Housing Application (before accepting offer) & Mealplans

My son’21 was recently accepted to UMN (yay!). It is one of his top choices but is waiting to hear from a few others before deciding (hoping for our instate for the instate tuition). So it is possible he will attend UMN. It recommends doing the housing application right away - we are out of state and across the country so with COVID we have not ever seen the campus. Any dorm recommendations or thoughts on which meal plan to take??? Thank you all so much for your help!

Paying the deposit and applying now gets your place in line but you can go in and change your dorm preference at any time up until the deadline which I believe is May 1st. Meal plans you can change all the way up until the first couple weeks of class. So, no need to stress about being locked into a decision. I don’t believe housing opens up until November 1st, but I would get the application in right away. I believe it’s just a $50 application fee you’d be out if you change your mind about attending. My son is a freshman this year and we put in the application right when it opened in November even though we didn’t decide on the school until April.

@cshell2 Do you remember if you had to actually go through the full application and pick an actual dorm when you put in the housing application in November ? And what about roommate preference? I guess we can just select random for now but can that be updated too? Thanks in advance !

Yes, you rank your choices of dorm and LLC if you’re interested in that. Again, you can go in at any time after getting your spot in line and change your preferences all the way up to the deadline without effecting where you are in the priority list which is based on how early you applied for housing.

So a student can apply for and choose housing and LLC prior to accepting the offer of admission? Is there a deposit that must be paid (and is it refundable)?

Yes. In fact, you can apply for housing even before you’re accepted. Last year the application fee was $50 and is non-refundable. In May you need to confirm your housing with a $200 deposit that is applied to your first semester housing bill.

Thanks!

Did you complete this? My Daughter would like to do the same. It is her top pick but we do have a couple other colleges to visit before final committment. I would like to secure her spot though!