Walkthrough

Housing sign up and room selection can be an involved process. Follow our step by step guide below and save yourself some stress!

Step 1: Receiving information about Housing.

After being officially admitted to the University, new students are automatically sent a Residence Hall information packet. If you do not receive a copy, check your enrollment status with Northern Illinois University's Office of Registrations and Records. We do not get your name to send out housing information until you are officially accepted to NIU. If you need another copy, you may contact Housing & Dining at 815-753-1525 or email us at Housing_Dining@niu.edu.

NOTE:
Returning NIU students who are already living in the residence halls do not need to re-sign-up for housing.
However, returning NIU students who DO NOT live in the residence halls or do need to sign-up for housing.

Step 2: Sign Up for Housing

You were assigned a Z ID as part of your NIU acceptance (example: z98765432). This identifier is permanent. You will use it for access to computing and communications services on campus. If you have not yet logged in to your account, your initial password is your date of birth in YYYYMmmDD format. Mmm is the first 3 characters of the Month: January = "Jan", February = "Feb", etc. Example: Victoria Huskie was born January 1, 1987. Her default/initial password would be 1987Jan1. This is a temporary password. You can change your password by going to password.niu.edu and following the on-screen instructions.

To sign up for on-campus housing go to Housing Sign Up. You will need to know you NIU Z ID and Z ID password to log in. Once you are logged in, follow the series of form screens. The demographic information for your contract should be filled in for you, based on the information you supplied to Northern Illinois University when you applied for admission. You will also make your $150 prepayment by credit card at the time you complete your Housing & Dining contract.

If you choose not to pay via credit card or it is not possible to access Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, or Netscape you may download the contract from the website (or call our office to have a copy mailed to you) and mail it with your check or money order for $150.00 to:

Residential Administration
East Neptune Hall
DeKalb, Illinois 60115

Step 3: Room Selection

Room selection is no longer available online. Once you have submitted your contract, contact the Residential Administration Office (815-753-1525) to have a staff member assist you in choosing a room from the options available at the time you contact us. The variety of room types available this late in the summer is very limited. If your most preferred room type or hall is not available at this time, we encourage you to let the staff member with whom you speak know your preferences and ask to be put on the wait list for those room types or that hall. If you need additional information or clarification on any issue related to residence hall life, please feel free to contact Housing & Dining. All administrative e-mail correspondence with NIU students is sent through your student e-mail account.

Don't forget to check out our amazing living learning communities!

University Residency Requirement

All single, new freshman students who will not have reached their 21st birthday by September 1, and who are not residing with their parents or legal guardians, or are not the custodial parent of a dependent child, must live in University residence halls as long as space is available.

To expedite your compliance with the university residency requirement, you must apply for a residence hall or seek an exemption promptly by submitting documentation that verifies your exemption request. We do not have access to any personal records that would let us know that you are married or have a dependent child, so your submission of a University Residency Requirement Exemption Request or a Freshmen Application to Commute is the best way for you to ensure that you are removed from our billing list if you meet the exemption criteria.