Hey!
Could someone tell me when the first-year housing contract opens? Also, is it binding?
Thanks! 
Last year, housing contracts needed to be in right after the May 1st deadline to accept the admission offer. Housing assignments didn’t come out until July.
Purdue moved to a system where you no longer choose an actual dorm, but only the room type. For example, a double with A/C. You pick your top three room types, fill out a housing questionnaire and then wait until the summer. From what I gathered on the parent FB page, getting your first choice room type had nothing to do with how early the housing contract was submitted.
I also believe you can’t do the housing contract without accepting your offer which required a non refundable deposit.
My daughter is a freshman. Pretty sure the contract is binding. One thing I wasn’t too happy about, was that we were figuring she would get a “standard” sized dorm room - - running roughly $4600 a year. She was put into a larger dorm room that she didn’t want, which was about $6400 a year. By the time we saw the bill, she couldn’t really change rooms. That extra $1800 a year didn’t make me too happy!
Overall she has been really happy at Purdue though!
My son is a Freshman. Loves Purdue and his dorm despite being in the smallest room on campus (Cary Closet). Once accepted, a student can submit a housing contract listing in preference order the type of housing preferred (while there are 9 or so options, due to priority Freshman tend to end up with either a double with a/c or a double without a/c). The deadline for submission is the beginning of May. As long as the contract is submitted by that date, rooms are assigned randomly. There is no advantage to submitting it early. Once that date passes, the contract is binding. That said there was a housing shortage last year, so non-traditional housing was used. Because of this, students were able to be released from their contracts if they elected to move off campus. The contracting process also provides for roommate matching and requesting.
https://www.housing.purdue.edu/housing/contracting/Undergraduate.html