What's New: Room Selection AY 25-26

As you prepare for Room Selection 2025, here's a quick summary of what is new or changing from prior years.

February 03, 2025

New to Housing Portfolio: 611 W. 112th St.

A new residence hall, 611 W. 112th St., will be available for Room Selection following a full-building renovation. Primarily offering double rooms, 611 W. 112th St. is Columbia’s first electric undergraduate residential building. This building will be LEED certified and will feature individual room controls for heating and cooling. It also boasts single use restrooms, 3 outdoor courtyards and a lower-level common area to share meals and relax together. Learn more about 611 W. 112th St.  

Hartley Hall Not Available During Room Selection

Hartley Hall is scheduled for full-building renovation and will not be available in Room Selection. Exciting updates will be made to Hartley Hall to include infrastructure updates to meet Plan 2030 sustainability requirements, single-use restrooms, individual room temperature control including central air conditioning. The residence hall will be offline until Fall 2027. 

The Housing Hospitality Desk will move to Furnald Hall during the renovation project.

Updates to East Campus

East Campus townhouses, including kitchens and baths, along with the main and second floor lounges will be renovated during Summer 2025.

Updates to the Selection Portal

Explore the Selection System Before Online Selection Begins

The selection process in the Housing Portal will open in demonstration mode before online selection begins to provide students with an opportunity to familiarize themselves with the tool. Demonstration mode will be available on March 14 and will close before Room Selection appointments begin.

Flexible Selection View Will Show All Available Rooms

The selection process will now default to a "flexible match" view, which makes it faster for group leaders to see available options and select rooms for their group. More than two-thirds of Group Leaders used this view to make selections during last year's Room Selection.

The flexible match view shows all rooms still available during the appointment. For example, in the flexible match view, a group of six would see any available six-person suites, as well as available three-person suites, four-person suites, and corridor-style singles and doubles. This view may also show suites larger than the group. 

Groups can filter their view to show specific configurations using the "Room Preferences" checkboxes on the left side of the selection window. 

Ongoing Construction

  • Traffic related to construction on the Columbia Law School building may minimally impact the Wien Courtyard during Academic Year 25-26.
  • Interior construction is planned on a Barnard property adjacent to 47 Claremont.  

Changes to Building Terminology in Residence Hall Directory

In an effort to better reflect the housing style options within our portfolio, we’ve adjusted how buildings are tagged for the "Housing Style" category used in our residence hall directory. There are three terms:

  1. Apartment-Style Housing: Each resident has a private bedroom or shared bedrooms and access to amenities (e.g., kitchen, living area, bathroom) that are exclusive to the apartment's residents. These amenities are not shared with residents outside the apartment. This style offers the highest level of privacy and independence, mimicking off-campus living arrangements.
  2. Suite-Style Housing: Residents have private bedrooms or shared bedrooms arranged in a cluster around shared amenities (e.g., bathrooms, living areas, or limited kitchen facilities). These amenities are shared exclusively among the suite's residents. The type of amenities in suites may vary across buildings. This style promotes interaction and collaboration among suite-mates while maintaining a degree of privacy.
  3. Corridor-Style Housing: Residents have private or shared bedrooms that open directly into a central hallway or corridor, with amenities (e.g., bathrooms, common lounges) that are shared by all residents on the floor or in the building. This style encourages frequent interaction among floor-mates due to the shared spaces and open design.

Update to the Barnard-Columbia Housing Exchange

These items were reviewed and agreed upon in consultation with student representatives who attend the Housing Advisory Committee meetings over the course of the Fall 2024 semester. 

Sorority and SIC Bed Spaces Must be Filled 

25 bed spaces across Columbia sorority and SIC housing are allocated to Barnard students every year to promote community and provide the opportunity to live at Columbia with friends. In exchange, 25 Columbia students can live at Barnard alongside their friends. In recent years, the SIC/FSL exchange of 25 has not been filled. 

In addition to the FSL/SIC exchange, rising Barnard seniors have also had the opportunity to enter Columbia’s general Room Selection if more than 25 Columbia students want to live at Barnard. In previous years, this has been fewer than 10 students.  

For Room Selection 2025-26, the 25 bed spaces in sorority and SIC housing remain guaranteed for Barnard students, as does the opportunity for entering Columbia’s Room Selection. 

However, the 25 sorority and SIC spaces must be filled in order for rising Barnard seniors to enter Columbia’s general Room Selection. 

Groups with Barnard Students in General Selection Will Be Placed on Guaranteed Assignment List due to Barnard Housing Timeline 

Due to the Barnard Housing calendar and timeline, Columbia Housing cannot predict an exchange number beyond the 25 in sororities and SICs until Barnard Room Selection concludes on Friday, April 18. 

This means that Columbia students grouped with Barnard members will not be able to enter Columbia’s Room Selection until the final week of Columbia's Room Selection process. At that point in time, inventory will be limited and it is likely that groups will not be able to select a room. These groups will be placed on the Guaranteed Assignment List.  

Columbia Housing will prioritize those seniors by their original lottery numbers to assign them into the best available rooms. To facilitate assignment from the Guaranteed Assignment List, groups with rising Barnard seniors can consist of no more than two students: one Columbia student and one rising Barnard senior. 

Rising Barnard Seniors who Participate in Columbia's Room Selection Will Receive a Point Value of 35

The 35-point value falls between the point value assigned to rising Columbia seniors (40) and rising Columbia juniors (30) so that rising Columbia seniors have highest priority. This results in the following:

  • Groups that only have rising Columbia seniors maintain highest priority.
  • Groups that have both rising Columbia seniors and rising Barnard seniors maintain higher priority than rising Columbia juniors.

Questions? Attend an Info Session

Each info session includes dedicated Q&A time with Columbia Housing staff. Registration is required.