The 2008–2009 residence hall and apartment rates listed below reflect a per-person charge for a semester or an academic year. Rates include room, utilities (including local telephone service), cable TV, and an Ethernet connection.

Students who are interested in attending the Philly campus should contact Kate Nicely at knicely@messiah.edu or 215-684-7410, ext. 7527.

New, First-Year Students and First-Year Transfer Students: Yes; although first-year students (0–23 post-high school credits) can only room with another first-year student. This process takes place while completing the roommate-preference section of the Housing Application. All roommate requests must be mutual to be granted.

Upperclass Transfer Students: Possibly. Incoming transfer students (24 or more post high school credits) are assigned to live in open/available spaces. A student can request to live with another incoming transfer student (who is not a first-year transfer status) or a current student. Assigning incoming transfers together can have some challenges since available spaces in most cases determine if two students can share the same space.

Roommate Requests: All students seeking to room with another person (acquaintances, friends, fellow athletes or others pairs) should request each other in the roommate-preference section of the Housing Application. Non-mutual requests will not be assigned together.

Yes. All students will have at least one roommate unless they live in a single. Some students could have between one to four roommates depending on the type of room they are assigned. The College has the following room types: singles, doubles, designed triples, quads, supplemental triples and three-person or five-person apartments.

As an educational institution of the Anabaptist tradition, Messiah College seeks to educate its students concerning the responsibility that Christian men and women possess as instruments of peace. The principle of living in a community with roommates provides Messiah students with opportunities to learn how this spiritual posture is lived out on a daily basis. When a problem arises amongst roommates, the College believes that it must seek to surround those in conflict with opportunities that possess reconciliation as the end goal. The Housing Change Request Form is designed to facilitate this process in collaboration with your Residence Director.

Our first goal is to ensure that all students experience a variety of living styles and thus we like to see roommates personally work out all conflict. If at some point the roommates decide that they are making no progress themselves then they are asked to speak with a Resident Assistant (RA). The RAs are on each floor to assist students in successfully transitioning to life in the residence halls, which includes living with roommates. The residents will meet with the RA and discuss the disagreements they are having. In most cases this is informal and personal, i.e. in the rooms. The RA will attempt to sort through the conflict and work with the residents to map out a plan for a successful year as roommates. If there is still a major conflict within the room the situation is again presented to the RA, and the RA may try to help resolve the situation or refer roommates to the Resident Director (RD). The RD is a live-in professional staff member, who oversees an entire building and supervises the RA staff. The RD will then make an assessment of the situation at hand and work with the roommates to resolve the situation. At the point the RD discovers that the conflict is severe enough to initiate a roommate switch he/she will present a Housing Change Request Form. This is a form the residents and RD sign to indicate they have talked with all the roommates and agree that resolution attempts have failed and that a room change is the best solution. The RD will work with the Director of Housing to determine available and suitable alternate living arrangements.

New Incoming Students: After New Student Orientation check-in, the Residence Life staff will issue keys at your residence hall. You will receive additional information about New Student Orientation, including where to pickup your key.

Returning Students:  South Complex - Mt. View Lobby First Floor; North Complex - Fishbowl; Apartments - Kelly Apartment Office (C-1)

For a more exhaustive list and information, please watch for the Move-in information in August 2008 on our Web site.