Off-Campus Living

Senior-Year Housing Options

Four-Year Residency Requirement

The College requires all full-time students to live in on-campus residential facilities during their undergraduate years at Gettysburg. As a student, you acknowledge this requirement annually when signing the Housing License Agreement that is part of the First-Year and Upperclass Student Dashboards. This requirement is also shared as a reminder in a campus-wide email near the end of every Fall semester.

The four-year residential requirement is rooted in the values of the College, specifically that a living-learning community is a key part of a liberal arts and sciences education, as outlined in the College’s Mission Statement: Our conviction that a residential college best promotes the sense of community, central to a liberal arts education, in which personal relationships between students, faculty, and staff can flourish.

Exceptions to the Four-Year Residency Requirement

There are only a few exceptions that are made to the residency requirement. They include the following:

Students who are approved as studying part time,
Students who are studying abroad,
Students who are approved by the College to commute from their parent or legal guardian's home, and
Students who are married or have dependent children.

Off-campus housing is rarely approved through the accommodations process. If any student feels they have an accommodation need, they should review the information regarding Reasonable Accommodations.

Four Housing Options for Senior Students

Online Housing Selection Lottery

Most senior students participate in the online housing selection lottery where they and their friends will log into CNAV/MyHousing and select their housing from available on-campus housing options. As rising seniors, their will participate in the online housing selection lottery first before rising juniors and rising sophomores. Participation in the online housing selection lottery is in lottery number order. Lottery numbers are randomly assigned to all rising seniors.

Lottery numbers and lottery times will be available on Monday, April 20, 2026 for the 2026-2027 academic year, and the online housing selection lottery will take place on Sunday, April 26, 2026.

More information on the online housing selection process will be emailed to students during the early Spring semester and will also be able to be viewed on the Residential Education website at that time.

College Houses

Senior students (along with Sophomore and Junior students) are eligible to apply to live in one of the College’s College Houses. You can learn about the current College House Program on the Residential Education website. Any changes to the available houses for the 2026-2027 acedmic year will be updated in the early Spring semester.

College House applications open on Monday, March 2, 2026 and are due on Sunday, March 29, 2026. Formal College House recruitment occurs from Friday, March 20, 2026 through Saturday, March 28, 2026.

Independent Living Communities (ILCs)

Independent Living Communities (ILCs) are a new housing option for seniors only beginning in the 2026-2027 academic year. ILCs provide independence similar to off-campus living with all of the conveniences of on-campus housing. ILCs includes:

Single bedrooms in a house-style living space with friends
Common space and kitchens to provide the ability to host friends and gatherings or simply enjoy the company of your housemates
Outdoor space to enjoy
Access to campus resources, such as Facilities Services and Campus Safety, when requested

For the 2026-2027 academic year, ILCs will be available in the following locations:

Corner Cottage (7 students)
Lau (6 students)
Smith (8 students)
Van Horn (6 students – 4 in one unit, 2 in one unit)

Applying for an ILC is similar to applying for Off-Campus Housing. Students must met all eligibility requirements (outlined under “Off-Campus Housing”), apply together as the group that is looking to live together in an ILC, and be selected through the application process. Student groups are selected in average group GPA order until spaces are filled.

Off-Campus Housing

There are a number of rising senior students who seek an exemption from the four-year residency requirement to live off-campus during their senior year. The decision to hold an off-campus housing application process is made annually and is based on two factors: The College’s undergraduate student enrollment and the number of residential spaces available in the College’s housing inventory. The College continuously evaluates our housing inventory and monitors our projected enrollment. Given current projections in both of these areas, we are able to offer a very limited Off-Campus Housing Process for the 2026-2027 academic year. We anticipate approving approximately 50 students to live off campus for the 2026-2027 academic year.

Off-Campus Housing Eligibility Criteria

In order to apply to live off-campus for the 2026-2027 academic year, a student must meet the below listed criteria. Please note that students must meet all of these criteria as of March 1, 2026, the due date for off-campus housing applications:

Class standing is rising senior.
- Expected graduation date of December 2026, May 2027, or August 2027
Minimum GPA of 2.80 or greater.
- Student GPAs will include through the Fall 2025 semester and will be noted on March 1, 2026. Student GPAs as of this date will be used in all relevant calculations and will not be recalculated at any other time. The only exception to this rule is for students who studied abroad during the Fall 2025 semester, as their Fall semester grades may be reported to the school after March 1, 2026. The GPAs for these students will be calculated when their grades are received from their study abroad program and then not recalculated after that time.
Currently in good social standing with respect to student conduct.
- Not on conduct probation
- Never suspended from the institution
- Review of conduct record, if applicable
Complete an Off-Campus Housing application and submit by the due date.
- Online applications will be available beginning on Friday, February 13, 2026. They will be emailed to all eligible students.
- Online applications will close at 5pm on Sunday, March 1, 2026. Late applications will not be accepted.
Note to fraternity members: Fraternity houses must be at capacity for the following fall semester before fraternity members will be approved, by the College, to live off campus. The Office of Residential Education will work in coordination with the Office of Student Activities & Greek Life to ensure that this criteria is met.

REMINDER: Because a limited number of students are permitted to reside off campus each year, there are no guarantees that every student who meets all the eligibility requirements will be granted approval to live off campus from the Office of Residential Education.

We understand that some students feel pressure to sign a lease for an off-campus residence for their senior year as early as their sophomore year. However, we recommend against this, and it is important for students of all class years to remember that they should not sign a lease to live in the community until they are formally approved to be released from their residency requirement. If you and/or your family choose to sign a lease prior to getting approval, you are taking a financial risk, and the College cannot assist you if you are not approved to live off campus.

Off-Campus Housing Application and Approval Process

Individual students must meet all eligibility requirements listed above.
Each eligible student will need to individually apply to live off campus through an online application.
The online application will open to eligible students on Friday, February 13, 2026.
The online application will close on Sunday, March 1, 2026, at 5pm.
All applicants listing roommates on their application must be applying to live together at one off-campus address.
All applicants living at one address must apply as one group.
Roommates listed on an application can be of mixed gender.
The determining order for groups to be released from their residency requirement and approved to live off campus is based on the average GPA of the group.
The process of approving students will be as follows:

Students will be grouped with the individuals they are applying to live with through the off-campus housing process (similar to the on-campus housing process and noted on the off-campus application).

PLEASE NOTE that students must apply with the entire group that they will be living with off campus, if approved. Students should not sign up in multiple groups with the goal of at least getting some of their potential housemates approved to live off campus. This has not proven advantageous to students in the past couple of years, and it is reason to have your group removed from the off-campus housing application process and unable to be approved. Please include your entire group on your application as one group to avoid negative consequences.

Groups will be selected in order based on the average GPA of the group members until the allotted number of students has been approved.

Students who are not approved through this process can place their name/group on a waitlist. The waitlist will be considered only if there are changes in expected enrollment or housing capacity.
Group and individual approvals will be made on Friday, March 6, 2026, with approval letters being emailed to each student.
The off-campus acceptance forms must be completed and submitted to the Office of Residential Education by Friday, March 13, 2026.

Important Items to Note

Once approval has been granted, the responsibility for securing suitable accommodations rests entirely on each student. The College is not involved in borough inspections of non-College facilities and therefore cannot ascertain whether such facilities are safe, sanitary, or in compliance with local ordinances. The College does not provide residential services (including oversight by Campus Safety) for those living off campus. Students' landlords and the Gettysburg Borough Police are among the many resources available to students living off campus.
Students residing off campus are still subject to the College's conduct procedures as well as the sanctions of local authorities. Students living off campus who are cited by the local authorities for disorderly conduct, excessive noise, drinking underage, public intoxication, etc. may be required to return to campus housing regardless of financial hardship or lease commitments. All occupants of the house or apartment may be subject to the same requirement. Therefore, students living off campus must be prepared to take personal responsibility for the consequences of any gathering they host.
Students who will be abroad or studying off campus at any time during the 2026-2027 academic year or fraternity members who live in their fraternity fall semester and wish to reside off campus for the spring semester must be approved through this off-campus housing application process.
Students are expected to be good-faith participants in all housing selection processes. Any student who attempts to manipulate or “game” the on-campus or off-campus housing processes for personal gain may be removed from the process. This includes, but is not limited to, using one’s on-campus housing lottery number to get more preferred housing for underclass students who you do not intend to physically reside with on campus and/or exchanging more preferred housing for monetary gain. If a student or group of students is found responsible for this behavior, they will not be permitted to live off campus, and if previously approved, their exemption from the residency requirement will be revoked, requiring them to live on and pay for campus housing. Any students found responsible for not participating in the on-campus housing selection process in good faith will lose their on-campus housing assignment and be assigned on-campus housing through the Housing Preference Form process.
Students who are not approved to live off campus must participate in the housing lottery process in March and April in order to secure on-campus housing for next year. If you do not have written permission to live off campus, you are obligated to reside in, and pay for, college housing. This obligation is in support of the Residential Guidebook and Housing License Agreement and violating these expectations could result in disciplinary action.

Relinquishing Off-Campus Approval

Any student approved to live off campus may relinquish their approval by doing so when they complete the Off-Campus Acceptance Form or in writing via email to the Office of Residential Education. Those who wish to be included in the on-campus housing selection lottery must relinquish their off-campus status by Friday, March 13, 2026.