proxy here on campus to select housing for your group. Lottery numbers are not transferable, and in the event where you need to need to choose a proxy because you cannot select housing for your group at the appointed time, you must email Sharon Fissel as to whom you've designated as your proxy by 5:00 p.m. on Thursday, March 27th (for current juniors) and 5:00 p.m. on Thursday, April 3rd (for current sophomores).

As mentioned previously, the Office of Residence Life will be publishing additional information about the Online Housing Selection process on Monday, March 24th. When you receive this information via your campus email, you will also receive a lottery number AND a lottery time. You will be able to go online and look at the available housing and feel connected to the process even if you are halfway around the world. Of course, your lottery time will be on Gettysburg time and you will have to adjust to your location.

Should you have any questions, please contact Sharon Fissel, Assistant Director of Residence Life for Housing.