The University requires all first-year students to live on Grounds across various residence halls, suites and residential colleges, but after their first year, it is up to students to decide where to live. First-year students might be surprised by how quickly the housing search comes up — it can begin as early as September, while first-years are still adjusting to life at the University.
Second-year Engineering student Natalie Gillett said she was surprised by the timeline of the housing search process, especially given students have just begun meeting each other.
“I just remember in late September when people were starting to talk about housing, and it was so stressful,” Gillett said. “Your friend groups aren’t even really formed yet, you don’t know who you’re going to be friends with by next fall.”
The Cavalier Daily interviewed four students, who all reported that the process of selecting second-year housing so early in their first year can be stressful but that the University has resources, such as housing fairs to learn how and when to sign leases, to help along the way.
While upperclassmen can choose to live on Grounds, they also have a variety of options off Grounds, which are scattered in different neighborhoods and at different price points. These students explained their decisions to reside on-Grounds or off-Grounds, and University officials highlighted resources it offers to support first-years as they make this decision.
Off-Grounds Housing Options
Around two-thirds of students choose to live off-Grounds in their second year. Off-Grounds, students have a variety of options ranging in price from around $700 per month per roommate, up to around $1400 per month per roommate. Students must also choose whether to live in apartments, some of which are fully-furnished, or houses, which are often unfurnished.
Most off-Grounds options only offer twelve-month leases, meaning that students will be responsible for rent during the summer months whether they spend the summer in Charlottesville or not.
Housing options around the Corner — the off-Grounds center of the University for shopping, restaurants and nightlife — begin on University Avenue, and extend back towards Grady Avenue and to either side on Rugby Road and down West Main Street. One complex in this area is Grandmarc at the Corner, located on Fifteenth Street, which is a fully furnished complex with amenities and units for roommate groups of up to four people.
Smaller complexes include Wertland Commons which houses two people per unit in unfurnished spaces. Unfurnished options tend to be cheaper — Wertland Commons begins at approximately $900 per month per roommate, while Grandmarc leases at $1355 per month per roommate in a four bedroom unit, with costs being higher in two, rather than four, bedroom units.
Two of the interviewed students said that they decided to sign leases for off-Grounds housing because they felt that was what a majority of students were doing. They reported wanting to ensure they had guaranteed housing by signing a lease as soon as possible.
Gillett is one student who felt this way as she went through the process to sign a lease for an apartment complex during October of her first year. She said it was stressful having to think about housing so early in the school year so she thought it would be easiest to do what she saw other people doing — securing housing off Grounds.
“I decided to go off-Grounds because a lot of my friends were also [going] off Grounds,” Gillett said. “I feel like you don’t know much in September or October of first year, so you kind of just do what everyone else is doing.”
Gillett ended up signing a lease with four other roommates for an apartment on Wertland Street behind the Corner. She said there were not many options to fit her full roommate group of five which made picking a complex a simpler process than choosing between all the housing the Corner has to offer.
However, the Corner is not the only area available to University students who wish to live off Grounds. Jefferson Park Avenue, which is located close to Engineers Way, is home to many University students. Class of 2025 alumna Jahnavi Dave lived on JPA her second year and chose to do so because the location was closer to her engineering classes. She also said she opted not to live behind the Corner due to feeling worried about excessive noise late into the night.
Dave lived in Carrollton Terrace, an unfurnished complex with two-, three- and four-bedroom units. She said her unit served its purposes for her second year in terms of both location and space. She noted she discovered Carrollton when looking for second-year housing through word of mouth from upperclassmen, which she emphasized was the primary way she chose places to tour.
Similarly to the Corner, JPA has many available student houses, including on Valley Road which stems off of the main avenue. Houses typically rent for just under $1,000 per month per roommate and come unfurnished.
Both Dave and Gillett agreed they were in the dark about how to sign a lease so early in their first year and both did so because of the pressure of others around them doing the same. Dave specifically noted she was unsure at the time about how to go about asking the right questions when touring apartments.
“Honestly, I had no idea what I was doing … and I feel like I was just jumping into the deep end,” Dave said. “I didn’t even know the right questions to ask — like about utilities … but I knew [signing a lease] had to be done.”
To help combat what Dave and Gillett characterized as a stressful process, Jessica Humphreys, University Housing and Residence Life director of information technology and assignments, wrote in a statement to The Cavalier Daily that the University hosts both in-person and virtual information sessions throughout the beginning of the fall semester about second-year housing options. These include lessons about how to sign a lease, as well as information regarding on-Grounds housing which is an option students can wait to apply for until November.
Humphreys wrote that over 400 students have attended the in-person housing information sessions in the past. Dave said she wished that the University had advertised these sessions more to incoming first-year students.
“I wish I’d gone to the housing information session,” Dave said. “It’s on me, but I also feel like U.Va. housing should do a little bit of a better job — [even] during [Summer] orientation maybe.”
The University also has an off-Grounds housing website to search available rentals in the area, find roommates and view resources and guides to living off Grounds.
On-Grounds Housing Options
First-year students can opt to apply to remain living on Grounds their second year — though housing is not guaranteed on Grounds beyond first year. The University housing website says on-Grounds residences are located closer to classes, come fully furnished and are guaranteed to be secure due to students needing to use their student ID to access their building and room.
On-Grounds options ask for payment per semester, meaning that students are not responsible for paying rent during the summer but must move out each summer, whether they stay in the same housing or not.
On-Grounds housing options include standard apartment and hall-style residences. Students are required to complete the housing application on the University website that typically opens in November and closes in early December, to select which residence they are interested in as well as to request roommates. Students do not officially select their choice for on-Grounds housing until late January or early February.
Though this application timeline is later than the typical opening time for off-Grounds apartment and house leases, Humphreys wrote that a survey is sent to all students who complete the on-Grounds housing application each year and that feedback consistently shows students appreciate the later deadline.
“We are aware of the pressure that off-Grounds landlords put on students to sign leases very early in the fall semester. When setting our deadlines, we don’t want to add to the pressure for students to make housing decisions before they are ready,” Humphreys wrote.
For standard housing, three on-Grounds options are located on Hereford Drive in close proximity to Runk Dining Hall and are hall-style, mostly with a mix of single and double-occupancy rooms. These are the Johnson, Malone and Weedon Houses, all of which will cost $9,040 for the 2025-2026 academic year for a single room or $8,370 for a double room.
Standard apartments make up a majority of the on-Grounds, upperclassmen housing, and vary in unit size, price and location. Though the University says on-Grounds housing is located closer to classes, both Copeley and Faulkner apartments are approximately a 30-minute walk to central Grounds. Copeley is located across from the Law School and Faulkner is slightly behind John Paul Jones Arena.
Bond, Bice, and Gaston and Ramazani houses, on the other hand, reside on Brandon Avenue alongside Student Health and Wellness and are located only an 11 minute walk from central Grounds. The Gaston and Ramazani houses were constructed in 2024 and students were able to begin living in the units that fall. They feature seven and eight-bedroom apartments, all with single bedrooms and two full kitchens. Gaston additionally has a food court located on the first floor.
Third-year College student Rachel Dumis lived in Ramazani her second year as part of the first cycle of students able to live in the new buildings. She said living in Ramazani with seven other girls was a great experience and the residence itself was convenient, located above dining options.
“It ended up being the best experience,” Dumis said. “I lived with seven of my best friends, and we all got super close and did lots of things together as an apartment.”
Single-bedroom apartments located on Grounds are more expensive than the hall-style buildings, with Gaston and Ramazani, Bond, Copeley and Faulkner apartments being $10,060 for the 2025-2026 academic year.
Language houses and residential colleges are other housing options students can apply for. These have an earlier application deadline of late October for the following school year and both of these housing options are selective — students must fill out an additional, secondary application in which they answer a set of questions to be considered for a spot.
If accepted through the application, the University’s three residential colleges — Brown College, International Residential College and Hereford College — offer a different living experience than the traditional apartment or residence hall. They are described as “living-learning spaces” that provide a tight-knit community between faculty and students as well as programmed activities through an additional semester fee for students to go on trips, indulge in cultural meals or practice yoga. Cost of the residential colleges varies but will average approximately $9,000 for the 2025-2026 academic year.
Located on JPA in close proximity to the hospital, central Grounds and Brandon Avenue, language houses are another non-traditional housing choice that offer an opportunity for students to immerse themselves in both language and culture. The University has a French house, a Spanish house and the Shea house. Shea house is a center for total language immersion with six to eight different languages which can vary each year but have included American Sign Language, Chinese and Italian in the past. Language house costs depend on whether the student lives in a single or double-occupancy room and will cost $10,060 for the 2025-2026 academic year for a single or $8,960 for a double.
Fourth-year Batten student Fionette King moved back on-Grounds to live in the French house her third year after living in a house on JPA her second year. She is not pursuing a French minor nor major at the University, but began taking French classes her first year and chose to apply for the French house so she could fully immerse herself in the language before studying abroad in France. She noted a driving factor behind her decision to apply was so she would not have to pay rent while abroad for a semester.
“If I had stayed off-Grounds, I would have had to find a sublet which would have been a little tricky,” King said. “When you live on-Grounds [and] have proof that you’re studying abroad, you can cut the lease and [U.Va.] will release you from that next semester because [the University] wants people to study abroad.”
King reapplied during her third year and will be living in the French house again for her final year at the University. She said she loves the community she has found within the house, the location and the overall living experience — including speaking in French almost all of the time and participating in house events such as house dinners. La Maison Française is open to all University students of any French level.
The process for room selection for on-Grounds housing for returning undergraduates takes place after students submit their housing application in November. They then receive a time slot in January in which they will be able to select a room or residence, but there is a chance their desired residence fills before the time slot. This is a risk Dave said she was not willing to take when deciding to move off Grounds for her second year.
“On-Grounds housing happens later, and that was definitely a factor because I didn’t want to wait,” Dave said. “I was kind of scared that options would be gone by the time on-Grounds housing rolled around.”
Unfortunately, for the 2025-2026 housing selection cycle, this became a reality for many University students as there was not enough on-Grounds housing to meet the demand. Instead, students were left scrambling to search for off-Grounds availability, which by January when on-Grounds selection was occurring, had increased in price.
Humphreys additionally noted that demand for on-Grounds housing has been steadily increasing over the past couple of years — even though housing is not guaranteed beyond students’ first year. 2720 students applied for standard apartment and hall-style residences during the 2024-2025 cycle and 3102 students applied during the 2025-2026 cycle, during which on-Grounds options filled before all students were able to select housing.
The University does plan to house all second-years on-Grounds by 2030, and next year will not offer priority for on-Grounds housing selection to upperclassmen in order to increase spaces for rising second-years.
Advice for First-Years
Despite the stress of housing at the University, both students and Humphreys emphasized that the process typically works out, whether a student chooses to stay on or off Grounds for their second year.
Dumis noted that being an out-of-state student left her without many upperclassmen to look to for advice when searching for off-Grounds housing and that was a primary reason she chose to wait until the on-Grounds application period. She said that looking back, she would not change her decision to live on Grounds.
“On-Grounds housing is a great option to have and it should be encouraged to be considered equally with the off-Grounds housing,” Dumis said.
As someone who moved back on-Grounds after living off-Grounds her second year, King agreed with Dumis that on-Grounds housing options should be seriously considered before opting to go straight off-Grounds early in first year.
Dave, who chose to go off Grounds, said signing a lease so early in her first year left her living with roommates who she was not super close friends with, but that the situation worked out nonetheless. She advised first-years to remain open-minded about the process.
“Go with the flow, keep your options open and start thinking about [housing] pretty soon after you get to U.Va., because it's going to come around faster than you think,” Dave said. “And, it's only one year. You can change your lease next year, so whatever happens, it'll be fine.”
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