Graduate Students

On This Page
Residence Hall Facility
Meals
Prohibited Items
Residence Hall Staff
Application Periods, Rent and Fees
Summer Occupancy
Refunds and Cancellations
Policies and Regulations

Most of the 5,770 graduate students enrolled at the University of Massachusetts will secure housing off-campus in the private rental market in Amherst and the surrounding communities.   A small number of graduate students who are married, have legal custody of dependent children, or who are in a domestic partnerships, will live in one of the two Family Housing Apartment Complexes.  Approximately 150 graduate students will choose to live in traditional residence hall rooms.

Residence Hall Facility

Traditional residence hall accommodations are offered on campus in Prince Residence Hall.  Prince is centrally located just a few minutes walk from the central campus on the edge of the Southwest Residential Area. Prince is open year-round.  Residents who need more than 9-month housing have the option to remain for the summer months at an additional cost. (See below)

Residents are accommodated on two all male floors, an all female floor, and a coed floor.  New residents are assigned to one of the 89 shared double rooms with a roommate.  There are 59 single rooms of varying sizes that are available to continuing residents, and there are 4 rooms that can accommodate 4 residents in each room.

As the graduate residence hall, Prince offers graduate students the following amenities:

• Local phone services
• Cable TV
• Ethernet computer connections
• Resident reading room and study lounge
• Floor lounges, some with TVs and one with a pool table
• Coin-operated washers and dryers
• Vending machines
• Recreational equipment that can be borrowed

Rooms in Prince are equipped with the following furnishings:

• Single, bunkable or loftable beds (80” long x 36” wide)
• Desks and chairs
• Wardrobes or closets
• Bookcases
• Recycling bins
• Wastebaskets

Meals

Most graduate students who live on campus choose to prepare and eat many of their meals in the Prince dining area.  The large kitchen is equipped with 2 stoves, 2 microwaves, 2 restaurant quality refrigerators, and 2 large freezers.  The dining area has a number of tables and chairs where residents may choose to dine privately or join together with other residents for community meals.

All appliances with exposed heating coils or those that can be come very hot are potential fire hazards are prohibited from rooms in Prince.  These items can be used only in the Prince kitchen:

• Coffeemakers that do not have an automatic shut-off
• Corn poppers
• Electric frying pans
• Exposed Coils
• Hot plates
• Toaster/toaster oven
• Rice cooker

University Dining Services offers a number of Campus Meal Plan options that are available for graduate students to purchase for an additional fee.  Visit the Dining Services website or contact them by phone at (413) 545-1362 to determine which meal plan or other dining options best meets your needs.

Prohibited Items

You may not have hazardous items in your room.  Possession of any of these items violates the Residence Hall Regulations in the Code of Student Conduct.

Items that are prohibited from all residence hall rooms include:

• Hot plates, electric grills, and other such equipment used in preparing hot foods
• Candles
• Incense
• Air conditioners
• Firearms, pellet guns, facsimiles of weapons, or lethal weapons of any kind
• Fireworks or explosives
• Flammable liquids
• Gas powered equipment
• Halogen lamps
• Laser pointers
• Lighted smoking materials
• Pets, except for service animals and fish in tanks containing no more than 10 gallons of water
• Space heaters and quartz heaters
• Waterbeds

Residence Hall Staff

Prince is staffed by a Residence Director (RD) who lives in Prince, an Assistant Residence Director (ARD), and a number of Resident Assistants (RAs).  In Prince, Resident Assistants are live-in, part-time graduate student staff members who are chosen through a departmental selection process.

Application Periods, Rent, Fees

Summer Occupancy

Graduate students have the option to secure housing during the summer months of June, July, and August.  Summer housing is billed monthly and is not pro-rated for late check-in or early check-out.

Refunds and Cancellations

If a request to cancel an assignment to Prince is received prior to the start of a Rental Period, rent charges will be cancelled and refunded, less a $100 cancellation fee.  Once a room key is accepted, a portion of the rent is automaticaly forfeited according to a schedule determined by the Housing Assignment Office.  No refunds can be given to graduate students who leave or withdraw after the fifth week of the semester.

Policies and Regulations

Policies and regulations outlined in the Code of Student Conduct. apply to all graduate students.  Residence hall rules and regulations require that occupants assume responsibility for damage in or to their rooms.  The University is not responsible for lost, stolen, or damaged property unless there is negligence or wrongdoing on the part of the University.  Students are well advised to secure a rider to existing homeowners’ policies or to purchase a renter’s insurance policy in anticipation of possible problems.