Housing Selection Walkthrough

The housing application will be available on your Hoya Housing page. Please begin an Academic Year 2017-18 application and participate in one of the phases below.

Phases

Selection will be divided into two phases. Each phase will consist of a Group Formation process and a Room Selection process.

  • PHASE 1: apartments, townhouses, Copley & Arrupe Suites [4-or-more occupancy units]
  • PHASE 2: residence hall singles, doubles and triples, remaining apartment vacancies [including Copley & Arrupe doubles]

Check the Housing Selection Calendar for the dates of each process with the Phase!

Group Formation

If you wish to be considered for a particular phase, you and your roommates must form a group. If you are participating in Phase 1, you will form into a group of 4 people. If you are participating in Phase 2 you may form into a group of 1, 2, or 3 people.  

A group is formed when one person elects to be the Group Sponsor. The Group Sponsor “creates a group” by logging into Hoya Housing, beginning the housing application, and starting a group by creating a group name and password. The Group Sponsor will give the group name and password to each member they wish to join their group. The additional members will log on to Hoya Housing, also begin the housing application, and “join a group” by using the group name and password created by the Group Sponsor. Each member must add themselves to a group, the Group Sponsor cannot pull them into a group! If you plan to participate in Phase 2 as an individual, you will still need to create a group (for yourself) and verify it!

While the Group Formation window is open, a member may join or leave a group. A Group Sponsor may delete a group if all the members have left. Once a group has finalized their members, the Group Sponsor MUST “Verify” the group.

Important: If a group is not verified by the time the Group Formation page closes, the group will not be considered for a Lottery Time Ticket and they will not be able to move forward in this phase. 

  • The Group Sponsor is critically important, as they will be the person who eventually chooses a room and bed space for each student. Only the Group Sponsor will be allowed to log in the day of the Selection and choose a residence for the group (this day will be determined via a lottery time ticket).

  • If the Group Sponsor is unable to log into Hoya Housing on Selection day, the Group Sponsor can re-assign responsibilities to another member of the group via the Group Formation page of their housing application.

  • If you are participating in Phase 2 as a individual, you will be the Group Sponsor and will still need to create a group name, password, as well as verify your group in order to be considered for that phase. 

Roommate Finder Feature

If you are looking for a potential roommate(s), students may use the Roommate Finder page on their housing application to search for other upper class students who have started a housing application, but have not added themselves to a group. The Roommate Finder feature allows you to search for potential roommates based on the answers submitted on the Living Preference Questionnaire page of the housing application. If you find a roommate(s), you will determine who will be the Group Sponsor and you will follow the steps to create a group. Please keep in mind that if you would like to be considered for a specific phase, you must be verified in a group before the Group Formation page closes.

Lottery Assignment

Once the Group Formation page has closed, The Office of Residential Living will process the Selection time for each group based on their group point avarage. Points are assigned based on the class year of the student: seniors-4, juniors-3, sophomores-2. 

  • Rising Sophomores who attend the What’s a Hoya programs and submit the required surveys, may earn .01 points for every session and increase their points to a maximum of 2.3

A computer will order group averages from highest to lowest, randomly order groups with the same point average, and assign a Lottery Time Ticket based on the order the group falls. Lottery Time Tickets will be emailed to the Group Sponsor. If there is more demand for a phase than space available, the group may not qualify for a Lottery Time Ticket; the Group Sponsor will receive an email either including a Lottery Time Ticket or indicating that the group will need to reform and participate in the next phase.

Room Selection

When the Group Sponsor is emailed their Lottery Time Ticket, they will be responsible for logging back into their housing application through Hoya Housing to select a residence and assign a bed space to each member of their group.

  • They will be able to see the “Rooms” tab at the top of their application which is where a residence will be selected
  • Group Sponsors will see residence availability per building on an on-demand basis
  • There will NOT be a room search feature through Hoya Housing. All floor plans and room features will be listed in a grid document.
  • The Group Sponsor will select a residence (room or apartment) and assign every member into a bed space. If selecting an apartment, the Group Sponsor should be aware of which members want to share a bedroom and which member will be assigned the single room (if applicable). NOTE: single rooms in apartments will cost more than double rooms so please coordinate who is willing to pay for this higher rate.
  • If the Group Sponsor selects a 5-or-more-capacity unit, they will be prompted to name the additional residents after they have assigned the first four members to a bed space. 
  • The Group Sponsor will submit their housing application to secure their selection. Each group member will receive a confirmation email containing a link at which they can verify the residence selected.
  • After a selection has been submitted, the Group Sponsor may not go back and change their selection.

Browser Requirements

  • We have tested and verified that the selection process works correctly with the following browsers:
    • Internet Explorer
    • Firefox
    • Chrome
  • We recommend against using a Safari browser
  • Frames must be enabled in browser.
  • Browser window must be maximized so that the  Group Sponsor can see all operable sections of the page.
  • Javascript must be enabled. The time controls that move groups from page to page are written in Javascript. If Javascript is not enabled in the browser, a message displays and the group cannot proceed with the selection process. You may test to verify that Javascript is enabled in your browser by doing a simple Google search.
  • The selection system is not certified for use on a tablet or smart phone
  • If you have any difficulty in finding a browser that meets these specifications, please contact the Office of Residential Living.

Information Recorded

Along with the selection made by the Group Sponsor, Hoya Housing will record other information:

  • Internet address from which selection was made;
  • The length of time it took for the selection to be made
  • A verification code to prevent a fraudulent selection
  • Residential Living will use this information to analyze the Selection process.

Performance Tips

  • Do not reload pages unnecessarily. Doing so only taxes the web and database servers, affecting the Selection process for everyone.
  • Do not try to jump ahead to a page in the Selection process. Each page is coded with a time-check to make sure the Group Sponsor is eligible to be on that page. If a Group Sponsor attempts to access a page too early, the group is transferred back to the page where they should be.
  • Do not have an extra browser window open. Depending on the browser, doing so might slow the countdown timers a bit.

Suggestions prior to Selection

  • Familiarize yourself with the floor plans to help you locate the position of the desired room/apartment within the complex.  
  • Review hall specific information located on each hall webpage

Disclaimers

The Office of Residential Living has made every possible effort to ensure optimal performance of the on-line Selection system. We have consulted with students during the construction of the system. Although we have tested the system thoroughly, it is a brand new operating system that may see technical difficulties at times.

On Selection days, the Office of Residential Living will continuously monitor the web and database servers running Selection. Nevertheless, students should note the following:

  • The Office of Residential Living will not take any responsibility for inability to access the Selection system caused by malfunction of personal computer, network connection, etc.
  • In the case of a catastrophic technical problem (e.g. the university network goes down, the web or database server goes down), the Office of Residential Living will adjust the selection time of each group not having selected at that time, keeping the same selection order. As a last result, Selection will be rescheduled for a different day.