After the 2025-26 on-Grounds housing selection period came to an end Jan. 31, many students were left with less-than-ideal housing options. Changes in the process forced many groups to split last-minute and led so me to turn to more costly off-Grounds options. For some students, most on-Grounds housing options filled up before every student had their assigned selection time.
When selecting on-Grounds housing, students are assigned a time slot based on certain factors like their year in school and if they currently live on Grounds. Typically, students who already have a group of roommates who they want to live with are given priority in the selection process. But this year, individuals were given priority, forcing some groups to split up.
In the 10 day housing selection period, once a student had their time slot, they could select until the end of the period. Glover noted that housing selection priority is first given to rising third-year and fourth-year students returning to the same on-Grounds housing area. Next, priority is given to rising second-year students, followed by rising third-year and fourth-year students who currently live on Grounds and do not apply to stay in the same area. Finally, rising third-year and fourth-year students who do not currently live on Grounds are given last priority. The University does not guarantee on-Grounds housing to students after their first year.
Glover also noted that the number of rising third-year and fourth-year students who chose to stay on Grounds in the same area was the highest it has ever been. The number of on-Grounds housing applications from rising second-year students has also risen in the past four years.
“There were fewer spaces remaining for rising second-year students in the next phase of room selection,” Glover said.
Ultimately, there was not enough on-Grounds housing to meet what Glover called “unprecedented demand.” Students who were left with few options expressed frustration with the availability of housing and what they say is a lack of transparency regarding the risk of ending up without a spot.
First-year College student Molly Kay Schnellenberger said that the overall experience of on-Grounds housing selection left her feeling disappointed in the University and the resources it provides for students during the housing search process. When it came time to pick where she would live, Schnellenberger never had the chance to select on-Grounds housing because of her later time slot toward the end of the selection period.
“You've got these younger classes who have nowhere to go, essentially … We're all just scrambling to get housing, and overall, the University has not been helpful with that,”
Schnellenburger wishes she was notified earlier in the academic year of the high demand for on-Grounds housing. She believes that if she was notified earlier, the process would have been less stressful.
“I would have signed a lease [earlier] and I wouldn’t have had to panic. But they made it seem way too secure,” Schnellenberger said. “I wish that they were … a little more clear with students about the demand for housing and our actual likelihood of getting anything, because it would save us a lot of time and probably some money, too.”
Schnellenberger is now looking for an apartment to live off-Grounds, but said she is not looking forward to all of the additional fees that come with renting, including an application fee, a restoration fee, utilities and in some cases buying her own furniture.
“On-Grounds is just far more affordable [than off-Grounds housing],” Schnellenberger said. “And the rising housing costs in Charlottesville are becoming way too much for undergrads to afford.”
Many students prefer on-Grounds housing as opposed to off-Grounds housing because of cost. The average on-Grounds residence in the 2024-2025 academic year costs $990 a month, while off-Grounds residences had an average range of $830 to $2,311 a month for a room. Living on Grounds means signing only an academic year lease and only paying for nine months of housing, while signing a lease off Grounds often means you enter a year-long contract. This was one of many reasons Schnellenberger wanted to live on Grounds her second year.
The unprecedented number of housing applicants also coincides with overall high demand and high prices for housing in the Charlottesville area. Between 2021 and 2023, housing costs in Charlottesville increased by 25 percent. In 2024 alone, housing costs went up by 6.9 percent. With around two-thirds of students living off Grounds, most students face these prices and keep demand high.
Not only is the cost of off-Grounds living a common concern, but so is the availability of off-Grounds options at this time of year. In an effort to curb the availability concern, the on-Grounds housing selection deadline this year was moved to an earlier date, according to Glover. This allowed students to go through the room selection process earlier than past years where room selection ended in mid-February, and gave students the opportunity to investigate off-Grounds options sooner.
Despite these efforts, after not getting on-Grounds housing some students still felt the panic of finding off-Grounds housing. Schnellenberger expressed the stress that came along with the unexpected apartment hunting process.
“A lot of the people who knew they were going to live off-Grounds … signed their leases in December, like super-duper early,” Schnellenburger said. “And so now, with this rush of people who thought they were going to have [on-Grounds] housing and now don't, almost everything is gone.”
The on-Grounds housing selection process takes place much later than the off-Grounds housing search, which some students complete in September or October. Students who were unable to secure on-Grounds housing received an email reading that “all on-Grounds housing for next year has been selected.”
As part of the 2030 Plan to make the University the nation’s leading public institution, the University plans to build additional upperclassmen housing on the Ivy Corridor for occupancy in fall 2027. This new housing will contain an additional 750-800 beds, Glover said in her statement. Despite the Fall 2024 semester seeing two new housing options open, the Gaston and Ramazani Houses, the University still failed to meet its housing demand.
A change some students said they want to see in the on-Grounds housing selection process is more transparency from Housing and Residence Life. Even though the University does not guarantee housing for students after their first year, first-year College student Kiersten Bruns wished that HRL was more open about the likelihood of roommate groups being broken up.
Bruns applied for on-Grounds housing in a roommate group of four with an early time slot — the second day of the period — and the goal of selecting rooms for her whole roommate group in the same apartment of Bice House. However, her group was forced to split when her time slot arrived, as there were not enough rooms left to accommodate four people in the same unit. Ultimately, her group decided to look for an apartment off-Grounds so the four of them could live together.
“[HRL should] be more open and honest about the fact that you are probably gonna get split. You're probably not gonna be able to stay with your friends,” Bruns said. “By the time that I opened [the housing portal], there was nothing left for all four of us,” Bruns said.
Students who were lower in the priority list received emails which said that those who did not receive housing can join a waitlist, but will be separated from their roommates.
“Students like yourself who applied for 2025-2026 housing by December 9, 2024 but were not able to select a room on Grounds may now opt in to an on-Grounds housing waitlist on the housing portal,” the email said. “You [can] join the waitlist as an individual (roommate groups will not be part of the process moving forward).”
This waitlist is the last chance for many students to snag on-Grounds housing, with the rest left to search for off-Grounds options.
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